I hate that the black widow movie is generally considered with the poorer MCU movies. One because we waited 10 years from the introduction of her character, after her big send off, and multiple behind the scenes battle not to make Natasha the cliched sex object, only for it to fall short in its reputation.
But also, because it’s genuinely a good movie. One that, while it falters in its 3rd act climax, is a solid character study for Natasha that recontextualizes everything we’ve seen from nat. It shows how important family is to Natasha. At the beginning of the movie, she has just had her second family fall apart. One that she tried so hard to keep together in Civil War. She doesn’t believe she can have, nor deserves, a family. She’s resorted to being alone, a recluse.
(As a side tangent, it makes that really weird, sexist chat with Bruce in AOU a bit (key word, a bit) better in retrospect. It’s not about her being a monster because she can’t have kids, but rather she believes she is a monster and is ill suited towards the family life as the red room took away her original family, and all future families (not only literally because of the involuntary hysterectomy, but also symbolically because of the killing machine the red room turned her into)).
But then Yelena comes along and forces her to accept this family dynamic. Throughout the movie, she’s trying to erase more red in her ledger, kicking and screaming to resist the family dynamic that Yelena, then Alexi, then Melina bring. It’s out of self preservation she does this, she can’t bring herself to try and love and be a part of a family again. She told herself her family was fake to not be betrayed and hurt like how her family was ripped apart in Cuba. She believed they never really a family because she tried to protect her sister and her father coldly betrayed her. So as she collects her former family in the movie, she puts her guard up more and more. Notice how she was more sisterly with just Yelena, and then as they met Alexi she puts her guard up and then with Melina she lashes out to protect herself?
It all culminates in her realizing that they all felt the same way. First with Yelena breaking into tears as she admits that they were real to her, and was too young to know any different. Then with Alexi, as he goes to comfort Yelena. Then finally, and the most powerful, realizing that Melina kept that photo album. The same photo album that Melina told her to put back all those years ago. It’s with that realization that she comes up embraces her family, trusts them to take help down the red room, and makes a plan.
The best example of this recontextualization is the vest she wears in infinity war. A symbolic heart on her sleeve, as she wears her sisters vest. With this movie, it makes Natasha’s whole MCU movie learning to live for, and then dying for, her family:
In Iron Man 2, she had shield and no pretense of a close relationship with anyone. Then in Avengers, we learn she has a single person, Clint. Because of Clint being mind controlled, she was motivated to join this new family. With Cap 2 and Avengers 2, it’s her being more comfortable with being herself with this new family, and allowing herself to have a future with said family. With civil war she fails to keep that family together, then in black widow she learns not to give up on her family. And her failure in infinity war effectively decimates both her family. So when she sacrifices herself in endgame, she does it for her family. Both her families. She never gave up on them. It’s why, in Hawkeye her lack of presence is felt throughout. She once thought she had no one, but in Hawkeye her two families are left grieving and reeling over her absence. And they both have to learn to accept her sacrifice for them, and learn to live.
So it’s why when people say BlAcK wIdOw wAs A bAd mOvIe kinda pissed me off. It truly isn’t, and there is so much you can grasp onto.
Anway sorry for the rant. I also think I have another one for Yelena (for another day). It’s interesting how this movie acts as a finishing arc for Nat, but also a jumping of point for Yelena.
BW is such a character driven movie that dives into the psyche of each member of the family. It’s why my only real complaint is that it sacrifices an emotional resolution for a generic 3rd act action scene. The red room shouldn’t have crashed, the plan should have gone on without a hitch, Alexi should have finished that apology. They should have finished one dinner together as a family, unlike the other two dinners that were cut off prematurely.
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