Film Review - “Black Widow”

Black Widow

Directed by Cate Shortland

Starring Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, and David Harbour

To say Scarlett Johansson’s first solo outing as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) was long over-due feels like a bad joke now. Frankly, it was overdue long before the COVID-19 pandemic delayed its release for over a year. Ever since the character first appeared in Iron Man 2 fans have wanted her to have her own solo film. When it was finally announced Black Widow was going to be made, it couldn’t help but feel a bit bittersweet.

Learning it was going to be a prequel, and then watching her death in Avengers: Endgame (Still say it should’ve been Hawkeye) made Black Widow feel somewhat like an afterthought, and a squandering of potential. Johansson has always been great as Natasha, and has had plenty of screen time across the MCU. But it feels like so much more could’ve been done with the character, and now we’re just left to wonder “What If?” Pun absolutely intended.

But finally last month Black Widow was released in theaters and on Disney Plus Premier Access (For better or worse). Despite external circumstances, I found it to be a very enjoyable entry in the MCU, however not without its flaws.

Set after the events of Captain America: Civil War, Natasha (Johansson) is on the run form Secretary Ross (William Hurt) and the US military after violating the Sokovia Accords. Life in hiding is peaceful for all of five minutes until her surrogate sister Yelena Bologna (Pugh) sends her a package that puts her in the crosshairs of Taskmaster, a mercenary of the Red Room trained to mimic the fighting styles of The Avengers. 

The package contains an antidote to the mind-controlling agent used on all female operatives in the Black Widow program. Natasha reunites with Yelena, who tells her that the Red Room is still active, and Dreykov (Ray Winstone) the man in charge, is still alive. Natasha and Yelena set out to find the Red Room and stop Dreykov once and for all, while reuniting with their surrogate parents Alexei Shostakov/The Red Guardian (Harbour) and Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz), who also went through the Red Room’s training.

The film does a great job of providing us with the origins of Natasha without making it a straight origin story. The opening sequence, a flashback to the undercover life of “The Widow Family” in Ohio 1995, sets up the rest of the film perfectly. The overall tone and themes of this film make it one of the more intense and darker chapters in the MCU. Viewers can certainly resonate with what the film has to say about the treatment of women and how society values them. This is all fitting for a character with a history like Black Widow’s. Natasha has been a character constantly haunted by her past, and determined to “wipe the red out of her ledger” as she told Tom Hiddelston’s Loki in the original Avengers, and this story is built to service that arc.

Every MCU film feels in some way different than the others, and Black Widow feels like a real espionage adventure. The action scenes in this film are intense, exhilarating, and harken back to those from Captain America: The Winter Solider and Civil War. A few in the film’s third act are some of its best. But the film’s real strengths are the dynamics between its characters. The Widow Family work together really well, and you really believe they are a family. They poke fun at each other, they hate each other, and they love each other. It’s a perfectly written family dynamic, warts and all. This is in no small part due to the performances.

Scarlett Johansson has always been great as Natasha, and in this film we see why we fell in love with the character. The charm, the heart and the wit she has poured into the character for the past decade is all on display here. Unfortunately she sorts of falls into the same situation of the late Chadwick Boseman in Black Panther, where her supporting cast can outshine her. Florence Pugh establishes herself as a new MVP of the MCU. She brings a lot of heart and humor to the table as Yelena, and her chemistry with Johansson is incredible (Really sad it might be the only time we see them together). David Harbour is incredible as the Red Guardian. He was my favorite part of the film, playing this perfect goofy superhero dad with a misplaced ego. Rachel Weisz has a lot of good moments as Melina, but sadly I feel like the script didn’t give her enough opportunity to shine.

OT Fagbenle and William Hurt are fine as Rick Mason and Secretary Ross, but they’re just kind of there to help the plot along, and connect this to Phase Three’s narrative. Ray Winstone as Dreykov is…ok. He’s a talented actor but the script also does him no favors, and he turns out to be one of the weaker villains of the franchise. It’s is unfortunate because the film spends a lot of time building him up as this monster, but it’s a lot of tell and no show. Now is probably a good point to transition into what I thought didn’t work in the film.

I think the best way to sum up Black Widow’s shortcomings is it could’ve been so much more. I don’t necessarily mean “It could take place in present day post-Endgame with Natasha still alive” You can have this film set in the past and it’d still be effective. But the problem of “show, not tell” does not just pertain to Ray Winstone’s Dreykov. There are a lot of conversations between characters about things, really interesting, harrowing things we really should’ve seen as viewers. The pacing of the film sort of suffers as a result of this. I understand the whole film can’t be action sequences, but when this is the long overdue solo story of an OG Avenger, and possibly the last time we'll see her, you kinda want to give us all you got. We understand to a degree what Natasha has been through because we’ve had six films with her already, but that’s not a free pass to skimp on character work in this film.

It’s interesting how Dreykov is the film’s primary antagonist, when all the marketing had propped Taskmaster up in that position. Unfortunately, Taskmaster is probably as equally underdeveloped. Now avoiding spoilers here, but I don’t subscribe to the “#NotMyTaskmaster campaign” circling the internet right now. I enjoyed the portrayal of him in this film, even if it’s not what everyone expected given the character’s history. I thought he worked really well to service Natasha’s story, but we needed more time with the character to understand him better.

Black Widow may fall short of becoming one of the MCU’s greatest, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth your time. It’s thrilling, emotional, and a good time at the movies, which is what we all need right now, and what we expect from Marvel. Pandemic aside, it is sadly a bit of a victim of circumstance, but within the parameters set for her, director Cate Shortland crafts a entertaining adventure for Natasha Romanoff that beautifully serves this beloved character.

I like many hope this is not the last we see of the Black Widow (although a certain lawsuit might be dwindling those chances as we speak), but I also hope this film stands as a touching tribute to original female Avenger and her importance to this powerhouse franchise…and it still should’ve been Hawkeye.

Film Review - “Space Jam: A New Legacy”

Welcome to the slam…

Space Jam: A New Legacy

Directed by Malcom D. Lee

Starring LeBron James, Don Cheadle, Cedric Joe, and Bugs Bunny

Look I’m not going to sit here and tell you that first Space Jam is a great film. It’s an enjoyable albeit  bizarre film that let’s be honest, only exists because some Air Jordan commercials for kids were pretty popular. Space Jam has its flaws. It’s not a gold standard of cinema, and I’m not going to tell you Space Jame: A New Legacy is a disgrace to its predecessor…

…I am going to tell you that Space Jam: A New Legacy is a disgrace to the very art of cinema. 

The film opens up on a young LeBron James, less focused on his basketball game and more on his video games (a Looney Tunes one at that, oh my goodness…) and his coach telling him if he wants to succeed in basketball he has to keep his eye on the ball (I’m not sorry for that pun). Cut to present day after the opening credits (That has the audacity to not reprise the banger title song from the first film) and LeBron (Himself) wants nothing but basketball success for his sons. However his younger son Dom (Joe) is more interested in developing video games (Yeah subtlety just hitting you like a ton of bricks here), much to LeBron’s dismay.

Now the premise of the first Jam is a little bit convoluted (Aliens want to enslave the Looney Tunes for their theme park, they challenge the vertically-impaired aliens to a basketball game, the aliens steal the talent of popular NBA players and get supernaturally steroid’ed up, the Tunes turn to Micheal Jordan for help.) but the premise of this one…oh man. Just bare with me for a minute.

A sentient algorithm named Al-G Rhythm (Cheadle) has control of the Warner Bros’s servers, feeding ideas to the studio executives (Is this commentary on how Hollywood operates these days, or is it just stupid?). He comes up with the idea to place LeBron James into popular WB properties like Batman, Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones. LeBron and Dom come into the studio for a pitch meeting, and LeBron, like the rest of us, realizes how stupid that all sounds.

Dom however takes an interest in the studios’ tech, leading to an argument  between father and son. An enraged Rhythm takes the opportunity to kidnap them both into the server, excuse me, The Server-Verse (I hate it here). Rhythm takes Dom hostage and promises to return him to LeBron if he can beat him in a basketball game, in the server, which will be live-streamed for the world to see. Rhythm ejects LeBron into the Server-Verse to find his team, and he lands in Tune World, home of the Looney Tunes. Or at least it was. 

LeBron finds Bugs Bunny (Voiced here by Jeff Bergman) the single inhabitant of Tune World now, the other Tunes having left to explore other properties-I mean, their potential. Together LeBron and Bugs set out to find their team for the big game, while Rhythm woos Dom to his side with his tech and power, and you know what here’s a good spot to begin my criticisms.

Readers, this is not a film. This is an ad. An ad for HBO Max, and all the beloved IP’s Warners Bros owns (except for one, and I’ll circle back to that). Aside from a plot so convoluted it makes the original Space Jam look well written, the pacing of this film is abysmal. Just a few minutes short of a two-hour runtime, the basketball game (If you could even call it that) doesn’t even get started until we’re halfway through. You may ask “So what does the film do until then?” A good chunk, like a really good chunk of the film is spent on LeBron and Bugs traveling through other WB properties to find the other Looney Tunes. And I guess yeah it’s neat to see Roadrunner & Wile E. Coyote in Mad Max: Fury Road, or Granny and Speedy Gonzales in The Matrix, or…Elmer Fudd in Austin Powers…but why here? Why now? You know what? Just why? And this is a family film right? What kid is going to understand any of these references?

The film is obsessed with throwing everything pop-culture that Warner Bros owns in your face, right down to that crowd of cameos watching the game. Whoever decided on that element of the film seriously needs to be benched because that crowd is more distracting than anything and makes it incredibly hard to focus on the basketball game, the supposed point of the whole film. But like I said you can barely call it a basketball game because it’s really a video game, where the villains literally change the playing field every five seconds. I could see where they were going with it, because during practice LeBron says to the Tunes “Don’t be Looney take the game seriously and play basketball right”  and obviously they can’t win if they’re going to play it like a normal basketball game, but ultimately it lowers the stakes and the viewers’ investment.

Remember how I said this was an ad for all of Warner Bros beloved properties except for one? Well that one property, bitterly, ironically, is the Looney Tunes. It is so wrong that not a single Looney Tune shows up until we’re past the twenty-five minute mark, and it is criminally offensive how the film treats them. The film sets up this plot line that the Looney Tunes went their separate ways because Al-G Rhythm said they were better than their usual schtick, but we never learn why he did that. And the breakup is not even addressed when they finally get them all back together. It’s like they were going for The Muppets without any effort or forgetting to write an actual plot. But the big difference between The Muppets and the Looney Tunes is, the latter are not a close-knit family. The Looney Tunes, for decades, have hated each other! Half of them are always trying to kill the other half! And Bugs wouldn’t be sad and mopey that they all left. He would just shrug and be like “Eh they’ll be back, Doc.” They made Bugs like Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi only here they *don’t* understand the character (I SAID WHAT I SAID!!!). This film could have been like The Muppets, and a great re-introduction of the Looney Tunes to the general public. I honestly thought this was going to be a commentary on how they’re not relevant anymore. It certainly started out like that when Rhythm says “Send [LeBron] to the rejects”. But no, it’s just flimsy, forced conflict to move the film along to cameo country. This film is almost ashamed of the Looney Tunes and that is its biggest offense.

As far as the animation, the traditionally drawn stuff isn’t bad. Dare I say it almost looks like classic Looney Tunes, but was it just me or was LeBron’s dialogue not matching his lips? The CGI upgrades on the Tunes are alright. It works for some of them, but the rest look off. The special effects in general are pretty distracting like I said because most of them are devoted to that stadium of cameos. I will give the filmmakers props for seamlessly adding the Tunes and LeBron into various other WB films, despite the shrill nature of that whole sequence. There is one particular CGI rendering in the back-half of the film that was the stuff of nightmares. If you know, you know…

What can be said about the performances in this film? LeBron James…he does alright. It’s not a groundbreaking performance by any means but I could tell he was trying. I’ve been told he did much better in Trainwreck. I’m not sure what Don Cheadle was doing in this film but “hamming it up” and “over-the-top” don’t even begin to describe it. As far as the voice cast for the Looney Tunes, a few of them worked but some were real misfires. Eric Bauza works as Daffy, Porky, and Foghorn. Jeff Bergman does a good Sylvester, but his Bugs never feels right. Candi Milo as Granny comes off too much as someone young pretending to be a senior citizen. What was the point of hyping up Lola Bunny in this film if she was barely going to do anything? Seriously all that controversy about changing her appearance, how about how they took away her whole personality? Poor Zendaya got cheated.

What else can I say about Space Jam: A New Legacy? It’s not very funny except for one or two lines. It steals a lot from Hook. It’s not clear if it takes place in the continuity of the first film, because shouldn’t

The Tunes know how to play basketball? It’s a video-game film that happens to feature the Looney Tunes, which makes even less sense than a basketball film that features the Looney Tunes. I think the best way to sum it all up is, the film tries to do way too much, and far too little works. All this film had to do was give us the big-name in basketball alongside the Looney Tunes and that would’ve been enough. Instead it ended up being Warner Bros’s equivalent of Disney’s Ralph Breaks The Internet but worse. It’s shallow. It’s sloppy. It’s insulting to both its audience and some of the most popular animated characters of all time. I am very glad I was able to watch this at home on HBO Max instead of paying $13 or so for a ticket at the theater (Thank you, Tom). 

I know people are going to make the argument that “Oh this is a film for kids what did you expect”. Well then explain to me what kid has seen Casablanca or The Matrix? You can make a film for kids, for families, and it could be great…if you put effort into it. I can’t imagine any adult or kid genuinely enjoying this film, because this film doesn’t even know who it was made for.

This film has triggered me enough, I’m going to go cool down before I review Black Widow…but let me just say this. You have Yakko, Wakko and Dot from Animaniacs in the crowd of the game, a game that the Tunes won’t win unless they play it Looney, and you don’t put them on the court?? Coach Daffy Duck should resign….

Film Review - “A Quiet Place - Part 2”

A Quiet Place - Part 2
Directed by John Krasinski
Starring Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, and Cillian Murphy

On May 28th of this year, A Quiet Place - Part 2 finally arrived in theaters, a little over a year after it was initially due in theaters (Thanks, COVID). On June 16th, I went back into movie theaters for the first time since my birthday in early February of 2020 (Again, thanks COVID, and for the record it was for a second viewing of The Rise of Skywalker. Judge me.) Not only was A Quiet Place - Part 2 the perfect film to return to theaters for, it is one of those rare sequels that is just as good as its predecessor.

The film opens with a flashback to the day the sound-sensitive aliens arrived on Earth and wreaked havoc on the hometown of The Abbott Family (A great sequence I’ll touch on later). We then pick up shortly after the events of the first film, and the remaining members of the family (Still not over Lee’s/Krasinski’s death) venture off their farm in search of other survivors. 

They come across the hideout of family friend Emmett (Murphy), who has become a hardened recluse after the loss of his family. He reluctantly allows the Abbotts to stay in his hideout, but daughter Regan (Simmonds), has a plan. After learning in the last film the frequency of her hearing aid can immobilize the aliens, she wishes to locate a radio station on a nearby island (where a group of survivors have retreated) with the intent to broadcast the frequency across the area and help those listening defend themselves. With younger brother Marcus (Noah Jupe) unsure of her plan, Regan ventures out alone. Family matriarch Evelyn (Blunt) begs Emmett to bring her back, while she searches for supplies to help her family, including her newborn baby.

A Quiet Place - Part 2 does a great job expanding the foundation of the first film. Taking it beyond the scope of the home of The Abbotts, we get to see how this alien invasion effected the world on a larger scale. This apocalyptic land may not have been as bleak as we originally envisioned, but it also might be more sinister, if that makes sense? I will say there is one particular element that does leave more questions than answers, and just feels like a simple obstacle on the heroes’ journey, but I feel like it might be addressed further in the potential third film or spin-off. But Krasinski does a great job building off on an already unique premise. He takes the story in the right direction, and crafts a second chapter as equally compelling as the first.

You still care very much about these characters and want to see them make it through to the end. Every second they’re in danger you feel it with them, which brings me to my next point that Part 2 gets just as harrowing and suspenseful as Part 1. Krasinski once again does a great job of delivering the chills and the thrills. I remember when I saw the first film in theaters eighteen years ago in 2018 (That’s a joke) you could hear every popcorn kernel shuffle in its bag, and every sip of soda. The audience was in the palm of Krasinski’s hand as he was taking us on this ride. That was the same case here. 

The opening sequence is a great example of filmmaking and audience manipulation. We’ve been conditioned to believe that the slightest sound is going to have those aliens coming for blood. So in this time period of the film (Where we know they’re seconds away from arriving and tearing this town apart) the shut of a car door or the bite of an apple hits us like a ton of bricks. You know the first Quiet Place deserved the Oscars for Sound Design and Editing, not that feature-length lip-dub Bohemian Rhapsody, but Part 2 better take home some gold for this sequence alone.

The young cast members are given a lot more of the heavy-lifting in the sequel. Millicent Simmonds is given the majority of the heavy lifting, and she handles it incredibly well. We go on this journey with her, and we feel her courage and her heart. Noah Jupe has less to do with his character arc but it definitely resonates as its own “coming-of-age” story within the film, as he finds himself now the man of the family. Emily Blunt is wonderful as always, finding a perfect balance of “loving mother” and “action hero” with Evelyn. Cillian Murphy is a welcome new addition to the Quiet Place world as Emmett. Murphy always does fine work playing characters with rough edges but here there’s more heart and nobility. Oh and it goes without saying that everyone mentioned knocks it out of the park with minimal use of dialogue and relying on their physicality as performers.

Those close to me know I don’t typically go for horror films. I like to sleep soundly at night, and most of them I find pretty cliche and lacking creativity. But the first Quiet Place became an instant favorite of mine because it wasn’t like the rest of the genre. It valued the story just as much as the scares, and it was made by Jim from The Office with his wife Emily Blunt. A Quiet Place - Part 2 marked a triumphant return for movie-going experiences (That hopefully doesn’t go away again soon. Get vaccinated) and is a superb sequel. It takes the story to the next level and in the right direction. It’s both heartfelt, harrowing, and definitely worth the wait. This was a film meant to be seen in a crowded theater. That’s an easy recommendation.

But that’s just one sequel worth seeing this summer. Now let me tell you about one that isn’t…It’s good to be back…