![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Jul. 21st, 2021 04:18 pmBlack Widow
I really enjoyed it! I will say that it seemed sort of like they, in typical Marvel mode, held some stuff back for a sequel, and it's not clear that there will be a Black Widow 2, so I think that's a big part of why there's been some dissatisfaction from fans about how the movie tried to tell Natasha's story.
The Red Room was dissatisfyingly handwavy in a specific way I dislike. I hate it when Marvel movies (and other things... Leverage: Redemption has earned a bit of my ire for this recently) construct evil government institutions and then assign the blame for them not to structural issues but to one specific evil operator who controls the government institution. [I particularly hate this with regard to HYDRA in TFA. HYDRA is presented as evil because of the darkness of the Red Skull, not because, you know, the Nazis were an evil institution. And as a counter to this, TWS is particularly good at showing that evil institutions are about institutional rot, not about individual bad guys.] Dreykov is a weak point in the movie not only because he's not that interesting a character, but because he undermines any government criticism that goes deeper than single points of failure.
The Red Room resonates with an understanding of the USSR as being systematically abusive of individual rights and liberties, and creating a massive infrastructure of surveillance and control of its own citizens. Yet the Red Room of Black Widow is literally untethered from the mother soil of Russia, floating above it in its own version of SHIELD/HYDRA's monstrous helicarriers. It was supposed to have been destroyed when Natasha assassinated Dreykov a decade earlier, because Dreykov was the Red Room's single point of failure, the reason why it was evil. Dreykov, however, secretly survived, and with him the institution. This undermines that understanding of the USSRs', and Russian successors' approach to liberty. It acts like a single bullet, or single self-destruct sequence, is sufficient to free the Black Widows and now that Dreykov is gone and the antidote administered, all the work that is needed to protect them is at the one on one level. The Red Room exists because the mass of people in power in Russia, who want to remain in power, find it a valuable tool and have no moral qualms about creating it or using it- not because Dreykov exists. Killing Dreykov is not how you destroy the Red Room. Might be fun, though.
I realize that you can't just end every Marvel movie with "and then institutional kyriarchy undermined the superheroes' victory", true as it ought to be, but there's more that can be done here. There's a trope in Batman stories that you never see in the MCU that I think would go a ways to address some of this problem: the trope of the One Good Politician that Batman Must Protect until the Key Vote. It's a superproblematic trope on its own terms that ought to be subverted more (The Cape was really good at subverting it, it's one of the reasons I loved The Cape), but it would be helpful on occasion to end a Marvel movie with "And then institutional kyriarchy tried to undermine the superheroes' victory, but the good guys made plans to fight back using the tools of political organization." Again, TWS ended with that and it's why it's one of my favorite Marvel movies. It's also a thing in Iron Man 3, another movie I am very fond of.
But I'm doing that thing where I really enjoyed a piece of media and therefore I dissect it in way too much detail until it starts to look like I didn't enjoy it.
But the sisterly relationship between Natasha and Yelena was instantaneously perfect and filled out Natasha so well. The vest scene might be my favorite scene in the movie. The thing is that Natasha sets off her sister probably inadvertently, but she knows instantly how to defuse her sister's anger anytime it's about to flare up, in complicated and nonstandard ways that are specific to who she is as a person. So she inadvertently insults the vest and then covers herself so seamlessly and it's both teasing and also emotional labor at the same time. It shows how good Natasha is at People in general but it also is about Being Sisters. And by Being Sisters with Yelena in that moment, when she is grappling with learning about the mind control and how she has let her sister down, she signals to Yelena that at some level Natasha still recognizes the little girl in Yelena as being the same person she always was... which MUST be a thing Yelena is anxious about.
And the vest is such a banal kind of vulnerability for a formerly brainwashed super-assassin to open up about. Yelena is saying to Natasha "I trust you so much that my smalltalk with you will be honest" !! It's utterly heartbreaking in what that says about Yelena's conversations with people, that letting herself be open enough to talk about honest feelings about clothing and how it makes her feel is a major step forward. But it is, and it's so sweet when Natasha, in response, lies to Yelena about liking if. They are super-assassins, they know Natasha doesn't actually like the vest, but Natasha appreciates Yelena's truth and Yelena appreciates Natasha's lies. Sisters!!
These are two people whose initial meeting in the film is equal parts hug and fight to the death, and it was delightful the way the fight choreography captured that, as someone who is a sibling and who has similar if less well-trained fights with his brother.
And of course this explains so much about how Natasha interacts with Clint, who has become a sort of surrogate brother to her in the absence of Yelena- a relationship she also expresses by trying to punch him- that's just how you do Being Siblings!
And David Harbour and Rachel Weisz were equally intriguing as ersatz family who have let Natasha down but clearly still have deep feelings about her. The spy family stuff in this movie was so good.
I really enjoyed it! I will say that it seemed sort of like they, in typical Marvel mode, held some stuff back for a sequel, and it's not clear that there will be a Black Widow 2, so I think that's a big part of why there's been some dissatisfaction from fans about how the movie tried to tell Natasha's story.
The Red Room was dissatisfyingly handwavy in a specific way I dislike. I hate it when Marvel movies (and other things... Leverage: Redemption has earned a bit of my ire for this recently) construct evil government institutions and then assign the blame for them not to structural issues but to one specific evil operator who controls the government institution. [I particularly hate this with regard to HYDRA in TFA. HYDRA is presented as evil because of the darkness of the Red Skull, not because, you know, the Nazis were an evil institution. And as a counter to this, TWS is particularly good at showing that evil institutions are about institutional rot, not about individual bad guys.] Dreykov is a weak point in the movie not only because he's not that interesting a character, but because he undermines any government criticism that goes deeper than single points of failure.
The Red Room resonates with an understanding of the USSR as being systematically abusive of individual rights and liberties, and creating a massive infrastructure of surveillance and control of its own citizens. Yet the Red Room of Black Widow is literally untethered from the mother soil of Russia, floating above it in its own version of SHIELD/HYDRA's monstrous helicarriers. It was supposed to have been destroyed when Natasha assassinated Dreykov a decade earlier, because Dreykov was the Red Room's single point of failure, the reason why it was evil. Dreykov, however, secretly survived, and with him the institution. This undermines that understanding of the USSRs', and Russian successors' approach to liberty. It acts like a single bullet, or single self-destruct sequence, is sufficient to free the Black Widows and now that Dreykov is gone and the antidote administered, all the work that is needed to protect them is at the one on one level. The Red Room exists because the mass of people in power in Russia, who want to remain in power, find it a valuable tool and have no moral qualms about creating it or using it- not because Dreykov exists. Killing Dreykov is not how you destroy the Red Room. Might be fun, though.
I realize that you can't just end every Marvel movie with "and then institutional kyriarchy undermined the superheroes' victory", true as it ought to be, but there's more that can be done here. There's a trope in Batman stories that you never see in the MCU that I think would go a ways to address some of this problem: the trope of the One Good Politician that Batman Must Protect until the Key Vote. It's a superproblematic trope on its own terms that ought to be subverted more (The Cape was really good at subverting it, it's one of the reasons I loved The Cape), but it would be helpful on occasion to end a Marvel movie with "And then institutional kyriarchy tried to undermine the superheroes' victory, but the good guys made plans to fight back using the tools of political organization." Again, TWS ended with that and it's why it's one of my favorite Marvel movies. It's also a thing in Iron Man 3, another movie I am very fond of.
But I'm doing that thing where I really enjoyed a piece of media and therefore I dissect it in way too much detail until it starts to look like I didn't enjoy it.
But the sisterly relationship between Natasha and Yelena was instantaneously perfect and filled out Natasha so well. The vest scene might be my favorite scene in the movie. The thing is that Natasha sets off her sister probably inadvertently, but she knows instantly how to defuse her sister's anger anytime it's about to flare up, in complicated and nonstandard ways that are specific to who she is as a person. So she inadvertently insults the vest and then covers herself so seamlessly and it's both teasing and also emotional labor at the same time. It shows how good Natasha is at People in general but it also is about Being Sisters. And by Being Sisters with Yelena in that moment, when she is grappling with learning about the mind control and how she has let her sister down, she signals to Yelena that at some level Natasha still recognizes the little girl in Yelena as being the same person she always was... which MUST be a thing Yelena is anxious about.
And the vest is such a banal kind of vulnerability for a formerly brainwashed super-assassin to open up about. Yelena is saying to Natasha "I trust you so much that my smalltalk with you will be honest" !! It's utterly heartbreaking in what that says about Yelena's conversations with people, that letting herself be open enough to talk about honest feelings about clothing and how it makes her feel is a major step forward. But it is, and it's so sweet when Natasha, in response, lies to Yelena about liking if. They are super-assassins, they know Natasha doesn't actually like the vest, but Natasha appreciates Yelena's truth and Yelena appreciates Natasha's lies. Sisters!!
These are two people whose initial meeting in the film is equal parts hug and fight to the death, and it was delightful the way the fight choreography captured that, as someone who is a sibling and who has similar if less well-trained fights with his brother.
And of course this explains so much about how Natasha interacts with Clint, who has become a sort of surrogate brother to her in the absence of Yelena- a relationship she also expresses by trying to punch him- that's just how you do Being Siblings!
And David Harbour and Rachel Weisz were equally intriguing as ersatz family who have let Natasha down but clearly still have deep feelings about her. The spy family stuff in this movie was so good.