Weekend Watch: Black Widow, And Fear Street Part 2: 1987
Natasha Romanoff digs into her past and the witch's curse is explored further in the second of Netflix's horror triptych...
Image Credit: Disney+
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, in which I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, the MCU returns to the big screen for Natasha Romanoff’s big sendoff and Netflix’s horror cycle continues. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite
I’ve really been enjoying the MCU’s TV output – particularly WandaVision and Loki – but there’s something to be said for seeing the Marvel logo and hearing the fanfare in a cinema, a sign that things are really getting back to whatever normal we can expect going forward. Though they haven’t always been successful the Marvel movies have, for me, become a reliable source of entertainment, blending action with memorable characters and knowing humour. Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff has been part of that formula from its early days, and while her character hasn’t enjoyed the same treatment or development as, say, Captain America or Iron Man, she’s been handed some great lines, effective action and become a key part of the team, helped in no small way by Johansson’s superior acting skills. Even with giant explosions and roaring aliens around her, Black Widow is a calm warrior, an instinctive soldier, and a crafty spy.
While this standalone film might have served her better falling directly between Captain America: Civil War (its story occurs as Natasha in on the lam following that entry) and the two giant Avengers movies, Black Widow still works to fill in some more details about how she became the person she is, and her need to confront some of her past. This is no strict origin story, but it does deal with a little of the red in her ledger, and even offers a look at her life before she became a trained assassin.
See, long before the days of SHIELD or her time with the Avengers, Natasha was part of a fake family, a sleeper cell in the US that was stealing secrets until they were rumbled by the authorities. The other members of that faux familial unit were younger “sister” Yelena (Florence Pugh), mother Melina (Rachel Weisz), and father Alexei (David Harbour). Like Natasha, Yelena ended up in the Widow-training “Red Room” program, while Melina retreated to keep working on her scientific theories and Alexei – who even before he was sent on assignment, had been turned into Russia’s answer to Cap, the Red Guardian – ended up in prison. I’ll say no more about exactly what brings them all together, but it’s not the most complicated scenario.
Cate Shortland, recruited like many MCU directors from independent film, handles the emotional interplay between the reunited “family” effectively (helped by Eric Pearson’s script), and the main cast – particularly Pugh and Harbour – bring their own skill to the table. Black Widow for me was perhaps a little short on the next-level thrills of, say, Iron Man 3 or even Captain America: The Winter Soldier, albeit not for want of trying. There are Jason Bourne-style fights between spies, some fun bickering from the family and a spectacular set-piece against the backdrop of an avalanche. Trouble is, there are also cliches aplenty, the film falling into narrative traps more than the usual MCU stable, with an entirely perfunctory villain (despite the abilities of the person playing them) and a finale that has become part of Marvel’s checklist for its films. A straightforward spy action thriller is perfectly fine, but in the hands of this particular studio, you start to expect a little more. Particularly in a universe where movies such as Thor: Ragnarok exists.
I fully intend to revisit the movie upon release and expect to enjoy it more a second time with my expectations lowered appropriately. If you’ve been waiting a long time to see Natasha Romanoff enjoy the spotlight, you’ll get plenty from this, and there are real pleasures lurking within – Pugh’s Yelena is often a quippy delight, while Harbour and Weisz are good value. Plus, Johansson puts her all into peeling back the layers of the Widow. I’d consider this mid-tier Marvel. But that’s still better than many films out there.
Black Widow is in UK and US cinemas now and on Disney Plus for the Premier Access fee.
Image Credit: Netflix
If Part 1 was a knowing nod towards Scream and 1990s horror (without necessarily winking), Fear Street’s second part gorges on the tropes and concepts of 1970s slashers such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween while never losing the grip of its own mythology.
There are still links to the 1994 story, cannily set up in the first installment, but this turns the clock back to 1978, and the traumatic events at Camp Nightwing. Here, social divisions are stronger than ever between Shadyside and Sunnyvale, with the latter town’s kids always triumphing in the annual Colour War competition. Against that backdrop, Ziggy Berman (Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink) deals with bullies while her sister Cindy (Emily Rudd) tries to hold things together as a camp counselor. Tensions are running high even before one of the campers is possessed by the dark, murderous magic of witch Sarah Fier (assuming that’s what’s really going on) and starts a killing spree.
What’s really smart about Leigh Janiak’s second film (she directs and co-writes the script with Zak Olkewicz) is how it deepens and broadens our understanding of not just the first film but the entire story. And it doesn’t hurt that the main characters (even some who are initially loathsome) are people you end up identifying with and rooting for. The actual narrative is perhaps a little more straightforward here and the deaths less inventive, but Part 2 doesn’t suffer for that.
If anything, this second helping just intensifies the need to see the third and figure out exactly how all this started. It was a good move to make all three at once – sometimes the streaming era can have advantages – as it allows for proper connective tissue and real planning instead of a haphazard franchise that springs a leak every time you look too closely at the story. And, like 1994, it goes all out on the horror aspect, so be prepared for gore.
Fear Street Part 2: 1978 is on Netflix now, as is Part 1. Part 3 will follow next week.