La Ron S. Readus
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Black Widow Should've Been A Movie Trilogy (VIDEO SCRIPT)
🕑 Added 2021-07-12 20:00:04 +0000 UTCNow, I don’t know if this will either help or HINDER my take in this video. But I still feel the need to point out that despite everything I did after the intro stinger hits... I don’t even LIKE her like that, y’all!
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Readers, if you recall back when the first trailer for Black Widow came out...
I -- in one of my last trailer reaction videos -- stated that because of where it takes place in the the timeline of the MCU, probably would care more about the movie if it actually was RELEASED closer to where it takes place in the timeline, as opposed to making it a prequel film in the first wave of Phase 4 films.
Well, a lot has changed since the release of that trailer.
The movie was delayed by a year thanks a global Pandora and we went an entire year without MCU-related content for the first time in forever
2.9 Marvel Studios-funded television series premiered exclusively on Disney Plus to tide us over until its eventual release 2/3rds into 2021
/And Academy Award winning Asian American actress Scarlett Johansson refuses to shut her fucking mouth./
But with a Black Widow movie finally simultaneously released in theaters and on Disney Plus as a premiere access option...
/It finally completes the Marvel Trifecta of films by joining Captain Marvel and Black Panther in curve-stomping previous Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter’s ass./
And honestly considering I was expecting nothing, I thought Black Widow was a pretty solid film.
It’s not an all-time favorite of mine, since I’m not necessarily a fan of superhero-themed espionage with the exception of The Winter Soldier or just non-powered Marvel heroes in general.
But there were a lot of things that I noticed about the movie that stood out that better reflected the aim of Natasha’s character over the course of her involvement in the MCU.
/The themes of trust, openness and found family were heavily prominent and aspects that I could easily see Natasha struggle with considering what I witnessed of her development since Iron Man 2./
/Florence Pugh’s Yelena is best girl, and I plan on making an entire video about how she made this movie 10 times more enjoyable for me/
/Seeing Rachael Weizz on screen again immediately reminded me that we as a collective just need to forget Tomb of the Dragon Emperor exists and get the gang back together for a PROPER third Mummy movie/
Then the actual story for Black Widow played out and I saw all of the character choices and plot decisions.
/I saw how they utilized the Budapest line from the first Avengers movie into her backstory and utilized it into the very narrative. I saw the use and the creative decisions for the film’s villains, and with it saw a prominent story for Natasha that I will be absolutely happy to admit works for her character. A few nitpicks aside, what we got in this solo Black Widow movie was both a prominent and powerful story in order to properly flesh out her character./
And while it's obvious that the problem in this is that we would’ve DEFINITELY gotten more solo Natasha outings if it weren’t for Ike Perlmutter’s previous stranglehold, within THAT fact comes another.
Considering everything this movie covers and handles situations regarding unfinished business, it should’ve been the LAST one.
/More specifically, 2021’s Black Widow shouldn’t have been the ONLY Black Widow movie, but the LAST Black Widow movie...of a trilogy./
Now before I continue, I must warn that I’m about to head into HEAVY spoiler territory regarding the events of 2021’s Black Widow. So if you haven’t seen it yet or if you care about spoilers, I highly suggest you go on and give it a watch before you watch any more of the video. Cool? Cool.
Okay. So for everyone who is relatively new to the channel, I have an ongoing series here called “A Proper Movie Trilogy.”
In it, I take a look at film trilogies across multiple genres, explain why the ones that ALREADY count as proper trilogies do, and explain what’s missing from the third installment that’s keeping the whole from being classified as one if they don’t, along with restructuring said third film without absolutely changing the DNA of the movie we initially got in order to do so.
Right now I release a new installment of this series once every month, and you can click the link on the upper right corner of the screen if you want to see a playlist of all the trilogies I’ve covered so far.
Now I said what I said about the THIRD installment of a trilogy either making or breaking it in order for the whole to be considered proper, because it’s the responsibility of the third installment to bring plot elements full circle from the first movie according to the formula.
This is done by having an element from the plot of the first installment play a significant role in the third installment that makes all three installments work together as one cohesive story.
From there, you can use the third installment to reveal new information about what’s being carried over from the first, and expand upon it in various ways; the most common form being a plot twist.
I label this element of the first installment being used in the third as “The Thread” or simply a Plot Thread when it comes to trilogies, because its purpose is to use that element to stitch all three patches together in order for it to become a single piece.
Otherwise, those patches would be nothing more than loosely connected tatters, that’s only done so thanks to the overarching theme of the trilogy.
And the reason why this is an important factor to take into consideration while watching the 2021 Black Widow movie, is because its story is absolutely LITTERED with elements that could be seen as expanded plot threads if this Black Widow movie was, in fact, the THIRD one.
/Natasha finding out that General Dreykov -- the film’s main villain and runner of the Red Room -- is still alive after the Budapest incident the first Avengers movie teased at in order to get her out as a Black Widow and become an agent of SHIELD is a GREAT expansion of information for a third installment of a proper movie trilogy that could’ve been carried over from a proper Natasha Romanoff origin movie displaying her working with Hawkeye to take him down./
And the same can especially be said of the reveal surrounding Antonia, Dreykov’s daughter.
/Both the guilt that’s eating away at Natasha for using her as collateral damage in order to give SHIELD Dreykov, but also in the reveal that she survived the explosion she thought eliminated Dreykov and was used as the first subject in the perfected Taskmaster Protocol./
While I definitely appreciated that they added this element to Natasha’s character to help give her more of an internal struggle to deal with now that the 2021 movie has her juggling with the concept of trust, openness and isolation...
/There just wasn’t enough time for her guilt regarding what she THOUGHT happened to Antonia versus how she attempted to rectify what TRULY happened to Antonia in order for it to be impactful./
However, if we saw Natasha struggle with whether or not to sacrifice Antonia’s life as a child in order to guarantee her freedom in an ORIGIN movie involving the event, as opposed to just dedicating minimal references to her guilt in casual conversation and a minute-long flashback of the explosion to back it up...
We’d have something more to go off of regarding said arc that would’ve better complimented the themes of trust, openness, and found family that were present throughout the film we initially got.
/Because of all this, 2021’s Black Widow is both written and comes across as if it were initially supposed to be the third and final installment of a Black Widow film trilogy, instead of the first time we ever see her on a solo adventure in the MCU./
And while I have no doubt that the reason behind this being the first and only solo Widow movie, is thanks to Ike Perlmutter’s racist and sexist grip on Marvel Entertainment that kept any solo movies of hers from being made in the past before Kevin Feige was given the keys to EVERYTHING...
/You can tell in the writing and the pacing within the movie we initially got, that they REALLY wanted to cover as much backstory and development for her character as possible in this film -- now that the use of Natasha’s character is extremely limited in the MCU thanks to Endgame -- that otherwise would’ve been covered in two stories before it in order to TRULY do the character justice./
And because...I’m ME, I decided to come up with PITCHES for the two stories in question.
As you would imagine, I would’ve made the first Black Widow movie a Phase 2 film.
Like the Captain Marvel movie, it would’ve been a timepiece origin story focusing on the events that were teased in the first Avengers movie and briefly expanded upon in Natasha’s solo film. Those being her origin and exactly what happened in Budapest.
As we learn in 2021’s Black Widow, the situation involving Budapest involved Natasha finding an out of the Red Room and joining up with SHIELD.
/This resulted in her giving SHIELD General Dreykov, the head of the Red Room at the cost of his daughter Antonia, who we know eventually becomes Taskmaster./
So let’s see this story play out. Let’s go over what Natasha had to endure under the original psychological conditioning before mind control played a factor in the Red Room.
Let’s see what she had to go through in order to escape and the decisions she decided to make that resulted in her leaving Yelena behind when she found her way out. Also, let's see how Natasha and Clint first meet and see EXACTLY what happened in Budapest when they teamed up to take down Dreykov and the Red Room.
Of course, elements from the 2021 movie have to make it in this theoretical first film in order for it to stay consistent.
/Things like Dreykov being the target, Natasha using Antonia as a sacrificial lamb, and -- as Natasha put it -- destroying almost the entire city to get to him./
And the best way we can do that is by adding another element in Natasha and Clint’s buddy cop movie; an element that’s just as established to the Black Widow faction as Dreykov that can serve as the villains the duo need to take down in order to get to Dreykov proper. My choices? Ivan Petrovich and the persona of the Iron Maiden.
I say the persona, because the real identity of the Iron Maiden is Melina Vostokoff...
/Who is in the 2021 film played by Rachel Weizz and instead is given the role of caregiver to both Natasha and Yelena in the states before shipping them off to the Red Room. So -- like the MCU version of Taskmaster -- we have to make some changes in order for the persona to work./
Luckily with the introduction of Ivan, we have a great way of doing so
In the comics, Ivan is Natasha’s initial caregiver, saving her as a baby and enlisting her in the Red Room to become a Black Widow.
/This task in the MCU has been mostly covered by Alexi Shostakov aka the Red Guardian, so we’d have to adjust it a bit./
What I’d do is make Ivan one of Dreykov’s main partners in running the Red Room, overseeing the girls that have shown exceptional talents.
The difference between Ivan and Dreykov in this instance however, is that while Ivan believes in psychological conditioning in order to control the Black Widows, Dreykov -- as shown in the actual movie -- believes in more chemical and neurological methods of control.
Both see the girls as nothing but tools to put their plans into action. But while Dreykov is very much against giving the girls the agency of free will, Ivan is more of an old school sociopath along the line of Thanos in believing they can be groomed to follow their every whim.
Because of this, I’d make Ivan Natasha’s caregiver in THIS regard after Dreykov initially split her away from Yelena to use in his mind control experiments.
Under his tutelage and sponsorship, Natasha becomes his prized representative relatively quickly within the ranks of SPECIAL widows, under the disdain of his previous number one now number two Maria Petrovich -- Ivan’s own daughter.
So when Natasha defects, escapes and seeks refuge at SHIELD, this HURTS Ivan. Because in his own demented way of thinking -- similar to MCU Thanos -- his favorite daughter has abandoned him.
So much so that thanks to her own grooming and conditioning from being in Ivan’s program within the Red Room, Maria goes to Dreykov to offer her services in order to get Natasha back and prove to her father that SHE is his true prodigy.
She becomes Iron Maiden and goes out to hunt Clint and Natasha in their attempt to capture Ivan in order to take both he AND Dreykov down and damn near destroys Budapest in order to do it, willingly volunteering to be the first Widow to don a prototype armor and technology that was being developed by Dreykov’s team to give her a big enough advantage to do so.
/And it's in her pursuit and eventual failure in trying to reacquire Natasha and eliminate Clint that would give Dreykov enough data to start, complete and PERFECT the Taskmaster Protocol./
Black Widow 2 would’ve been another film that was released in one phase, but chronologically took place during the events of the phase before it.
In this instance, it would’ve been a Phase 3 film that took place after the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron and before shit hit the fan in Captain America: Civil War.
With SHIELD still in shambles after the reveal of the Hydra infiltration from The Winter Soldier and being disappointed that...whatever the fuck she thought could happen with Bruce DIDN’T happen by Hulk opting to leave the planet, Natasha is in a state of disconnect and dissociation.
/She’s beginning to enter the mindset we find her in when we see her in the 2021 movie; more blunt and harsh in how things actually work which she sees as being realistic, finding comfort in being by herself and limiting the amount of times she opens herself to others again. It would be a more personal piece that both challenges and reinforces those aspects of her development by the time we see her in Black Widow 2021./
Which is why Snapdragon and Damon Dran would make such antagonistic forces for a second installment revolving around Natasha trying to find herself in a world where the things she initially found refuge for are beginning to slip out of her fingers.
In the comics, Damon Dran is a powerful business man who gains the alias the Indestructible Man by exposing himself to a power source called Project 4.
He’d more or less be the same in this MCU take on him. But to make everything still fit in with the elements of the Infinity Saga, what I’d change is that he actually got hold of some very dangerous Chitari tech that was stolen from the Department of Damage Control...
/Who we would later find out relieved it from the salvage crew run by Adrian Toomes -- aka Vulture -- upon the release of Spider-Man: Homecoming./
Taking the case to try and clear her head from everything that happened during Age of Ultron, Natasha meets Sheoke Sanada -- codename Snapdragon -- a spy from Japan who is ALSO after Damon Dran for hijacking highly classified tech of their own.
Against her better judgement, Natasha teams up with Snapdragon and the two bond and go on an adventure to find and stop Damon Dran.
You know, until it’s revealed that Snapdragon was working for Damon all along and betrays Natasha, revealing that Damon needs her knowledge of both SHIELD and US government secrets and protocols in order to get a leg up in the now ever evolving arms race against a mysterious individual and competitor,
/Only known as “The Power Broker”/
I took a page out of Raya and the Last Dragon here with this plot line. Because not only do we have a more jaded Natasha by the end of Civil War and the events of Black Widow 2021...
/But in being betrayed by an individual she thought she could trust while already in a state where she’s debating whether or not to allow herself to open up again, Natasha’s properly placed in a mindset by the time we get to the movie we initially got where her thought process regarding why she was hellbent on not seeing Melina, Alexei and even Yelena as actual family makes more sense./
Especially if it's built on the trauma she endured in the Red Room and reinforced by seeing ANOTHER relationship she initially thought was a real one -- her bond established with Snapdragon over this hypothetical Black Widow 2 -- revealing that it's just as fake as everything else she’s witnessed and experienced in her life.
It’s a bittersweet installment that helps us care more about Natasha than what the MCU actually provided.
And -- combined with the events of Black Widow 2021 showing that there are, in fact, people who care about you with the reveal of Dreykov and Antonia surviving the events of the Budapest incident, relocating the Red Room to the sky and had full control to proceed with mind control protocols for the Widows...
/Her death in Avengers: Endgame would feel more significant./
Because we got a chance to see a full-fledged arc in her overcoming all of this adversity in a way that we never got a chance to see in the trilogies for the big three.
It’s a shame that we don’t live in the divergent timeline where Natasha was actually given the trilogy in the MCU that she has shown that she deserves.
And, y’know, where she’s NOT portrayed by an actress who constantly defends Woody Allen and Joss Whedon
But, I digress, Readers. Your homework assignment for the day:
Write in the comment section below what YOU thought about Black Widow if you’ve seen it.
Or, if you feel like sharing with the rest of the class, a movie you’ve seen -- superhero or otherwise -- that felt like its story would’ve been more impactful if it was given a trilogy to properly expand on all the points it was trying to make.
Whichever question you decide to answer, I’d LOVE to know your thoughts.
