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The Black Widow movie screening left me in a dark and disturbed place…
Black Widow Movie Review {The Daily Dash: June 29, 2021}
IN THE NEWS:
- Record heat continues in Pacific NW
- The NCAA voted to allow college players to profit from their name, image & likeness…for now
- World’s highest hotel opens in China
- Hug Holiday
IN THE WORD:
It is impossible to enter into a fellowship with God when you are in a critical mood ~ Oswald Chambers
IN MY LIFE:
Disney+ provided me with a screening link to preview the newest and highly-anticipated Marvel movie, Black Widow. I couldn’t wait to watch it, but in hindsight, I wish I hadn’t.
To sum my feelings quickly: It was very dark and disturbing. In fact, I almost turned it off after the introductory scene and opening credits.
Black Widow Origin Story
I know we’ve been given hints of Black Widow’s backstory in previous Marvel movies, but the opening minutes of this film went into graphic detail of the torture (and no, I don’t use that term lightly) a young Natasha and even younger Yelena went through after being drugged, taken away from their parents and selected to be, essentially, trained child assassins.
My guest had similar thoughts and he said, “All of it was just so weird…what’s disturbing was that it almost normalized human-trafficking.” As a survivor of sexual and emotional abuse, it was very hard for me to watch.
What made it harder to watch (for over two hours) was that we never saw any other Avengers and it lacked the humor that Marvel typically weaves so cleverly into even its highest action movies.
Even the studio’s description of the film highlights its dark nature, “In Marvel Studios’ action-packed spy thriller “Black Widow,” Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises.” However, I was not prepared for just how dark this film would be.
Black Widow Synopsis
The film’s studio synopsis goes on to describe the plot in this way: Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger.
Scarlett Johansson reprises her role as Natasha/Black Widow. Florence Pugh (Amy March from Little Women) stars as her younger sister, Yelena. David Harbour (Hopper from “Stranger Things”) portrays Alexei/The Red Guardian and Rachel Weisz is Melina.
In some ways, it bothered me the way Frozen did. I never understood why Elsa and her parents couldn’t tell Anna the truth about her ‘condition’, leaving Anna to assume she did something wrong. Without giving too much away, a similar theme emerges in Black Widow. While I truly believe they were trying to highlight themes of family and girl power, it hit a wrong note for me.
If you couldn’t guess already, I would not recommend Black Widow for small children or even young teens and tweens.
Disney Movie Reviews
I recognize I represent a unique population and perspective with my reviews. If you liked this review, here are more of my Disney movie reviews:
PRAYER FOCUS: Joy
After a dark movie like Black Widow, I’m praying joy over each of you today. Even in the darkest of situations, we can always find a ray of light to focus on.
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Hope you have a great day, make sure you make it great and don’t forget to tell someone you love how you feel about them!
