![]() The film was directed by Cate Shortland from a screenplay by Eric Pearson and stars Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow alongside Florence Pugh, David Harbour, O-T Fagbenle, Olga Kurylenko, William Hurt, Ray Winstone, and Rachel Weisz. ![]() Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the 24th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). In the meantime, I’m going to hulk out with delight.Black Widow is a 2021 American superhero film based on Marvel Comics featuring the character of the same name. To the latter, I can only say – most superheroes get more than one incarnation and let’s hope this is the first take of many. I’m sure there are people who will take issue with various deviations from the comic books, or wish that it was doing something more profound with the differences a female hulk would discover in navigating the world. Watching it is like going on holiday for half an hour. The overarching series plot in which Jennifer must represent Abomination (AKA Emil Blonsky, AKA Tim Roth, having almost as good a time as we are) as he applies for parole after – among other things – trying to kill her cousin Bruce never flags, at least in the first four episodes that were available for review. It is superbly paced and has a satisfying case-of-the-week story every time. The whole thing is enormously funny and has such confidence, style and brio that it is impossible not to love it. Direct-to-camera again, Jennifer notes that his every appearance “is like giving the show Twitter-armour for a week”. And it has plenty of cameos from beloved MCU characters – foremost among them Dr Strange’s sorcerer Wong (Benedict Wong). There are stock figures aplenty, including the mother more concerned with her daughter’s waistline and single status than her superpowers, a ratfink colleague at work everyone can love to hate, but they all get their job done with wit and charm. It isn’t trying to be, it doesn’t want to be. It is not a hugely subtle show (though the “anger and fear” line is the high-water mark for crassness). It is a neat commentary on the aesthetic hoops women have to jump through at work, and the suspicions of her co-workers that she is under-qualified and only got the job because of her other attributes map nicely on to the real world, too. Only after she has accepted the job do they make it clear that she will need to appear as She-Hulk (a derivative name that she objects to, but which the public and the media are set on) at all times in the office and in court. She is later taken up by the firm who was opposing her in court, who are setting up a superhuman law division and want her to lead it. And adult orphans, for some reason.”Īfter she does indeed “hulk out” – in order to protect the jury from superpowered influencer Titania (Jameela Jamil) who busts through the wall as she flees court traffic – her firm decides she is a liability and fires her. As she puts it in the second episode – “I’m not going to be a vigilante. When she feels she has got a handle on them, she heads back home to take up her job again. So, creator Jessica Gao (one of a female-heavy team of directors, producers and writers) gives us a jolly, boulder-tossing, sonic-boom-clapping training montage as Jennifer tests out her new powers. Unlike Banner, she has no second personality to integrate. “Anger and fear – those are just the baseline emotions for any woman just existing,” she notes before going on to point out that she has had a lifetime of suppressing her emotions and making herself palatable to those around her. He immediately spirits her new 6ft 7in form away to his Stark-funded lab to help her begin the laborious journey of learning what it is to be one of the avocado-hued how to control her anger, fear and her transformations and how to integrate the two personalities that now live inside her.Įxcept Jennifer is already ahead of the game. She and her cousin Bruce Banner (AKA Hulk, AKA Mark Ruffalo) are involved in a car accident and she receives an inadvertent Hulk-blood donation. In flashback, we learn her origin story, which is brief and effective. In the first of many fourth-wall breaking moments (following the tradition of the comic book series in which she originated), Walters turns to the camera and acknowledges that Nikki’s suggestion is going to need explaining. Her assistant, Nikki (Ginger Gonzaga in what would be a scene-stealing performance if Maslany wasn’t so incredibly good), recommends that she “hulk out” if things get tricky. ![]() When we first meet her, she is about to go into court. Thirtysomething deputy district attorney Jennifer Walters (a perfectly cast Tatiana Maslany) is a busy, ambitious woman, happy in her job and eager to progress.
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