History YMMV / BlackWidow2021

** Some reviewers have pointed out that the rest of the Black Widows don't get enough attention, especially considering the movie's own themes and the consequences of their training. This also extends to Taskmaster themselves, who despite being presented and advertised as the BigBad and ostensibly being TheHeavy of the movie, only gets two scenes before the final act and remains a silent henchman until the end. [[spoiler:Even with the sympathetic backstory, so little is actually put into developing the character beyond being a silent, brainwashed soldier, so unlike similar characters we've seen before like Ghost, Winter Soldier, Nebula, and the like, Taskmaster feels like a trite redo.]]

* CanonFodder: Alexei's brag about having fought Captain America during the Cold War is dismissed by another inmate on the grounds that Steve Rogers was in the ice; however, previous MCU material raises a couple of possibilities such that Alexei may have been telling the truth about fighting a SuperSoldier who used Cap's mantle. One possibility is that he fought the Steve who took TheSlowPath after the events of ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', while ''Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier''[='s=] revelation about postwar American efforts to recreate the serum raises the possibility that it was Isaiah Bradley (Alexei doesn't describe the Cap he fought). Or it could be another character entirely who hasn't been formally introduced to the MCU yet (perhaps even the MCU version of ''William Burnside'').

** Outside of an extremely brief scene, Dreykov is completely absent from the film excluding the opening and the climax. This low screentime predictably causes him to come across as an underdeveloped and one-note BigBad. With a little more screentime, the movie could have properly explained his questionable reasoning for running the Red Room and why he screwed over Alexei in the past.

** Taskmaster's depiction, which bears no resemblance to the comic character, has been the subject of controversy among fans since the first concept art came out, and particularly exploded once people finally watched the film and learned the full details of just how different the character is. At the same time, the level of change (and even the details of the change) are no different than what Ghost [[note]](who, like Taskmaster, is TheFaceless, CreepyAwesome, and even has a similar skull/ghost theme and tendency to work in the same circles)[[/note]] went through in ''Film/AntManAndTheWasp''. However, several factors made the changes made to the source material [[PragmaticAdaptation more understandable or easy to digest]] than in this movie. While the changes to Ghost weren't without criticism, Ava Starr is generally regarded as a solid enough villain with a compelling motivation, and this was helped by the comic book version having very little in the way of personality or an actual secret identity/backstory. This isn't the case with Taskmaster, who was/is significantly more popular, and possessed a large amount of characterization, personality and backstory in the source material. The movie version is seen as taking away any potential the character had, [[spoiler: and by virtue of being another brainwashed assassin under Dreykov's command for a grand majority of the movie, the MCU incarnation of Taskmaster has virtually no agency or notable personality to speak of that can make them stand on their own two feet as a character in their own right]]. Ghost having a far better costume just adds salt onto the wound.

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: Taskmaster being reimagined as [[spoiler:a mostly-mute brainwashed cyborg assassin has been met with a mixed reception, due to said characterization making them too similar to [[Comicbook/BuckyBarnes the Winter Soldier]]. It also attracted criticism because the concept of someone being forced to become a human weapon against their will has been a recurring plot point in the MCU, bringing to mind not only Bucky Barnes, but also the likes of [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014 Nebula and Gamora]], Ghost, the Maximoff siblings, Kara Palamas and the other Black Widows.]]

** Are Alexei and Melina [[KarmaHoudini Karma Houdinis]] for being forgiven by Natasha and Yelena and surviving to the end of the movie with no serious consequences, or are they equally victims of programming and propaganda that deserve a chance to redeem themselves like Natasha had? They did send the girls they considered to be their daughters into a hellish training program to become brainwashed assassins and don't seem that regretful about doing so; but they also help the girls take down the Red Room for good and it's implied they're going to earn their redemption by helping Yelena and the other Widows free all the other brainwashed girls. It's also worth noting that the original script ended on a much more ambiguous note for their characters with Yelena still hating them, until Creator/DavidHarbour's idea to use "American Pie" to let Alexei prove he really did love her.

** It is easy to view that Yelena is the movie's main character as opposed to Natasha. Natasha is brought into the plot through Yelena reaching out to her after being freed from the Red Room's brainwashing, the movie focuses more on Yelena's relationship with her parental figures Melina and Alexei than it does on Natasha's, and [[spoiler:it's Yelena who deals the killing blow to General Dreykov in the climax]]. And due to the recurring theme in Phase 4 movies about "passing the torch", the movie feels more like Natasha metaphorically passing her role on to Yelena, whose story would carry on in future installments such as the ''Series/{{Hawkeye|2021}}'' TV series and the upcoming ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}'' movie.
** Alexei constantly talks about his rivalry with Captain America, despite the fact that it should have been physically impossible for such a thing to happen (He mentions a mid-'80s encounter when Cap didn't come out of the ice until 2011). Is he lying about it all? Could it be that Alexei is legitimately delusional and honestly believes that he fought Captain America when it didn't actually happen?[[note]](Super Soldier Serum does have a history in the comics of causing instability)[[/note]] Is it possible that he did actually meet and fight ''a'' Captain America? [[note]](''Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier'' does show that the US government did continue with Super Soldier experiments and given how heated things were between the US and Russia at the time Alexei brought up it wouldn't be too much of a stretch that a new Captain America had been created. That also would keep things in line with the comics where the government would install new Captain Americas after the original one went missing.)[[/note]] A few people believe it's Post-Endgame Steve Rogers taking TheSlowPath, despite the fact that Steve's life with Peggy in the past happened in an alternate timeline, because the ''Endgame'' "Time Heist" created branching timelines and did not change the main one, something explained quite explicitly by the Hulk in ''Endgame'' yet contradicted by WordOfGod by ''Endgame'''s writers who like the idea of Steve having created a StableTimeLoop, which was followed by some fans.
** [[spoiler:Does Val really want Yelena to kill Clint/Hawkeye? Or is she expecting Yelena to fail and just wants to see how she holds up in combat against a seasoned Avenger as a sort of "audition" for whatever team she's recruiting her and [[Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier Walker]] for? OR is this a case of ExactWords (Val merely said "target" and "maybe you'd like a shot," but never specifies the mission ''objective'' and never said anything about actually ''attacking'' him), and Val is really sending Yelena to hopefully recruit the retired and presumably recalcitrant Avenger to her new team, using the "responsible for your sister's death" line to needle her, [[ManipulativeBastard a tactic that Valentina]] [[FauxAffablyEvil has been known to employ in the past]]?]] As of ''Series/Hawkeye2021'', it is made clear that, [[spoiler:whether hired explicitly to eliminate him or just to remove him as an obstacle, Yelena VERY DEFINITELY wants Clint dead... but Valentina isn't the only person involved with the contract kill (Yelena discovers she was hired by Kate Bishop's mother Eleanor, who is in cahoots with Kingpin, so Val might've only been a "middle-woman" who knew the best person for this job).]]

** Are Alexei and Melina [[KarmaHoudini Karma Houdinis]] for being forgiven by Natasha and Yelena and surviving to the end of the movie with no serious consequences, or are they also victims of programming and propaganda that deserve a chance to redeem themselves like Natasha had? They did send the girls they considered to be their daughters into a hellish training program to become brainwashed assassins and don't seem that regretful about doing so; but they also help the girls take down the Red Room for good and it's implied they're going to earn their redemption by helping Yelena and the other Widows free all the other brainwashed girls. It should also be noted that the original script ended on a much more ambiguous note for their characters with Yelena still hating them, until David Harbour's idea to use "American Pie" to let Alexei prove he really did love her.

* CanonFodder: Alexei's brag about having fought Captain America during the Cold War is dismissed by another inmate on the grounds that Steve Rogers was in the ice; however, previous MCU material raises a couple of possibilities such that Alexei may have been telling the truth about fighting a SuperSoldier who used Cap's mantle. One possibility is that he fought the Rogers who took TheSlowPath after the events of ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', while ''Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier''[='s=] revelation about postwar American efforts to recreate the serum raises the possibility that it was Isaiah Bradley (Alexei doesn't describe the Cap he fought). Or it could be another character entirely who hasn't been formally introduced to the MCU yet (perhaps even the MCU version of ''William Burnside'').

* ContinuityLockOut: Fans who have only been following the MCU's film releases will have no idea who [[spoiler: Contessa Valentina]] is, as she appeared in ''Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier'' on Disney+ before Black Widow was released. Granted, she was supposed to appear here first before the film got delayed.

** In TheStinger, Yelena [[spoiler:visiting the grave of Natasha]] does the old whistling call-and-response for old time's sake. The response she gets is [[spoiler:Contessa Valentina]] ''blowing her nose.''[[note]]Also, had the COVID pandemic not changing the movie's release, that was going to be Valentina's actual introduction.[[/note]]

* HarsherInHindsight: The Widows being freed [[spoiler:turns out to barely make any difference in ''Series/{{Hawkeye|2021}}'', where it's revealed some of them ended up becoming assassins-for-hire because there's no other option available for them due to their complete lack of experience in the real world. This includes Yelena who, as the credits to episode 5 reveal, was hired by Eleanor to kill Clint.]]
* HilariousInHindsight: Early on in the film, Alexei Shostakov spends much of his time imprisoned in a Russian gulag, with both Natasha and Yelena having to bust him out. Fast-forward to the fourth season of ''Series/StrangerThings'', and Creator/DavidHarbour's character Jim Hopper also spends much of his time imprisoned in a Soviet Union death camp while two of his allies try to save him.

** In addition, another criticism of ''AOU'' that ''Endgame'' was lambasted for reinforcing was the emphasis on Natasha's lack of [[ThickerThanWater blood family or the capacity to birth biological offspring]], which both movies implied made her [[AcceptableFeminineGoalsAndTraits incapable of forming close bonds with others or living a fulfilling life]], and that she was more expendable than Clint as a result. ''Black Widow'' addresses this by revealing Natasha had an adoptive FamilyOfChoice all along, who are shown to care deeply for one another and be just as capable of the same kinds of tight-knit bonds that a biologically-related one is. Indeed, Yelena loves Natasha enough despite their lack of blood ties that [[spoiler:she'd willingly assassinate Clint out of misguided revenge]].

** The first act sets this film up to be a much darker, more brutal, and realistic story than the typical Marvel fare. Then midway through, while not completely dropping that angle, it changes gears to a more light hearted tone mixed with a more high-gear science fiction plot. Several viewers believe the movie would've benefitted from sticking to the tone present at the beginning, which would help to set it apart from the other movies in this series while also selling the tragedy of what happened to the victims of the Red Room.

** It is easy to view that the movie as more of Yelena's story than it is about Natasha. The movie focuses more on Yelena's relationship with her parental figures Melina and Alexei than it does on Natasha's. And due to the recurring theme in Phase 4 movies about "passing the torch", the movie feels more like Natasha metaphorically passing her role on to Yelena, whose story would carry on in future installments such as the ''Series/{{Hawkeye|2021}}'' TV series and the upcoming ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}'' movie.

* WTHCastingAgency:
** While they both do a good job, Creator/DavidHarbour and Creator/RachelWeisz as Creator/ScarlettJohansson's adoptive parents is a little questionable given both actors aren't that much older than her which is reflected in their appearances. Harbour's beard and disheveled look helps make him seem a bit older, but Weisz -- actually the senior of the two -- looks remarkably young for her age, which just makes this casting more noticeable.
** [[spoiler: Creator/OlgaKurylenko]] as Taskmaster is a rather strange choice. First off, the actor only portrays the role for an extremely short amount of time, with a stunt double being used for nearly all of Taskmaster's screentime. And when the credited actor ''does'' portray the part, [[spoiler: she does almost nothing at all, standing still for one scene, and partaking in a very small fight followed by one line for the next.]] With this in mind, it's a wonder that an actor of any note was cast in the part when a stuntman could've done the role in its entirety. There's also the fact that, with Taskmaster's backstory in the film, this is a ''massive'' case of DawsonCasting, even if not entirely apparent due to the prosthetic makeup on Taskmaster's actor once unmasked.
*** This casting decision makes a bit more sense in light of subsequent news that Taskmaster would be one of the stars in the ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}'' movie.
** While Creator/RayWinstone is a well-decorated actor, the general consensus seems to be that [[FakeRussian his attempt at a Russian accent]] leaves... something to be desired, leaving many to wonder why they couldn't just get a Russian or at least any Eastern European actor to fill the role instead.

* CommonKnowledge: Olivier Richters, who played a Gulag inmate called Ursa in the movie, stated that he in fact played Ursa Major, [[https://www.ign.com/articles/black-widow-mcu-mutants-ursa-major who is the first mutant in the MCU according to him]]. That is often repeated by many fans in regards of Professor X appearing in ''Film/DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness'' and Kamala Khan being a mutant in ''Series/MsMarvel'', ignoring that Ursa was never confirmed to be a mutant in the movie itself and never showed any of his comic book powers. As Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver in ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' shows, being a mutant in the comics doesn't mean you're one in the MCU.

** The revelation that Taskmaster is actually [[spoiler:a grown up Antonia Dreykov]] could've served as the perfect impetus for why [[spoiler:Antonia]] is so determined to kill Natasha. If it wasn't for Nat willingness to [[spoiler:sacrifice Antonia's life (who was a child at the time) to assassinate her father General Dreykov]], she would've never had been physically mutilated then reconstructed into the villain she is now. This could have led to some poignant storytelling moments where Nat is truly forced to confront the reprehensible actions she has committed as an assassin as she is brought face to face with somebody she wrote off as CollateralDamage. But since [[spoiler:Antonia]] is BrainwashedAndCrazy for a majority of the movie, this plot point effectively gets swept under the rug the second [[spoiler:Antonia is cured like all of the other Red Room candidates]] and is never brought up again.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: While most of the audience fell in love with Yelena thanks to her being BadassAdorable and having a great relationship with Natasha, with many fans and critics expressing the wish for Creator/FlorencePugh to play the role long-term, there are some who feel that [[SpotlightStealingSquad she steals the focus from Natasha]] and that with the movie probably being Creator/ScarlettJohansson's last time playing the character it should be ''her'' movie instead of setting up Yelena as a [[LegacyCharacter potential successor]].

* Uncertain Audience: Could be argued to be both one of the reasons this film underperformed at the box-office and the start of the franchise's problem with this. It sets itself up to be a gritty spy thriller, yet still feels the need to have quippy dialogue and a big special effects extravaganza for the climax in typical Marvel fashion, in addition to a villain who comes off as too cartoonishly misogynistic by the time he appears on-screen despite his chilling off-screen actions.

** While Creator/RayWinstone is a well-decorated actor, the general consensus seems to be that [[FakeRussian his attempt at a Russian accent]] leaves... something to be desired, leaving many to wonder why they couldn't just get a Russian actor to fill the role instead.

** [[spoiler:Yelena's destruction of Dreykov's aircraft.]] Doubling with SpecialEffectFailure, the way [[spoiler:Yelena]] is blown away from the explosion and the fact that she [[BeautyIsNeverTarnished doesn't even get a scratch]] has raised a few laughs.
** [[spoiler: Dreykov's death]]. The effects of the [[spoiler: fire absorbing him]] [[SpecialEffectFailure are already iffy]], but the very cartoonish way [[spoiler: his glasses survive the explosion and fly towards the camera]] makes it almost impossible to take seriously.

* CanonFodder: Alexei's brag about having fought Captain America during the Cold War is dismissed by another inmate on the grounds that Steve Rogers was in the ice; however, previous MCU material raises a couple of possibilities such that Alexei may have been telling the truth about fighting a SuperSoldier who used Cap's mantle. One possibility is that he fought the Rogers who took TheSlowPath after the events of ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', while ''Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier''[='s=] revelation about postwar American efforts to recreate the serum raises the possibility that it was Isaiah Bradley (Alexei doesn't describe the Cap he fought). Or it could be another character entirely who hasn't been formally introduced to the MCU yet.

* CompleteMonster: [[TheSpymaster General Dreykov]] is the man who runs the [[Characters/MCURedRoom Red Room]]. Having abducted or purchased numerous girls, including [[Characters/MCUNatashaRomanoff Natasha]]--whose mother Dreykov murdered for trying to find her daughter--and [[Characters/MCUYelenaBelova Yelena]], Dreykov subjects them to nightmarish training to become "Widows", assassins whom he can use; only one in twenty girls survives the horrific training. Dreykov later [[spoiler:turns his own injured daughter into a [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwashed assassin]] after she was scarred and intends to use his Widows to enact enough chaos and death across the world that he might control things from the shadows, viewing each of the Widows he's taken as nothing more than the recycling of a "useless resource" in the girls he corrupts and destroys.]]

* CompleteMonster: [[TheSpymaster General Dreykov]] is the man who runs the [[Characters/MCURedRoom Red Room]]. Having abducted or purchased numerous girls, including [[Characters/MCUNatashaRomanoff Natasha]]--whose mother Dreykov murdered for trying to find her daughter--and [[Characters/MCUYelenaBelova Yelena]], Dreykov subjects them to nightmarish training to become "Widows", assassins whom he can use; only one in twenty girls survives the horrific training. Dreykov later [[spoiler:turned his own injured daughter into a [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwashed assassin]] after she was scarred and intends to use his Widows to enact enough chaos and death across the world that he might control things from the shadows, viewing each of the Widows he's taken as nothing more than the recycling of a "useless resource" in the girls he corrupts and destroys.]]

* CompleteMonster: [[[TheSpymaster General Dreykov]] is the man who runs the [[Characters/MCURedRoom Red Room]]. Having abducted or purchased numerous girls, including [[Characters/MCUNatashaRomanoff Natasha]]--whose mother Dreykov murdered for trying to find her daughter--and [[Characters/MCUYelenaBelova Yelena]], Dreykov subjects them to nightmarish training to become "Widows", assassins whom he can use; only one in twenty girls survives the horrific training. Dreykov later [[spoiler:turned his own injured daughter into a [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwashed assassin]] after she was scarred and intends to use his Widows to enact enough chaos and death across the world that he might control things from the shadows, viewing each of the Widows he's taken as nothing more than the recycling of a "useless resource" in the girls he corrupts and destroys.]]

* CompleteMonster: [[InsaneAdmiral General Dreykov]] is [[TheSpymaster the man who runs the Red Room]]. Having abducted or purchased numerous girls, including Natasha and Yelena, Dreykov subjects them to [[TrainingFromHell nightmarish training]] to become "[[ChildSoldiers Widows]]", assassins whom he can use while having murdered Natasha's mother for trying to find her daughter. With horrific training that sees only one in twenty girls survive, Dreykov later [[spoiler:turned his injured daughter into a [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwashed assassin]] after she was scarred and intends to use his Widows to enact enough chaos and death across the world that he might control things from the shadows, viewing each of the Widows he's taken as nothing more than the recycling of a "useless resource" in the girls he corrupts and destroys]].

** Dreykov is similarly unpopular for being a one-note, underutilized BigBad who's hard to take seriously and hurts the attempt at a more grounded story with his over the top nature. Dreykov's resemblance to Creator/MartinScorsese makes it seem like the creative team took his comments about superhero movies personally and wanted to exacerbate the fanbase's already aggravated opinion of the filmmaker, which is ironic considering Dreykov's petty nature. [[HateSink Although all the hate was intentional,]] he still fails to be a truly menacing villain for that matter.

** The opening credits sequence is one of the film's most popular scenes due to its intense nature, the chilling parallels to real life human trafficking rings, and of course, Think Up Anger and Malia J's foreboding rendition of "Smells Like Teen Spirit".
** For a more light hearted example, Yelena mocking Natasha over her infamous fighting poses has been cited as a highlight.

* SpecialEffectFailure: The first two thirds of the movie avert this quite well, even during the prison raid section which uses a lot of CGI for the avalanche and helicopter. However, the climax of the film is a whole mess of CGI; Yelena [[spoiler: destroys one of the airship's turbines]], which has a particularly bad green screen effect, followed immediately by an obvious "wire jump", and the parachuting looks ''more fake'' than the preceding freefall Natasha does to get to Yelena because of how steady the camera is.

** Additionally, while the twist has been heavily compared to the [[spoiler: Mandarin reveal from ''Film/IronMan3'', that plot point still has some fierce defenders who praised it for slyly commenting on the xenophobic nature of the "foreign boogeyman" trope seen in the comics. By contrast, the Taskmaster twist largely lacks that subversive edge, instead really only serving to give the character a more personal connection to Natasha. Also not helping matters is that many fans who were disappointed by the Mandarin twist at least enjoyed Creator/BenKingsley's charismatic performance, while, by contrast, Antonia is a mute cipher who doesn't have anything remotely approaching a personality, meaning Creator/OlgaKurylenko didn't really have the opportunity to win over doubters. And the Mandarin at least had a justifiable presence -- one would expect Iron Man's archenemy from the comics in one of his movies -- and reason to be altered -- YellowPeril characters carry UnfortunateImplications -- compared to Taskmaster, who [[RoguesGalleryTransplant isn't even a personal foe of Black Widow]].]]

* BaseBreakingCharacter:
** While Taskmaster is considered TheScrappy for [[AdaptationDeviation the deviations made to the character]], their real identity, [[spoiler:Antonia Dreykov, is more divisive. Some fans sympathize with her for being brainwashed by her father for most of her life after suffering a horrible fate as a child, while others decry her for having little to no personality which makes it hard for audiences to sympathize with.]]
** While most of the audience fell in love with Yelena thanks to her being BadassAdorable and having a great relationship with Natasha, with many fans and critics expressing the wish for Creator/FlorencePugh to play the role long-term, there are some who feel that [[SpotlightStealingSquad she steals the focus from Natasha]] and that with the movie probably being Creator/ScarlettJohansson's last time playing the character it should be ''her'' movie instead of setting up Yelena as a [[LegacyCharacter potential successor]].

** Dreykov is similarly unpopular for being a one-note, underutilized BigBad who's hard to take seriously and hurts the attempt at a more grounded story with his over the top nature. Dreykov's resemblance to Creator/MartinScorsese makes it seem like the creative team took his comments about superhero movies personally and wanted to exacerbate the fanbase's already aggravated opinion of the filmmaker, which is ironic considering Dreykov's petty nature. [[HateSink Although all the Hate was intentional,]] he still fails to be a truly menacing villain for that matter.

** [[spoiler:TheStinger where Yelena visits Natasha's grave, which is surrounded by tributes honoring her sacrifice, and Valentina sends her off to hunt down Clint for his role in Nat's death]] also helps address another common criticism of ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', in which Natasha's death was treated as an afterthought in favor of Tony's sacrifice. The scene shows that [[spoiler:the public mourns Natasha as well, with the above making it clear that her death will have real consequences in ''Hawkeye''.]]