VOTD: How Black Widow Should Have Ended
"Black Widow" had the unfortunate task of being the first Marvel Studios movie to be released in theaters while the pandemic was still raging on. Though the film started off with a solid box office debut, the simultaneous release of the movie on Disney+ Premier Access certainly took away from what should have been a larger sum of money. Sure, more people might have seen the movie than if it was given an exclusive theatrical release, but these are still strange times for box office numbers. Instead, let's focus on the movie itself and find out how "Black Widow" should have ended.
How Black Widow Should Have Ended
To begin with, most of the alternate endings in this edition of "How It Should Have Ended" focus on the instances when Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) or Yelena Bolova (Florence Pugh) should have easily been killed. These two aren't superpowered individuals like Captain America, Thor or Captain Marvel. They're regular people with a set of deadly tactical and combat skills. So maybe Natasha should have broken a lot of bones when she fell off that smoke stack and hit several things on the way down. On top of that, there are several opportunities where General Dreykov's minions could have easily dispatched with Yelena, especially in that silly climactic moment where she basically blows herself up.
Unfortunately, those aren't the most egregious missteps in the story of "Black Widow." It turns out the plot may have been a little convoluted because Taskmaster wasn't smart enough to covertly get the antidote vials sent to Natasha by Yelena in the mail. Rather than attacking Natasha on the bridge and creating a lot of unnecessary mayhem, Taskmaster could have just snuck up on Natasha's trailer in the middle of nowhere and avoided the whole confrontation. What's the point of tracking the package if you're not going to use it as a tactical advantage?
These may seem like nitpicks, but sometimes plot holes like this can really break down the suspense of disbelief that's already required to buy into a superhero movie like this. At the same time, if general audiences don't pick up on a detail like that, then does it really matter? "Black Widow" probably isn't going to have much impact on the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe anyway, so maybe we'll just let this one slide.