For the past decade, Marvel has owned the movie box office, producing blockbuster after blockbuster. But since their Infinity Saga ended with Avengers: Endgame, many of their productions have been controversial to fans. Phase Four has been met with complaints by many fans about bad CGI or terrible main characters. One film that suffered greatly under the critical eyes of fans was Black Widow, which starred Scarlett Johansson as her iconic spy character, Natasha Romanoff. While this film was financially successful, many fans attacked the film, degrading the characters, plot and villains. This poses the question, do fans dislike Black Widow because they don’t understand it? Black Widow is extremely different from other Marvel films. It lacks a fantastical villain or epic superheroes, instead focusing on family, strong female characters and violence against women. Black Widow depicts the atrocities of human trafficking and demonstrates how real-life villains can be shown in superhero films.
To begin, throughout the movie, the creators showed the horrors of human trafficking and the abuse of women worldwide. One of the most disturbing points of the film is the opening credit scene. This dark montage starts with young Natasha being separated from Yelena, her sister, and subsequent clips of girls trapped in shipping containers. It transitions into scenes of these girls being experimented on, manipulated and touched by older men. In this opening montage, the film creators introduced the theme of human trafficking and compared it to the Red Room, where the Black Widows were trained.
The creators also weave aspects of trafficking into the main plot of the film. One example is the inclusion of chemical brainwashing and pheromone control. This emulates the drug-induced control abusers exert over trafficking victims. Much like the trafficking victims the widows represent, they are stripped of independence and the ability to make choices for themselves. They are like puppets, and their strings are in the hands of their abusers. Another example is the use of sterilization on the widows, which is common way that traffickers abuse victims. In the fictional Red Room, Dreykov, the head of this diabolical network, removes his victim’s identities by stripping them of their biological qualities. For both the widows and real-life trafficking victims, being unable to escape the control of their abusers is crucial to keeping the system going.
Lastly, traffickers destroy victims’ self-worth and brainwash them to keep them docile. One of the most damaging forms of control Dreykov exerts over the women in the Red Room is the false narrative that he has convinced them to believe. At one point, he states, “These girls were trash. They are thrown out into the street. I recycle the trash. And I give them purpose. I give them a life.” Dreykov has brainwashed these women into believing that he is the only good thing in their lives and that without him, they are nothing. The writers of Black Widow included these scenes to shed light on the psychological control traffickers exercise over their victims.
The disturbing mindset of a trafficker is revealed in one of Dreykov’s most powerful lines — “With you, an Avenger under my control, I can finally come out of the shadows using the only natural resource that the world has too much of — girls.” To him and real-life traffickers, girls are things to be used, sold and thrown away. This line is genuinely heartbreaking, showing the horrors of this disturbing real-life issue.
This use of a realistic villain instead of a big purple bad guy may be what turned fans off about the movie. First, many viewers seek out superhero films to see mystical characters fight fake villains and win. In this story, Natasha defeats Dreykov, but the real ongoing problem of violence against women is a challenge too great for any hero. These issues are extremely dark and may have caused the film to be less satisfying. It also made the film very emotional. These feelings may have caused the disconnect between viewers and the story. Additionally, since issues like trafficking and gender-based violence disproportionately affect women, some viewers may not have understood the terror this villain caused the widows in the film. which may be why they found the villain forgettable and boring.
While this may explain the dislike for the film, it does not condone it. Natasha’s story represents many of the horrific struggles of being a victim of human trafficking and highlights a real-world issue under the cover of a superhero film. The creators worked very hard to portray trafficking in an accurate way, even if the story is fictional. While the topics may be challenging to digest, the film offers an essential study on the treatment of women in the real world. By claiming that the villain in this film is invalid and boring, viewers are disregarding real victims of trafficking and women who suffer from violence. This film attempts to take an unpalatable topic and try to make it understandable, but fans were too focused on the lack of flashy lights and space battles.
Overall, this film doesn’t deserve the hate it gets. Fans should look at it as an analytical piece about women and the world they live in. It takes a second away from big fancy fight scenes to look at a more realistic problem many women face. And, to me, that makes Natasha the greatest hero all.
Nicolette Cavallaro is a senior majoring in psychology.