FiLM REViEW
by B.C. Kowalski
Join us! 8/14 UMPBA Boat Races 8/21 Lawn Mower Races
all day followed by
12-3pm Followed by
from 7-11pm
“The Quitters”
“The Allen Brothers Band” 7-11pm
CAr show
Black Widow is fun, even if it doesn’t bring much new to the table
regIsTrATIon
starts at 10am | show from 12-3pm with
“The Incorruptibles” playing at the car show 12-3pm Pin-Up contest at 3pm, followed by the band “The Dukes” 8/28 3rd Annual Rockabilly Car Show & Rockabilly River Queen Pin-Up Contest
Questions? Call Bullheads at 715.344.5990
Theaters and Disney+ | 134 min. | PG-13
3368 Campsite Dr., Stevens Point • bullheadsbargrill.com
Rock the Tiki Bar on Lake Dubay
8/12/21 Unity, 6-10pm 8/19/21 Big Mouth and the Power Tool Horns 6-10pm 8/21/21 Johnny Wad, 5-9pm 8/22/21 Pat Dunn, 1-5pm 8/26/21 Cherry Pie, 6-10pm 8/28/21 Slab, 5-9pm 9/2/21 Roadtrip, 6-10pm
1126 County Rd DB, Mosinee tikibeachllc.com (715) 341-2232 12
CiTY PAGES
August 12-19, 2021
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9/4/21 Boogie and the YoYoz 6-10pm
I still remember walking out of the theater after watching the very first Bryan Singer-directed X-Men movie. FINALLY! I thought. A good comic book movie! We’re a far cry from those days prior to the 2000 release of X-Men, when comic book movies were considered some of the very worst cinema had to offer (Though Tim Burton’s Batman is a serious exception). Marvel has become a film juggernaut with release following release; oh and I guess they make comic books too. They’ve got the superhero genre down to a very specific formula. Black Widow is the latest in that canon of Marvel superhero movies to employ that formula, and to good effect: The film is a fun view, if not really bringing much new to the table. What’s that formula? Get a bunch of contemporarily famous actors together, cast them into a superhero teamup combining attractive good-guy/gal superheroes with some comic relief and/or anti-hero superheroes, face them off against some super scary villain/villiain group, add a rough origin story, and have it all culminate in a CGI-fueled, ridiculously odds-defying finale fight against said supervillain/group, and give just a little teaser to the next movie to start the promo cycle all over again. And hey, I don’t hate it. They’re fun! And while I never get too excited for the latest Marvel cash cow, I can’t say I don’t enjoy them when I do watch them. Black Widow is no exception to this. Scarlett Johansson plays Natasha Romanoff, a former Avenger now (this is the first in phase four of the Marvel cinemaverse) and a former member of The Red Room, the creation of a villainous Charlie’s Angels wannabe. Romanoff is trying to quit and go off the grid, but of course gets roped back into the action by her sister, Yelena (Florence Pugh). They discover someone created an antidote to the Red Room’s mind control that keeps its all-female agents under the control of Red Room founder Reykov (Ray Winstone). So the two team up with their pretend father (David Harbour of Stranger Things sheriff fame) and mother (Rachel Weisz) to take down Reykov. One thing you might notice about the film: Most of the cast is female. Lots of female superheroines fighting female supervillains. This is not a bad calculation on Marvel’s part since I don’t see a lot of people complaining about this fact. #GirlPower All that aside, the film is fun: There are plenty of humorous moments, followed by nearly non-stop action for the 134 minutes this film runs. It’s nothing if not entertaining. But this also begs the question: How does one even evaluate a film like this? As Marvel movie after Marvel movie releases, is entertainment the only factor we consider? Could one argue that’s all the marvel movies are doing? Are they just one more episode in a series, like comic books, to the point where we don’t really evaluate each book on its own merit in favor of liking series themselves? For the geek-challenged, comic books are often characterized by creator “runs,” such as Todd McFarlane’s run on Spiderman, etc. Maybe that’s the best way to take Black Widow. It’s one more fun chapter in the Marvel universe.
