Black Widow

When I was younger, my dad used to play American Pie by Don McLean, reminiscing about the days he lived in America while listening to it and now passing it down to me. Alexei passed the same song to Yelena and Natasha; it's like a love language that's being inherited. Even when dads don't verbalize their love, they express it through their actions, like when Alexei sang American Pie to comfort Yelena. My favorite scene is when they all finally reunite and you see the family dynamic they have Natasha being the older girl, having strong resentment towards her parents, versus Yelena yearning for this reunion. "Pain only makes us stronger. Didn't you tell us that? What you told me kept me alive."Natasha's strong character is asked by her mother how she kept her heart alive after all the pain the Red Room inflicted on her and her sister. Everything they did to make them trained assassins was devoid of any emotions or weaknesses. Natasha stayed strong all those years because of what her mom said: that pain only makes you stronger. I'm not sure why people dislike Black Widow; maybe it's the CGI, or, in my opinion, because they just dislike Natasha and weren't really quite interested in learning about her and Yelena's story and what they went through. Near the end, when Dreykov is explaining his "grand plan," he says this quote that stuck with me: " 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." Although I do realize the whole plot is fictional, this quote does really have some reflection of the world, how some people see girls as a resource to use for their own advantage, whether it be on an individual level or on a social level. It all applies. This movie sheds light on sisterhood, girlhood, complicated family dynamics, and of course, a lot of cool fighting scenes. This movie would fall onto my top movies in the MCU universe. It might not be everyone's cup of tea but it's perfect for me.