BLACK WIDOW AND THE TASKMASTER PROBLEM | Double Toasted

[@cafeterialoca]

Comics Taskmaster is one of my favorite characters cause he's a goofy badass. He brags, he boasts, he also becomes cowardly when things don't go his way. This film just made him a prop that won't even be useful post film cause Nat's dead.

[@ThePonderer]

They can just do a different Taskmaster later.

[@cafeterialoca]

@@ThePonderer 8 years later, cause that's how long it took for us to get the real mandarin.

[@richmondboahene6536]

Taskmistress

[@kingofhearts1072]

I hated it too, but I’m starting to think that Nat’s military-contractor boyfriend is the REAL Tony Masters.

[@cafeterialoca]

@@kingofhearts1072 He was originally cast for the role of Taskmaster

[@JamesASharp]

Let's be real: there's no set tone for this movie. This movie is all over the place. And worse all, the film failed to give Black Widow a good send-off. They were cracking jokes at her grave site.

[@BaithNa]

Taskmaster wasn't ruined because he is now a woman. Taskmaster was ruined because they took away all of the characters personality and barely used their powerset. Might as well have made a new character but instead they pulled a Deadpool from X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

[@babytoshiro7014]

This is the taskmaster program, as they stated their are many of them

[@BaithNa]

@@babytoshiro7014 that's true. We could see another Taskmaster in the future.

[@greenman394]

@@babytoshiro7014 True but the fact it’s a program ran through a computer chip and not a genuine skill also put a lot of people off.

[@ashesfrombones]

@@babytoshiro7014 so Taskmaster is another Black widow like program, like another winter soldier like program, like another super soldier like program?... how many program program of soldiers and assassins they want?

[@babytoshiro7014]

@@ashesfrombones They are different organizations from different sectors and interest. You know like the regular government, that has the CIA, FBI, the Navy, Army, Marines, the many branches of govt? Do they all share the same interests? Haha really you asked this question? Don't you know the real world?

[@johnlopez9014]

I found hilarious that as soon as taskmaster takes her helmet the body went from 6’2 to 5’4

[@richmondboahene6536]

Me: oh shit its a Taskmistress

[@johnlopez9014]

@@richmondboahene6536 that would have been a good idea n use taskmaster in a different movie

[@cshaw918]

Terrible villian. Could have skipped this rental.

[@robinthrush9672]

And the breastplate and pauldrons no longer fit.

[@jessejames1928]

Dammmm!

[@michaelstrong5383]

I just think the Taskmaster was underwhelming in this movie, regardless of the gender. The concept of a villain copying the Avengers' moves sounds really cool, but she was very underutilized.

[@damianstarks3338]

Yes you said it all perfectly here.

[@Ghost8386]

Agree to Disagree Michael Strong.

[@solisprime2669]

The only question I have is how do they copy the black panther since his powers from that fruit thing.

[@yourboyg3o818]

@@solisprime2669 he/she copied his fighting style but in the comics taskmaster does know how to counter the attacks of the superhero’s who use their powers

[@darrenkey207]

@@solisprime2669 copied his fighting technique, not Black Panther's powers. Although, the Taskmaster suit did grant a degree of superhuman strength

[@mikwesley]

Saw this on Twitter about Taskmaster and this person was speaking facts "Taskmaster gets more depth and character development in the side missions of Spider-Man PS4 than in the entire runtime of Black Widow....."

[@jrob4795]

Being a comic purest, I'm usually disappointed when I don't get these characters as a 1 for 1 with the comics, but I make my peace with it, and enjoy myself anyway, but Taskmaster/Tony Masters was one of those characters that absolutely needed to match the source material.

[@yaboylion9244]

They have always said the characters and movies aren’t like the comics

[@khalduras784]

@@yaboylion9244 And they suck regardless and we are allowed to have an opinion on which is better

[@RaikenXion]

I just think they left it too late to bring this movie out, and the time-frame where it's set too. They should have brought this movie out arnd the time of when Iron-Man 3 came out, and set it in Natasha's past, and had the actual "Taskmaster" in there.

[@mr.goblin6039]

@@yaboylion9244 Yeah, but if that’s the case, AT LEAST make them cool. I love the MCU, but they have this awful track record of most of their villains being either boring or stupid. This version of Taskmaster just… isn’t good. They could’ve had the actress act more like Taskmaster, at least, but they pulled an X-Men Origins with them.

[@madnessarcade7447]

It’s an alternate variation in the same way that Sylvie is different interpretations are never a bad thing

[@InfamousHp]

They ruined a very solid villain the same way they ruined Mandarin in Iron Man 3. Tethering Taskmaster’s mimic ability to tech is lazy af & ridiculously disrespectful.

[@cineMADvocate]

Yawn. They didn’t “ruin” the character. Know how I know? He’s the main villain in the Shang Chi movie. Making the tease in Iron Man exactly that…a tease.

[@yourboyg3o818]

Dude the mandarin came back as a more comic accurate version that they hinted in other movies do you honestly think there not going to do the same with taskmaster

[@jamesmason7979]

The character from Iron Man 3 was NOT the Mandarin. He was an imposter. This has been clarified numerous times.

[@rylade475]

I wouldn’t say Mandarin, more like Deadpool in X-Men Origins Wolverine

[@darrenkey207]

@@rylade475 even though I didn't like what they did with Deadpool powerwise (the blades, Cyclop's blast), most of the audience outrage came from not seeing the after credit scene that showed he was still alive. Overall I did like the movie, but it did a much better job than "Deadpool" showing the ruthless killer side of normal Wade Wade Wilson. The look on his face when told to start killing villagers 😈

[@dougdeveloper8850]

That dramatic Taskmaster reveal landed in a complete thud because when Olga Kurylenko was in the opening credits and she hadn't shown up more than halfway through the movie, it was obvious that it was her.

[@avonbarksdale91]

Never heard of her. I’m sure a lot of people don’t know her or task master.

[@dougdeveloper8850]

@@avonbarksdale91 possibly. She was a Bond girl and was in Oblivion with Tom Cruise so being the movie guy that I am she was at least a name and face I recognized.

[@moses9647]

Agreed completely. At a certain point it was just process g elimination. Olga is a recognizable enough face to be an actual character so it had to be her

[@RubyChiang]

Yeah, I was so excited seeing Olga’s name is the opening credits but she really only appeared on screen for like 5mins total.

[@danielsdimension2003]

They trolled us with Taskmaster. Him and Mandarin were huge let downs

[@yourboyg3o818]

Uhh dude the mandarin is going to be in Shang chi as a more comic accurate version think for a minute about what they can do for taskmaster

[@thefirstbourne149]

@@yourboyg3o818 Ok, you do know they’re talking about before right??

[@yourboyg3o818]

@@thefirstbourne149 I’m assuming your talking about mandarin in Ironman 3 and if you are then yes

[@jamesmason7979]

The Mandarin hasn't shown up yet. The character in Iron Man 2 was an imposter. This has been clarified numerous times.

[@jaceh4942]

Unpopular opinion: the Mandarin twist in Ironman 3 was actually briliant. That is probably the best Ironman movie, but it gets a bad reputation because comic fans just couldn't get over the fact that the Mandarin wasn't real.

[@thefirstbourne149]

This isn’t a Mandarin twist. Godammit I would have actually laughed and had fun with it if that was the case. Here, it’s just boring because she’s still meant to be kind of threatening.

[@BullseyeRey]

It's more like Deadpool in X-Men Origins Wolverine or Doom in the F4 reboot.

[@damagedcharizardcollector1195]

Haha Bohner

[@Aaron-ui9tj]

This sort of reminds me of how FOX handled Deadpool in X-Men.

[@emcee009]

I thought the same thing when I watched this movie. They very similarly silenced & lobotomized the characters in both examples.

[@Power-9Hunnid]

✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔💯💯💯💯💯💯

[@Devilsblood]

I'll make it simple: Black Widow is something that was 5 years too late. Maybe marvel should've given Scarjo her own film instead of letting her go off and do ghost in the shell.

[@alexanderthegreat5649]

I said that when it was announced but the 2 reasons were because she's dead so we know where it ends, but the biggest point was coming off of the IW/Endgame films we are galatic and doing teamup films where there's crossovers every time now. We're at that level now so this seemed out of place, I understand Fiege probably felt he owed it to ScarJo and they did but it took so long that it was my biggest problem. The movie was actually originally a phase 1 film and when we look at it from beyond a fan perspective and see it from Fiege and a business/exec perspective change ups happen every single phase and every year. There's been so many changes from the start both BP and Ant-Man were supposed to be introduced earlier as early as 1st Avengers, BP movie was then supposed to be in the spot of Spidey Homecoming but soon as they got the rights to Peter they immediately fast-tracked Homecoming and pushed Panther back. The Avengers was the focus starting so they were content with using her that way, as success kept going with Avengers and between Avengers 2 the focus became introducing more and branching out with more unusual elements Guardians/Space/Comedy, Strange/magic element, etc. Then introduce more fan favorites back while all along getting rights to others: Spidey, FF, X-Men so now we have to rewrite the gameplan to see how we're gonna do that while still managing the characters we've already planned to introduce: Eternals, Shang-Chi(Mandarin again was originally the post-credit scene for Avengers was supposed to been introduced already) things just kept getting bigger and bigger and by the time it came along it was my fear already that we're to big and galactic to finally get a more toned down semi-prequel film and they couldn't do the Ant-Man formula which are comedy palette cleansers coming off big Avengers films. 5yrs ago is still to late imo. Phase 1-2 were the best periods for this.

[@Jeannine_9]

If ScarJo wants to return develop a story during the blip years, in Endgame she was running command, that could be interesting

[@ninjanibba4259]

No, that still makes no sense, she’s DEAD now, why should the audience care about what happens to her before then? There’s no stakes knowing what we know and it’s part of why this movie doesn’t work

[@NinKenD064]

@@ninjanibba4259 Just because she's dead doesn't mean her actions during that time won't influence future plotlines. There's always a way to milk a character.

[@ninjanibba4259]

@@NinKenD064 what you just said is why franchises get ruined.....right there

[@eon001]

@@NinKenD064 I would like to see how she survived the Winter soldier. And if she crossed paths with mercenaries, maybe she bumped into Killmonger or Klaw.

[@francisparker3557]

@@ninjanibba4259 thats just your opinion man.

[@AgtDaleChomsky]

Taskmaster isn't in this movie. The Taskmaster Protocol is. It's a technology, not a character. Antonia wasn't a villain, she was another victim. Now that the technology has been introduced, I wouldn't be surprised if someone else picks it up and becomes Taskmaster in the future. If the problem is that it's a tech and not an innate ability, that's fair, I suppose.

[@redmangoose182]

I sure hope so.

[@awesomusprime8611]

That is an issue, it’s a technological program instead of Tony Master’s natural born ability. That and we were told that we would see Taskmaster in this film in all the promotional material, so they should’ve delivered by giving us the real Taskmaster and not this woke BS.

[@samuelclark1677]

Cool now explain why the stunt double is taller (and a man) than the actual taskmaster in this film

[@cenoflame21]

They definitely meant for this to be the real Taskmaster. Otherwise they wouldn't have named her Antonia. Taskmaster's name is Tony.

[@jarednavarrete1740]

I would rather see Marvel using this new character forward as the MCU's Taskmaster instead of abandoning her and bringing in Tony Masters

[@cenoflame21]

@@jarednavarrete1740 Probably too late for that anyway. Which sucks, because Taskmaster is entertaining and charismatic in the comics.

[@jarednavarrete1740]

@@cenoflame21 It's never too late, I doubt Marvel intended to use Taskmaster as a one-and-done villain

[@harima9597]

Drakov called her short nickname with "Tonia" as an homage too.

[@Gideon13397]

@@jarednavarrete1740 Tony Masters is far more enjoyable and interesting than whatever they're going for with this. Just my two cents.

[@colerogers3681]

Shame on me for expecting Insomniac's Spider Man Taskmaster.

[@stormking989]

*We got a watered down version of the Taskmaster, who in the comics is a badass mercenary.*

[@jamesmason7979]

Taskmaster debuted as an Avengers character that combined his combat experience and photographic memory to mimic his opponents. Tying the character to Black Widow and Red Room makes the character less relevant. They didn't do the character any favor by nerfing Taskmaster's abilities and personality. They really dropped the ball here.

[@yourboyg3o818]

The thing is they could bring back taskmaster in a future movie (thunderbolts) but more comic accurate like with the mandarin

[@bobbysworld281995]

Only it won't take a decade and Antonia served Black Widow, Anthony will serve the future.

[@1kbmahan]

They won’t do that at all lol

[@yourboyg3o818]

@@1kbmahan people said the same thing about the mandarin and this marvel there known for keeping things comic accurate even when they change the character a little

[@littlesparrow303]

Yes!!! That’s what I was thinking. I’m like we’re getting a multiverse where the real one will show up. Also that it would be a guy instead of a girl lol 😂

[@bobbysworld281995]

@@littlesparrow303 Or Anthony Masters works for Ross and the protocol (and maybe another Super Soldier attempt) make him Taskmaster.

[@MM-hf6om]

Here's the truth . If they wanted they could have used finesse . The fact they used taskmaster shows they were on some bullshit.

[@vanquese8947]

Yes

[@richmondboahene6536]

Taskmistress

[@HighHeelKnight]

How Taskmaster was handled tarnished the film for me. It took an A- movie down to a C- for me. Worse than IRON MAN 3 the Mandarin. At least both original Mandarin and Trevor had personalities and lines of dialogue. 🤦

[@ultimamage3]

What saves the Mandarin twist isn't just that, but it's in a Shane Black movie. He's all about social commentary and satire. Making the villain "appear to be" some vague middle eastern dude with preachy reverend talk attacking America with bombs, then it turns out he's just a druggie scapegoat for American fears and the whole thing is a psyop run by an American corporate planning to make an effigy out of the President over an oil tanker is the Shane Blackiest thing Shane Black has ever pulled. Meanwhile BW tries to play at "social commentary" with trafficking of women/selling into slavery but wasn't brave enough to put it out 10 years ago.

[@Antjhart]

I think Marvel is going to have another version of task master where someone else uses the suit.

[@bobbysworld281995]

That helmet is still there with a chip....Ross might want that.

[@littlesparrow303]

Yes!!! That’s what I was thinking. Now that this one is gone. We can get the real one later on. Especially entering the multiverse that he will come in

[@babytoshiro7014]

Exactly. It was stated in the movie this was the taskmaster program. He/she could be anyone

[@avonbarksdale91]

@@littlesparrow303 task master isn’t coming back from an alternate multiverse. TASK MASTER PROGRAM.

[@littlesparrow303]

@@avonbarksdale91 ohh yeah lol 😂 The program!! Honestly someone can take that title & we can forget about this prototype

[@tonyj9743]

Had no issue with Taskmaster being female. Honestly, as soon as I saw Olga Kurylenko's name in the credits, I figured that's who she was playing and that sounded great, but they gave her the Xmen origins Deadpool treatment. I can only assume that she's playing taskmaster because the role will be much more fleshed out in the future.

[@iceoutjohn]

"these people have a legit reason to be irritated" THANK YOU!

[@213chewy]

Korey: everyone gets their own movie Hawkeye: where’s my movie?

[@AndreNitroX]

Get back to your kids Hawkeye

[@29drmark]

Hawkeye will get a movie eventually, it just won't be the Clint Barton version.

[@jeremypayne2040]

Hawkeye is kind of boring

[@timedfoot1020]

@@29drmark they are giving him a show with Haley Steinfeld as his Daughter

[@wiinterflowers4277]

@@timedfoot1020 She's playing Kate Bishop.. who takes on the mantle. And thank god Clint might get killed off!

[@ThePonderer]

As someone who doesn’t care about comic Taskmaster at all, I thought the implementation here was honestly brilliant. The way it externalizes the decision Nat made which dictates the whole trajectory of the story made it a really appropriate choice. They can always just do another Taskmaster if they feel like it.

[@alexandergriffith1825]

It's funny because it is obviously a guy in the suit when they are unmasking him, and THEN the cut is made where it is an obvious woman. Just look at the broadness of the shoulders lmao

[@candygirl246]

Taskmaster screentime was wack. The stuntMAN was amazing.

[@89ludeawakening1]

They completely RUINED the character. This isn't Taskmaster in the slightest at all. They did some nonsense and said a chip in "her" head that allows for copying movements. That is not how Taskmaster works. He already had the ability to do that on his own with advanced vision and muscle memory, and then it was boosted with a serum. And they better not make Florence Pugh's character the new Black Widow right away. She's supposed to be the White Widow, and that was symbolized by her boarding the airship with all the other Widows and she was the only one wearing white.

[@e3vL1]

Look how they massacred my boy

[@ardenaudreyarji]

*my girl

[@SuperSpasticNinja]

@@ardenaudreyarji Boy, he was a boy before he got murdered and turned into the Black Widow version

[@Gideon13397]

@@SuperSpasticNinja I don't think he read the comics.

[@Gideon13397]

I know. Taskmaster is actually interesting and a real badass too. Gave Spider-Man a run for his money and trolled him too. This was a just waste of a character.

[@the25thprime]

This is nowhere near as bad as the mandarin reveal. That not only undermined the character, it used one of Marvel's most formidable villains as a punchline, and until the hail to the king short, implied that most of the events of the trilogy were because of Killian, an extremely underwhelming character. Switching taskmaster's gender has nothing to do with why the character was underwhelming. The fact that Taskmaster was relegated to basically an underling and had all of the fun parts of the character stripped away is why it sucks as a character.

[@suedecomponent8931]

I think the Mandarin reveal worked, and I'm far more a Mandarin fan than a Taskmaster fan. At least there were actually some real humor and good acting that went with the Manarin thing and the sense in the film that Mandarin could've actually been a big bad until the reveal. This was just a bland fight scene and no personality. I'd liken this more to Deadpool in Wolverine Origins

[@stringer2295]

@@suedecomponent8931 yea I was disappointed it wasn’t the real mandarin but they did something clever with it, here they it fell so flat

[@BlackstarSI]

It’s because Trevor Slattery actually had personality. Taskmaster is a zombie the whole film basically.

[@ultimamage3]

@@suedecomponent8931 For what the Mandarin reveal is, it was funny as shit. Shane Black loves social commentaries, so making the reveal a big "American corporates using scapegoats to start wars and attack middle eastern countries" and the bad guy hanging up the President over an oil tanker was pretty pointed.

[@Susanoo7108]

Haven't seen the film bit seeing that they put that actress in a role that people seem to find disappointing (from what I've heard, not my opinion of course) is a shame cause she's a good actor. The role I remember her best from is Tom Cruise's wife in Oblivion, followed by Quantum of Solace and Johnny English 3.

[@oaktree1626]

I agree about them wasting Olga. When they did show her, she was nearly unrecognizable.

[@avonbarksdale91]

@@oaktree1626 she’s clearly coming back.

[@camrendavis6650]

There's a third Johnny English movie?

[@Susanoo7108]

@@camrendavis6650 yup, it's called Johnny English Strikes Again. Came out in 2018

[@RubyChiang]

@@oaktree1626 yeah same! It took me a few seconds before I realized it was her.

[@JordanMgordan]

Yet another example of "This Marvel character has cool abilities in the comics but for for the movie version it's just gonna be someone in a robot suit that does all the work and they're actually not special"

[@Decembirth]

*Just responding to the title.* So I disagree, this was an entirely new character with the monicer and it worked very well with the plot! I don't think we'll see them again, which sucks because the introduction was so interesting to me.

[@babytoshiro7014]

Same

[@suedecomponent8931]

I don't think they have to do a whole recast, though it couldn't hurt. They can keep this actress as Taskmaster and keep her as a villain or ananti-hero, but this time with a personality. Maybe be a goon for hire that one of the lesser Avengers has to go against.

[@luchamiomaridekakio6429]

Taskmaster would destroy one of the 'lesser' avengers. He has beaten Cap and winter soldier at times among other big name avengers.

[@suedecomponent8931]

@@luchamiomaridekakio6429 Not this MCU Taskmaster. I'm going with what they've established rather than retconning to make it more comic book accurate

[@GSP413]

Movie should’ve just been strictly focused on Yelena instead, especially with her set to be the next Black Widow.

[@digitaljanus]

The big mistake was casting Olga Kurylenko--who can bring the goods when called for--and then giving her nothing to do. Any of the stuntwomen playing the random Widows could have done that. It's Scott Adkins in Doctor Strange all over again.

[@thefirstbourne149]

Except Scott Adkins hasn’t even proven himself that much in the blockbuster department. I don’t feel too bad unless the guy has that much range that we’ve seen outside of martial arts movies. Hell, independent martial arts movies.

[@thefirstbourne149]

He even seems pretty happy with how he’s doing his job so far. I’ll be interested to see whatever he does, but he was pretty much only trying to be a stuntman in Doctor Strange.

[@thechefsteffon9173]

Hate what they did to taskmaster, what is marvel thinking??! 🤦🏾‍♂️

[@MM-hf6om]

@Tinashe Mandizvidza like the comics...and how are the comic book sales doing now that they are trying to bring in another audience 😅?

[@awesomusprime8611]

@Tinashe Mandizvidza They can faithfully adapt the character and still achieve that same goal. So you can take that and putitinmyass.

[@unsaidrumble1790]

So they pulled a mandarin. Taskmaster gonna be someone else, right? Right?!

[@bobbysworld281995]

They deliberately made Taskmaster a protocol. So of course.

[@tycarne7850]

Nah, she'll probably be in the Dark Avengers line-up though.

[@babytoshiro7014]

This was the taskmaster program. Just like winter soldiers and black widow programs. There are many taskmasters

[@TimeMakerMan]

Nah I'm getting tired of them doing stuff like that. First it was the Mandarin then with Quicksilver, now taskmaster.

[@ninjanibba4259]

This is not like the mandarin

[@clockstomper]

"Oh hey, remember that character who hasn't been on screen for 40 minutes? Here's a twist I guess."

[@invertedname3099]

Basically

[@gustavoortiz6589]

They pulled a “Wolverine:Origins” like what they did to Deadpool 😂🤣

[@Damar158]

Made a talky snarky anti-hero a mute henchman, pretty much.

[@Power-9Hunnid]

✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔

[@claycrews516]

This is probably the best take I’ve seen on the issue. It just seems like they dumbed-down taskmaster and tried to change his character to fit differently into Black Widow’s backstory.

[@Jesse6749]

I agree with Chris on the Taskmaster, she had no real personality and was just like a prop for the movie, the gender has never bothered me at all on this or any other character. They also did not give her enough action scenes to do in the movie and some kind of personality too.

[@TheKillaShow]

She was essentially a Widow and non of the widows were allowed to have personalities. So of course Taskmaster didnt have a personality. Hell the characters gimmick is that they use everyone elses stuff instead of their own

[@darrenkey207]

@@TheKillaShow exactly. And to be honest, Taskmaster has never been more than a cool henchman. Not the mastermind, but who the mastermind hires. So I'm not tripping on the movie version. Would be cool to see an alternate version, though

[@ghostwax2677]

@@TheKillaShow Then what is the point of having Taskmaster in the film …and cut the FUD; Taskmaster is a mastermind manipulative asshole and has quite the personality, respectfully presented in TV/Animation, obviously comics and even video games. So again, why not just have a higher rank widow with no personality or a history in Marvel comics? Why do are the villains so one note or “nerf” to hell to the point where they might as well be a different or new character? Sorry but you MCU fans have the lowest standards and excuse stuff you’ll shit on DCEU films for doing.

[@ThousanWhite]

and why did the character need a personality? We've seen a number of great and memorable characters devoid of personality and were simply a force of nature. We need to stop making longer and longer arbitrary checklists for what every main antagonist needs for every action movie. They don't need to be all the same.

[@ghostwax2677]

@@ThousanWhite They literally explain in the video from 3 different perspectives Why. Come on.

[@rockbusterproductions]

I don’t understand the argument of “Nobody knows who Taskmaster is from the comics, so it doesn’t matter.” That’s a very poor, and kind of insulting statement to those who do know who the comic character is. The general audience probably didn’t know who the Mandarin or Whiplash was either, that doesn’t give an excuse to make a boring one dimensional character of a pretty interesting villain.

[@mrmintios8817]

Peoppe are saying no one cared about taskmaster until they made the change and no one cared about the mandarin before they made the change. Bro taskmaster has a huge fanbase which brought people like me to see him on the big screens. Just so dissaapointed

[@bigzeezy1733]

I agree lol

[@deecee3973]

I just think the character was underutilized. The action scenes could have a lot more flair to them considering the fact the she was mimicking other Avengers. I knew it was not Tony Masters strictly from the trailers: No speaking lines, using tech instead of a natural ability, and being used as an enforcer rather than a mercenary for hire. I don't get the worst villain ever and Mandarin comparison takes. If that is the case, Bucky in Winter Soldier would also be the one of the worst being a mostly silent physical threat being mind controlled by the real big bad of the film. In Iron Man 3, the movie tried to convinced the audience that Slattery was Mandarin until the twist happened. People were just hoping Tony Masters was Taskmaster. It fit the story and the motive of Dreykov using any woman for his own use under his control. Since it's the Taskmaster protocol, probably Tony Masters can show up in the future. Never know. A personality would’ve enchanced the character for sure.

[@DookieKingBlu]

They've done all marvel villains dirty for plot Thanos and Hela, Killmonger were fine mostly because the actors performance

[@JoeChillton]

I hate how they peaked with two minutes on the bridge and that's it. They did not improve on any action or threat they hinted at early on with her and Widow. that is even more of a idiot move. I compared it to the T1000 only being able to stab people and that's it. No shapeshifting or phasing or regeneration or anything.

[@stringer2295]

Yea it was such a great set up and the movie and the character goes straight down hill after that

[@hkaos]

I don't think it was meant to be "surprise, it's a woman" I think the point was "surprise, it's your biggest regret, now look her in the eyes." Though, I suppose there's no reason it can't be both.

[@tanikwish]

I liked that it was her regret but still underutilized.

[@alekesam]

Finally! Someone gets it. Of all the people I thought Taskmaster could be, the daughter really didn't cross my mind.

[@martindebrois1472]

No it was meant to be: A girl can be a man, a man can be a girl - You don't know! Complete woke ploy ... Worked into a movie that didn't need it.

[@alekesam]

@@martindebrois1472Sounds more like incel Quanon to me. All I saw was a girl wearing armor (like Iron Man whose armor is gender neutral).

[@martindebrois1472]

I'd say you're the incel - That you think a man can be actually a woman, and vice versa so easily. ... And at any rate they went way out of their way to make a *male* Marvel character a girl.

[@JustRicky]

I was excited when I heard Taskmaster was going to be in BW. I was disappointed of Taskmaster's performance(I'm on my nerd shyt). Taskmaster storyline could have made the character top 3 or 5 in the MCU, however, it's at the bottom. Maybe when Sony shoot the Miles Morales' movie Sony can bring in the og Taskmaster to fix his storyline...

[@khalduras784]

@Young Philly Doesnt matter. Marvel takes his name, powers, concept and teased him through every marketing possible. We have a right to express dislike over the end product anyways

[@dirkdar1]

They Deadpool'd , Taskmaster. When they took a interesting actor and character and literally silenced them.

[@bobbysworld281995]

I love that the comments are split saying Taskmaster wasn't Taskmaster and it sucked and Taskmaster wasn't Taskmaster and it worked very well.

[@jamesmason7979]

I'm honestly annoyed that people keep bringing up the "Mandarin" from Iron Man 3 long after it was established that he was an imposter in canon and interviews.

[@jarednavarrete1740]

Weird that it took them 8 years to actually "make up" for that....

[@jordand.6755]

Some people don't like lazy writing.

[@JGfromSpace.]

I’m with Korey. I like the idea of letting Florence Pugh do her thing as the new White Widow because she absolutely killed it in this role, but also give ScarJo another prequel by herself. Black Widow is an OG. I have so much respect for what Scarlet has done with that character over the years. She’s BEEN deserved her own trilogy.

[@lurkzie]

Anyone else remember when these guys used to talk a lot about box office numbers?

[@shinra358]

no one talked about taskmaster before this movie....

[@babytoshiro7014]

💯👏👏👏👍 exactly, now he has fans and people are upset😁😁🤦‍♂️

[@theandroids]

I agree 100% about Florence Pugh. She was more interesting to me in this movie.

[@Delboy0]

I actually like the taskmaster twist and gave a fairly cliche character a more interesting origin and pathos. The problem was the movie did not give enough development and time to the Villain to make that twist more impactful. If you had more scenes with Drakoff and his young daughter where they showed him as loving father, that would have made him an even more evil villain, due to the hypocrisy or show his love for his daughter is the reason why he would take these abandon girls and turn them into Black Widows, making him a more complex villain. Or maybe have Natasha the disloyal Black Widow that killed his daughter be the motivation behind him making Black Widows totally mind controlled creating a paradox in the story meaning Natasha has to solve the problem she created. Instead be just has 1 minute montage of Ray Winston pointing at girls and moustache twiddling villain we didn't know enough about before the big twist was revealed.

[@LordHaveMurcielago]

I wish people would STOP saying “Everybody has a solo movie except Black Widow”. That would imply that Hawkeye has his own movie (which he does not). That would also imply that Mark Ruffalo has his own Hulk movie (which also doesn’t exist).

[@lucasrencker-usui430]

To be fair the hulk character has his own hulk movie that’s technically apart of the mcu. It’s just a different actor but it’s the same character run the same universe

[@misterjayway]

Where’s my boy Hawkeye movie at huh???

[@LordHaveMurcielago]

@@misterjayway supposedly he’s getting a Disney + show…but it’s still not a box office solo movie. 🤷🏾‍♂️

[@BexRanner]

I liked what they did with Taskmaster because she's apparently supposed to be in the Thunderbolts. I expected her to die in the fiery "floating sky lab battle" explosion so I'm happy it got tweaked enough that the character is still alive and around because they're probably fleshing it out more later.

[@atlga40us]

I believe the real Taskmaster is “Agent” (the black guy) lol… I think it’s just a setup for later.. like he is gonna get that suit from her..

[@anubiisdoesthiis]

Did anyone else see the Taskmaster twist coming as soon as Ogla Kurylenko's name showed up in the opening credits? She may not be a household name but she's a former Bond Girl and has been in movies alongside the likes of Tom Cruise so considering she was nowhere to be found in posters and trailers, it was a total dead giveaway that an actress with her credentials would be the one behind the mask.

[@jjtjp2469]

Don't really care that they made Taskmaster a woman in this. My main problem is that this character didn't even need to be Taskmaster. You could've easily just replaced Taskmaster with another, masked, Widow and the character would have the same impact on the film's story and characters. Really just felt like they threw in Taskmaster to just have a notable name to get butts in seats

[@bobbysworld281995]

Aaaand make the "oh another mirror villain" trope. No.

[@jjtjp2469]

@@bobbysworld281995 Isn't that, technically, what we got though? I mean in the context of the story, Taskmaster boils down to being another Black Widow with an extra gimmick and a different title

[@martindebrois1472]

But they didn't make taskmaster a woman. They did a woman-reveal ... Completely unnecessary. What can't they have just left him a man?

[@cdogg46]

First weekend: 200M - WW 80M - Domestic 60M - Disney +

[@morganrichardson8859]

I don't think they switched the character to a woman to be woke. I think they were trying to make the character directly related to Black Widow's story, thus justifying why Taskmaster is in the movie. But I completely agree that because there were multiple adversaries and heroes, Taskmaster wasn't that impressive with all that competition.

[@dominicpersaud1155]

It was to be woke, the mcu is headed for that direction, if it wasn't to be woke why just not make a new character or just get another character and one reason why she looks like a dued in that suite is because the stunt double was a dude

[@jenesisjp91]

@@dominicpersaud1155 👆🏾 this comment. 100% agree

[@Sentinel3D]

I think you're being a little unfair to the ensemble cast. Captain America ($340 million) was nowhere near as successful as Winter soldier ($714 Million), which people called Avengers 1.5 because of Falcon, Black Widow, and Bucky. And Captain America Civil was ($1.1 Billion) wasn't really a Captain America movie. It had Xemo, Spider-Man, Iron Man, War Machine, Black Panther, Vision, Wanda, Hawkeye, Ant-Man... It was an Avengers movie. More than that, just like Taskmaster, they neutered Baron Xemo, who had powers in the comics, and could go toe to toe with Cap or Black Panther. No one was complaining about screen time being stolen from Cap. This movie made Taskmaster into Bucky, who was non-speaking, and massively menacing. They did a good job of Taskmaster for me. Also, they didn't call Antonia Taskmaster. It was a "Taskmaster protocol." They have an out here for a real Taskmaster. Even with the pandemic seemingly winding back up, this movie looks to beat the First avenger movie is revenue before long. This will be a win for Scarlett.

[@l0n3w01f]

Yeah, they ruined Task Master in my opinion. So much potential.

[@Flounderboy15]

The character was underutilized, but I think they built in a mulligan with the powerset being tied to a chip in her neck/overhead display. So basically, anyone can be turned into a taskmaster. Either they'll change the character or they may redeem this version of taskmaster later, maybe in Hawkeye, Cap and Winter Soldier, or Thunderbolts.

[@Thechickinaaronscar]

I didn't even know who taskmaster was but I was excited since he sounded like cell basitheycally. They made taskmaster a 99 cent terminator sub zero was more taskmaster in mortal kombat than this movie lol.

[@digimonlover1632]

Eh I disagree imo

[@Thechickinaaronscar]

@@digimonlover1632 how can you disagree I can't see how anyone thought they used taskmaster right In this movie they basically winter soldiered taskmaster without any of the emotion. From the movie you wouldn't even know the powers she had.

[@yakuza01]

I agree that the character was handled poorly but not too worked up about it since, as they mentioned, Taskmaster could be a title taken by more than one person and perhaps the one we saw in the film was not the only or first holder of it. I know in the comics the character has more of a personality but it's not the case in the MCU so it's not like a character that Tony Stark where there can only be one.

[@FutureJoker]

This Taskmaster felt like the Deadpool in the Wolverine movie. Doesn't talk, no charisma, no charm, no fun. Just a poorly thought out plot point that strips the character of everything interesting - I find this particularly weird since they had a more accurate Taskmaster is the recent Avengers & Spiderman games

[@eon001]

I don't even mind them altering Taskmasters origin. But making her a mute robot was bs. We could have got the reveal half way and you get a real revenge type flick with some personal investment. She didn't need to be controlled to want to kill Natasha. She has a built in reason.

[@JediFarce]

You're feeling sorry for the Black Widow, but Hawkeye never got his movie.

[@jrob4795]

He's about to get a series.

[@7woundsfist]

The Taskmaster was annoying but what REALLY made me mad was how Natasha headbutted her way out of mind control. THAT'S NOT HOW ANY OF THAT WORKS!!!

[@rickyclover9393]

This is some Bourne Legacy, He Man Master of the Universe: Revelations type shit.

[@JackDManheim]

'He-Man' isn't in the name anymore

[@BaithNa]

It took this long for her to get a solo movie because they gave her a contract to only be in supporting roles to save money in Phase 1. Now that Scarlet Johansson's contract is up, they can negotiate solo films.

[@BaithNa]

@Jo Ol she was the one that pushed for that. Originally, Clint was supposed to die

[@lucapeyrefitte6899]

@@BaithNa I kinda think I would’ve been fine with him dying instead of her since they never really gave much of a care for him

[@BaithNa]

@@lucapeyrefitte6899 I agree. Endgame would have been even more tragic if he died and Natasha had to break it to his family

[@LawrenceKassab]

His name "Taskmaster" is a play on his own name, Tony "Masters" . So why give her the name. Is it explained at all.

[@mikielsahagun6054]

Agreed as most youtubers that I've seen the review for: it would have been nice if Task master is like the Red Guardian: A super human female that is not mind controlled; and wants revenge on Natasha for messing her up when she was young and trying to kill her. Natasha also killed her dad in that third act so basically goes off the rails pissed off with a final showdown: Black Widow vs TaskMaster.

[@lexis4490]

Don't be one of those people. They didn't do taskmaster. All it was was the suit, but that's not the comic book character. It is not even the villain because she was brainwashed. People chill.

[@DeceivedHeretic]

People have every right to be upset. They teased the hell out of taskmaster in the marketing. He’s a popular and amazing villain. People were excited and they got…that. Totally understandable to be mad about it.

[@Thechickinaaronscar]

What is one of those people lol

[@S.E.J]

Lmfao the Taskmaster in this movie is so far removed from what Taskmaster is in the comics that people believe this wasn’t even an attempt at doing Taskmaster in a movie. Well great. If there’s a real Taskmaster, then in this movie we would have a suit of the same name with the same abilities based off of a real man? Or the fact they both exist is just coincidence? We aren’t seeing a faithful Taskmaster any time soon unless Multiverse shit is involved.

[@lexis4490]

@@DeceivedHeretic We are litterally getting the Mandarin in a movie. Like I don't think people have a right to be upset. They didn't really even do the Taskmaster costume. You can obviously dislike it, but to get mad, don't rest your time or breath.

[@lexis4490]

@@S.E.J I don't even think they need the Multiverse. They literally can have the real taskmaster and Dreykov stole his identity and suit for his daughter. It is not that complicated when it comes story. That's my view. I'm just not going to be emotional when it comes to it because that's not the Taskmaster. We are getting the Mandarin who existed the whole time in the MCU. That's way harder and they are doing it like it's nothing.

[@nelypso]

I don't think that was meant to be the comics taskmaster but there s a good chance it may prove to be the 'progenitor' of the character... /shrug/ I wasn't disappointed with the iron man mandarin either...they had made it clear it was just someone capitalising on the reputation of the actual character...

[@StayTunedReviews]

Black Widow can kill scores if Chitauri, Ultron Bots and members of the other aliens in Thanos army without breaking a sweat. She faces 10 other lesser Black Widow agents at once and she gets completely owned. Let's face it. From an objective POV, the Black Widow solo movie is trash in every area except special effects.

[@igm1201]

I think Natasha was supposedly holding back because she doesn’t want to hurt anymore of the brainwashed black widows. She wasn’t using all her fighting skills even when she was fighting Elena in Budapest she was trying encapacitate her not hurt her

[@TheTaskmaster]

I loved female Ghost But this mmmnooooo But perhaps he can still be out there. True Taskmaster could be training others with photoreflexes(ex: Echo)

[@7thsaga662]

Thor Dark World is the Wii U Thor Ragnarok is the Switch. If your gonna fail, fail forward.

[@Justkeon2053]

I gave No Fux about his daughter or him, they could’ve kept this whole movie in my opinion!! Loki is dope tho

[@Floydeezy]

Who truly cares about Taskmaster, a throwaway villain? They did Black Widow justice and gave her closure, that's all that matters to me. We'll literally never see Taskmaster again on screen. Get over it people.

[@sparkymularkey6970]

You guys really hit the nail on the head. Tasky is one of my favorite characters of all time. He's a vicious bastard but also a hilarious, lovable, goofy badass. He's been a villain and a Thunderbolt and a Secret Avenger, even! I was really looking forward to seeing him in live action (and as a woman myself, I have absolutely no problems with making a female Tasky), but this was... something completely different. I'm still really sad about it.

[@cineMADvocate]

She’s never referred to as Taskmaster. They call it the Taskmaster Protocol. That pretty much implies right there that she’s not the only one… Seriously you guys really have to stop finding one small thing that you get angry about in the moment and turning it into an entire episode… Or maybe you don’t look like you’re doing fine LOL

[@bobbysworld281995]

Exactly. It's literally not an insult to say "That's not Taskmaster", seeing that they made Avengers so integral to her solo movie and made a Taskmaster minus Anthony Masters that still works (a risk if you will) and the protocol can continue. Maybe by Ross?

[@Blaqsnake]

They could’ve had his daughter running the program and she could’ve hired taskmaster.

[@EmmaBonn96]

It’s interesting when you have a dichotomy in comic fans and movie fans I never heard of taskmaster I knew nothing of the character I thought it fit the story. I also don’t think just having a suit with powers makes someone less super or unique. Being able to use the suit is it’s own power. That’s just my opinion. I never thought Natasha was sidelined. I appreciated the chemistry the family had so taking time to develop each worked really well for making them memorable to me.

[@EmmaBonn96]

I changed my mind on the taskmaster I didn’t watch trailers but I can understand how they set up expectations knowing they wouldn’t fulfill them. The change served the twist, where I think a twist should be able to stand on its own in a movie like this. The twist shouldn’t rely on comic book fans’ expectations in order to get the pay off. That being said, the twist of: the daughter is alive, does stand well on its own. I still think the mandarin reveal was worse because it was bad both for comic fans and movie fans. I really wanted to see this sorta terrorist video highjacker archetype and the last act of the movie wasn’t about that. Still I think the rest of the movie carries a bad sub villain. I actually liked the portrayal of the main villain. I haven’t seen enough outright sexists villains in films like this. I still love the chemistry and I thought the action had a fair amount of weight and danger to it. Falling off of a crashing airship is easy when you are ironman or thor, but for black widow it’s a lot harder.

[@MrUniq]

I think the jury is out if Scarlet can drive a movie solo...ensemble approach made sense to me.

[@jackmcklaine7405]

I liked her as Taskmaster

[@Okkotsu86275]

Of course you did

[@jackmcklaine7405]

@@Okkotsu86275 lemme guess u loved that 4 hour slow motion Justice League tho? U can’t satisfy people…u guys are looking for anything to pick at…the movie isn’t perfect but it was very entertaining

[@solisprime2669]

May i ask what you like about the character not criticizing just wondering since the character in my opinion does nothing for the story and is overall unimportant could have just replaced them with one of those dozen black widow agents. Since apparently he had millions.

[@thambone30]

The Black Widow movie was the phenomenal. I loved everything about it. Taskmaster was not the main villain and served her purpose.

[@BTT16]

It was an interesting concept, trying to make Dreykov's daughter Taskmaster, but it fell flat. Dreykov's daughter should have just been another obscure Marvel character retooled to be more interesting, and maybe fit Taskmaster in there as an alternative foil to Natasha and Yelena, only doing it for the money.

[@aspengechel3723]

Yeah I feel like Dreykov’s daughter could have been an interesting concept especially because of how she was made into Task Master like the fact that she was only motivated by mind control and not by her own deep hatred for Natasha for what she did felt so cheap and like well we settled that issue it’s all good now, like that was so underwhelming it’s not even funny cause I swear I thought when the powder hit her and Natasha was going to apologize and all that Task Master was gonna choke slam her and be like Nah Bich this All me

[@AndreNitroX]

It’s was so predictable. Like badly

[@dominiquewashington2553]

Or she should have died how does a young powerless no super soldier serum child survive a explosion like that

[@RubyChiang]

@@dominiquewashington2553 yeah ikr there was no way that she would’ve survived that explosion. also a reason why the idea that taskmaster was the daughter never came to my mind

[@afrojarred]

i felt like they were trying to make taskmaster into winter solider. But these two characters have way different back stories and character arc's for them to be the same,and what i mean by that, is they tried to give winter solider story arc to taskmaster in this movie and it does not work

[@afrojarred]

also the way they did taskmaster copy powers in this movie is a rip off of dc's comics Minighter

[@pvp214]

Ppl trippin if they saying it’s Yelena’s movie, Natasha had the most screen time int was. It was clearly her movie

[@ThousanWhite]

I don't know if I've found a legitimate criticism about Taskmaster that didn't have something to do with the expectations from the comics. It's the same, petty complaints people had about The Mandarin portrayal in Iron Man 3. We should try to look at it from the lens as if the character was exactly as they were originally intended to be on-film and judge it on its own intent and merit.

[@babytoshiro7014]

Exactly. It's clear no one wants to understand the story. This had nothing to do with comic book taskmaster.

[@vickerfinal]

People should complain when they don't like something when its from the comics because it's aiming for those fans. Story and Accuracy should all matter, not 100%, but it should all matter. They obviously knew that would upset some of their fans with that decision, and to invalidate people with those opinions shows that you dont want to see others point of view. If they werent trying to bring in comic people, they wouldn't have even used Taskmaster. People are mainly complaining this character is boring in the movie, I dont know what you're not understanding.

[@babytoshiro7014]

@@vickerfinal mcu and the comics has always been different lol

[@R_A120]

It was more that the character didn't have a lot of presence in the movie and was reduced to a prop, the idea is interesting but there was room for improvement, for me anyway

[@vickerfinal]

@@babytoshiro7014 No, the stories "vary" but all based on similar events in the comics. Stop acting like this is original work lol.

[@geardog24]

Is female Task Master going to be the new Black Widow?

[@biguy617]

No Florence Pugh is going to be the new Black Widow

[@tonyborris9584]

Why the hell not? Their gender flipping/swapping out everyone else. Why do something different, that doesn't make any money?

[@FaceFamous]

Watch Pitch Meeting. Ryan George said they pulled a Deadpool Wolverine

[@henrytoloza8623]

I feel like a lot of their problems with the movie is " they didn't do this " taskmaster was just a program they could always have some other person learn that later. They really are just complaining about comic book crap

[@babytoshiro7014]

Exactly. People seem to forget their were multiple winter soldiers and black widows, so for them to get bent out of shape over this stupid.

[@bantuboi3131]

Taskmaster is not supposed to be a computer program regular ppl can "wear". Now it's just an iron man suit anybody with 0 skill can wear. Whoever wears it is meaningless. It's no longer a character. Just put it on, boot up the software, and there you go. It's Wolverine Origins Deadpool 2.0. Why even use him as a mercenary when it's just a programmable robot?

[@rances4418]

It was just a extremely underwhelming villain with no personality.

[@babytoshiro7014]

@@bantuboi3131 MCU don't follow the comics. Never have.

[@bantuboi3131]

@@babytoshiro7014 they do actually. They just make slight changes to reflect the times. The villains all have their costumes, powers, & personalities. Except the fake Mandarin(Killian) and Taskmaster. This change is the worst one by far as the Taskmaster character is useless at this point. Nobody wants to see that again.

[@ryanmalack2557]

Why does Marvel keep doing this they should have learned after Iron Man 3 but No they do it again with Taskmaster but Worse. I think Marvel just does this for a Agenda or just to make True Marvel Fans Mad.