Fans have been comparing Jennifer Lawrence’s character to Black Widow, but this film is as far away from a Marvel project as it gets.
A Russian spy with a background in ballet, forged in a secret training program, burdened with secrets on a deadly mission in Budapest, and tested by allegiances to both the Motherland and America. There’s no denying that Francis Lawrence’s Red Sparrow, led by the Academy-Award winning Jennifer Lawrence, shares a number of similarities with Marvel’s leather-clad avenger and super-spy, the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). In the lead up to the film’s release, a good deal of discussion has been spent on determining whether Red Sparrow, by way of its protagonist, Dominika Egorova, is a Black Widow rip-off.
Francis Lawrence refuted these claims in January this year, highlighting the fact that his film is based on its own source material, the novel of the same name by former CIA operative, Jason Matthews. The director also noted that the interests of Red Sparrow are entirely different from that of Marvel’s gadget-centric spy world. That same month, Marvel Studios finally made plans to move ahead with a film centered on Johansson’s character by hiring screenwriter Jac Schaeffer. While these plans were met with excitement from fans, many also wondered if Marvel had simply waited too long and been beaten to the punch. It seemed that Red Sparrow and Black Widow were inextricably linked by their subgenre within the consciousness of cinema goers. Now with Red Sparrow released, it’s clear that if anything, Lawrence’s film proves we not only still need a Black Widow film, but that we need more films like Red Sparrow as well.
When she climbed onto the scene in 2010’s Iron Man 2, there was little doubt that we’d be seeing Natasha Romanoff leading her own film sooner rather than later. The Avengers not only increased the character’s popularity, particularly by way of an interrogation scene that brought “red in my ledger” into the pop-culture lexicon, but also increased the chances that we’d see a solo film. But Captain America and Avengers sequels came, conquered, and left Black Widow as a co-star as each Marvel Phase gave way to the next. Meanwhile…
2017’s sensation, Wonder Woman, and what’s bound to be a future cult classic, Atomic Blonde, proved that there’s not only a need for female-led blockbuster films, outside of the traditionally female-friendly horror genre, but a desire for them as well. The problem is that because of the lack of consistent genre-friendly blockbusters with women in the title roles, many are quick to draw surface comparisons and cry rip-off. Already, Marvel’s upcoming Captain Marvel, featuring Brie Larson as the titular cosmic hero, is being held up to Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman, something that will undoubtedly become more prevalent as we move closer to release. Atomic Blonde suffered some of the same comparisons to Black Widow during its theatrical run, though not to the same degree as Red Sparrow. As audiences, we can watch countless male-led blockbusters, that all seem to hang from the same harness, many of which make up our most successful franchises, and barely hear a whisper of the word rip-off. Only by coming to terms with female-led action and espionage films as more than novelties can we see their value beyond the surface level.
Red Sparrow is as far from a Marvel movie as one could possibly get. It lingers, more interested in interactions than action. It’s driven by a kind of sexual violence and moral menace that gives its grounded nature a workout. Lawrence has crafted an adult-minded film, one built within real-world intrigue and messy patriotism born of even messier politics. Red Sparrow isn’t an action film. There are no gun fights, no explosions, no car chases, and when a character sets out with the intent to kill, the deed is followed through without ceremony. In truth, Red Sparrow is the story that exists outside the borders of Marvel comic book panels, showcasing the vulgarity that those pages can only hint at. It’s a better showcase of real-world espionage than any superhero movie could tell, and arguably the best showcase of an R-rating for a major, mainstream release since David Fincher’s Gone Girl. While not everything about the film works, there is a refreshing quality to it that can’t be dismissed. Within the first thirty minutes of the film, it’s clear that Lawrence was true to his word, Red Sparrow has far too much on its mind and up its sleeves than to be beholden to super-spy theatrics, and any similarities stem from cultural touchstones, not comic book canon.
As much as we crave real-world grit and maturity in our films, there’s also an undeniable need for escapism, for the thrill that gun fights, explosions, and car chases deliver. While there’s no telling how Marvel’s Black Widow will ultimately shape up, we’re surely in store for some of that, but given its own spin in the way that only Marvel can do. In a universe that isn’t bound by real-world events, the possibilities are far too endless to fear the film knocking up against Lawrence’s. There’s no number of Red Sparrows, Atomic Blondes, or Wonder Women that can take away from the unique quality of superhero and spy that Black Widow has, nor that characterization that Johansson has crafted. Just as there is no amount of Black Widow movies that can take away from any of those prior films and their central performances. It seems we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of what these genres and subgenres are capable of exploring with women in the lead. We need Red Sparrow. We need Black Widow. And we need whatever comes after that.
Genre films, by their nature, support new entries and new films that build on top of what has come before. Because of what Red Sparrow has accomplished, any future Black Widow film is freed up from having to retread any similar path that a PG-13 movie couldn’t possibly pull off as well. While surface level similarities may not allow for a Black Widow movie fans initially imagined in 2010, it does allow the chance for it to be something more, something of value that contributes to the ongoing change in perception of who should lead the stories we consume.
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