1/6 Hot Toys BW Movie Taskmaster

[Centrocal]

I could imagine them doing a Disney+ limited series about Yelena and the girls who escaped and maybe Taskmaster. Like it could take place during Infinity war. They could be rescuing everyone on that memory card that Nat made. Then the snap happens and we see how that effects them.

Another failure of this film was not giving the girls enough screen time. Why did this guy need an army? What were they doing? Show them working. Show them assassinating people or whatever they were being used for. Show how dangerous this organization is. They really didn't feel like a major threat to the world or anything like that. We see them trying to recover the vials. Then they're chasing Yelena and Natasha. All their attention is on the vials like thats their only purpose. (Why would you even make an antidote to begin with and why would you make so much of it?)

What they could've done was, have the girls keep hunting Natasha. Give us more fight scenes. And with each encounter she could cure them one by one. Maybe Taskmaster kills a few of them off once they realize they're being cured. But Natasha slowly builds a team and they decide to take down the Red Room. But they have no memory of its location and thats why they meet up with Melina.

 

[chrisstbh]

IMO people who say they "didn't like Taskmaster's portrayal" are really saying they "didn't like who was under the mask", as the character's portrayal up to that point was nothing if not formidable. Regardless, I think it's a cool looking figure. I had a $25 code that was going to expire last week so I combined that with some reward points and got her for under $200. Even if she turns out to be a shelf warmer it'll likely be quite a while (i.e., well past the time she's in my collection) before significant discounts & free shipping are offered. I just think that given the lack of MCU villains coming out of HT a lot of people will eventually pick her up for that reason alone.

Not what I’m saying so I’d rather not have words put into my mouth. They basically X-Men Origins Deadpool’d Taskmaster.
It wasn’t Taskmaster. And it wasn’t a good portrayal. Even if it was Dreykov’s son Antonio Dreykov, it would have been crap.

Read this ****, they can’t even form a basic sentence properly, never mind write a movie.

It reads like they were forced to use Taskmaster and had to find a way to make it work, but they ended up overthinking it. Taskmaster is a mercenary, they could have just easily made Dreykov hire him, he’ll work for whoever is paying.

https://thedirect.com/article/black-widow-taskmaster-twist-dreykov

 

[JMT1979]

IMO people who say they "didn't like Taskmaster's portrayal" are really saying they "didn't like who was under the mask", as the character's portrayal up to that point was nothing if not formidable. Regardless, I think it's a cool looking figure. I had a $25 code that was going to expire last week so I combined that with some reward points and got her for under $200. Even if she turns out to be a shelf warmer it'll likely be quite a while (i.e., well past the time she's in my collection) before significant discounts & free shipping are offered. I just think that given the lack of MCU villains coming out of HT a lot of people will eventually pick her up for that reason alone.

I think this is a very blunt way to look at it. I didn't like who was under the mask because it wasn't Taskmaster - it wouldn't matter who was under the mask. Taskmaster in the comic has a personality and is not even remotely close to the movie version - some have used the Deadpool analogy from Wolverine: Origins which is apt - I like comic Deadpool, I like Ryan Reynolds, yet I hated that Deadpool because it wasn't Deadpool.

 

[chrisstbh]

I think this is a very blunt way to look at it. I didn't like who was under the mask because it wasn't Taskmaster - it wouldn't matter who was under the mask. Taskmaster in the comic has a personality and is not even remotely close to the movie version - some have used the Deadpool analogy from Wolverine: Origins which is apt - I like comic Deadpool, I like Ryan Reynolds, yet I hated that Deadpool because it wasn't Deadpool.

But if you don't like it you must be a misognyist neckbeard basement dweller just because it's a woman

 

[The Buffinator]

Not what I’m saying so I’d rather not have words put into my mouth. They basically X-Men Origins Deadpool’d Taskmaster.
It wasn’t Taskmaster. And it wasn’t a good portrayal. Even if it was Dreykov’s son Antonio Dreykov, it would have been crap.

Read this ****, they can’t even form a basic sentence properly, never mind write a movie.

It reads like they were forced to use Taskmaster and had to find a way to make it work, but they ended up overthinking it. Taskmaster is a mercenary, they could have just easily made Dreykov hire him, he’ll work for whoever is paying.

https://thedirect.com/article/black-widow-taskmaster-twist-dreykov

Let’s agree to disagree. You obviously are a Tony Masters Taskmaster fan and anyone other than him was going to be disappointing. I respect that. I wasn’t familiar with him and took the characterization at face value & thought it was fine. I don’t think an ultra-secret Russian spy program is going to hire an outside mercenary to do what is their stock-in-trade, so I think the writer’s POV is valid. But that interview does read like they were forced to make TM fit no matter what, which if true is unfortunate.

 

[chrisstbh]

Let’s agree to disagree. You obviously are a Tony Masters Taskmaster fan and anyone other than him was going to be disappointing. I respect that. I wasn’t familiar with him and took the characterization at face value & thought it was fine. I don’t think an ultra-secret Russian spy program is going to hire an outside mercenary to do what is their stock-in-trade, so I think the writer’s POV is valid. But that interview does read like they were forced to make TM fit no matter what, which if true is unfortunate.

Fair, just imagine they cast the guy that played the Mountain from Game of Thrones as Buffy, and then stripped away her entire personality and completely changed her backstory .

 

[kurisuchie2kimi]

I could imagine them doing a Disney+ limited series about Yelena and the girls who escaped and maybe Taskmaster. Like it could take place during Infinity war. They could be rescuing everyone on that memory card that Nat made. Then the snap happens and we see how that effects them.

Another failure of this film was not giving the girls enough screen time. Why did this guy need an army? What were they doing? Show them working. Show them assassinating people or whatever they were being used for. Show how dangerous this organization is. They really didn't feel like a major threat to the world or anything like that. We see them trying to recover the vials. Then they're chasing Yelena and Natasha. All their attention is on the vials like thats their only purpose. (Why would you even make an antidote to begin with and why would you make so much of it?)

What they could've done was, have the girls keep hunting Natasha. Give us more fight scenes. And with each encounter she could cure them one by one. Maybe Taskmaster kills a few of them off once they realize they're being cured. But Natasha slowly builds a team and they decide to take down the Red Room. But they have no memory of its location and thats why they meet up with Melina.

With all due respect mate but did you watch the movie? Dreykov explained exactly what this army was doing - they were planted all over the world, that's what all the little red dots on the world map he showed Natasha was, all of his Widows laying in wait for their orders on who to kill / who to influence / what war to start to change the direction of the world order. Sure, we could have seen what they were doing around the world, but the movie wasn't about that, it was about Natasha reconciling with her past and that just happened to be finishing a job she thought she'd already done (destroying the Red Room, killing Dreykov). Again, explained in the movie, Dreykov isn't the one who created the antidote. The woman Yelena killed at the beginning was a Widow from Melina's generation who, with others, created the antidote to try and free the Widows under Dreykov's control.

 

[Hologram AI]

IMO people who say they "didn't like Taskmaster's portrayal" are really saying they "didn't like who was under the mask", as the character's portrayal up to that point was nothing if not formidable. Regardless, I think it's a cool looking figure. I had a $25 code that was going to expire last week so I combined that with some reward points and got her for under $200. Even if she turns out to be a shelf warmer it'll likely be quite a while (i.e., well past the time she's in my collection) before significant discounts & free shipping are offered. I just think that given the lack of MCU villains coming out of HT a lot of people will eventually pick her up for that reason alone.

It has nothing to do with the character being a man or a woman. It comes down to them writing a completely ******, uninteresting and pointless character that did nothing.

The "character" had zero lines. She was essentially a mute terminator with no personality. The ability to have photogenic memory was stripped away and was instead bogged down to being something controlled electronically with a ski helmet and implant. Someone please explain to me what made her a good character outside of having 1 cool fight scene for 60 seconds on a bridge?

How hard would it have been to have her talk, be a cool mercenary that doesn't play any sides besides her own and had her own ability to mimic the moves of the Avengers without the help of some stupid gadget. Someone who doesn't give a **** about Natasha or General Dreykov but is simply hired by him for the money (or maybe she's doing it for another secret motive that we find out later in the movie) so she does what she has to for the payout.

Instead we essentially got a blank mindless drone.

 

[matticus]

Thats because he was a guy in the entire film up to the point she took off the helmet

Thanks for the picture. Everyone could totally tell that was a dude fighting in a costume. This is right up there with the Mandarin, totally build towards something so obvious, to do the opposite and pull the rug out is simply stupid. You don't have to pull the big twist at the end just so you can surprise people. Just deliver a good movie. MCU turning into M. Night Shamalama.

 

[The Buffinator]

It has nothing to do with the character being a man or a woman. It comes down to them writing a completely ******, uninteresting and pointless character that did nothing.

The "character" had zero lines. She was essentially a mute terminator with no personality. The ability to have photogenic memory was stripped away and was instead bogged down to being something controlled electronically with a ski helmet and implant. Someone please explain to me what made her a good character outside of having 1 cool fight scene for 60 seconds on a bridge?

How hard would it have been to have her talk, be a cool mercenary that doesn't play any sides besides her own and had her own ability to mimic the moves of the Avengers without the help of some stupid gadget. Someone who doesn't give a **** about Natasha or General Dreykov but is simply hired by him for the money (or maybe she's doing it for another secret motive that we find out later in the movie) so she does what she has to for the payout.

Instead we essentially got a blank mindless drone.

She was a mute terminator because she was being mind controlled and said mind control also suppressed any personality/individuality that she possessed. I do wish we knew more about what Dreykov did to save her & enhance her, as her strength and abilities far exceed the average black widow under his control. Maybe I missed it but I'm not sure what exactly that chip implant is doing for her - i.e, is it the the reason she has a photogenic memory or does it and the helmet just enhance her innate ability & allow her to process the info faster? Does the suit have some kind of exo-skeleton that accounts for her increased strength or did Dreykov also experiment on her with some variant of a super soldier serum? Details like that, while probably doing nothing to appease TM fans like you, would at least help further establish the character going forward.
I already addressed in my previous post why I don't think it would make sense for Dreykov to hire an outside mercenary like Taskmaster. As for Antonia being a "completely ******, uninteresting and pointless character that did nothing", I disagree. I think if they just made her an elite, faceless black widow with the same terminator-like qualities everyone would be fine with her, as freeing Dreykov's daughter neatly completed Natasha's emotional arc with respect to the Red Room and her morally questionable actions in Budapest. The problem is they called her Taskmaster. As I indicated previously, I had no TM baggage going in so it didn't bother me. Obviously you & others take exception and I respect that.

 

[Hologram AI]

She was a mute terminator because she was being mind controlled and said mind control also suppressed any personality/individuality that she possessed. I do wish we knew more about what Dreykov did to save her & enhance her, as her strength and abilities far exceed the average black widow under his control. Maybe I missed it but I'm not sure what exactly that chip implant is doing for her - i.e, is it the the reason she has a photogenic memory or does it and the helmet just enhance her innate ability & allow her to process the info faster? Does the suit have some kind of exo-skeleton that accounts for her increased strength or did Dreykov also experiment on her with some variant of a super soldier serum? Details like that, while probably doing nothing to appease TM fans like you, would at least help further establish the character going forward.
I already addressed in my previous post why I don't think it would make sense for Dreykov to hire an outside mercenary like Taskmaster. As for Antonia being a "completely ******, uninteresting and pointless character that did nothing", I disagree. I think if they just made her an elite, faceless black widow with the same terminator-like qualities everyone would be fine with her, as freeing Dreykov's daughter neatly completed Natasha's emotional arc with respect to the Red Room and her morally questionable actions in Budapest. The problem is they called her Taskmaster. As I indicated previously, I had no TM baggage going in so it didn't bother me. Obviously you & others take exception and I respect that.

Agree to disagree. My problem stems more so into the writing and how they did nothing with her more so than what they called her.

She could have been called Black Widow 2.0 or whatever and my complaints would not have changed. She was just very poorly written and uninteresting. Had zero personality to stand on her own but was instead a mute prop to make Natasha feel bad about "killing" his daughter. Yay I guess? I just would have preferred if she was an actual character that had some self motive and personality. Would have been awesome if she was some snarky and skilled mercenary that had her own agenda. Not a mind controlled drone that had a cool fight scene and made Natasha feel bad for 5 minutes.

The silver lining is that Marvel wasn't dumb enough to kill her off and we're likely to see her again so maybe they flush her out some more then. For now, I just found her completely pointless and wasted.

 

[Turtle882]

IMO people who say they "didn't like Taskmaster's portrayal" are really saying they "didn't like who was under the mask", as the character's portrayal up to that point was nothing if not formidable. Regardless, I think it's a cool looking figure. I had a $25 code that was going to expire last week so I combined that with some reward points and got her for under $200. Even if she turns out to be a shelf warmer it'll likely be quite a while (i.e., well past the time she's in my collection) before significant discounts & free shipping are offered. I just think that given the lack of MCU villains coming out of HT a lot of people will eventually pick her up for that reason alone.

I don't know, I don't have any issue with Taskmaster being a woman, and I think there is a LOT of potential for future Taskmaster appearances to deliver a badass opponent who has her own agency. But in this movie she wasn't even really a character- just a robot. Hopefully in future appearances we can get Taskmaster unleashed, really doing HER thing rather than being a mind controlled lackey. I get why the narrative went the way it did, and it was effective for Nat's story even if not so much for Taskmaster's. Lot of origin stories plugged into this swan song.

 

[matticus]

https://comicbook.com/marvel/news/black-widow-writer-is-getting-hate-mail-for-taskmaster-twist/

 

[chrisstbh]

https://comicbook.com/marvel/news/black-widow-writer-is-getting-hate-mail-for-taskmaster-twist/

People need to grow up. I hated it too but when you start personally attacking people it becomes pathetic.

 

[matticus]

People need to grow up. I hated it too but when you start personally attacking people it becomes pathetic.

"Recently, ComicBook.com's Phase Zero podcast had the chance to chat with Black Widow writer, Eric Pearson, and he revealed he's gotten hate mail over Taskmaster.

"I got one. I made the mistake of looking in direct message requests and someone said, 'I don't mean to be out of line, but Taskmaster was the biggest betrayal of my life.' I got mad for a second and then I was like, 'Well, you've had a pretty good life then.' If that's the worst thing that's ever happened to you, then you should be psyched because someone in a movie wasn't who you wanted them to be," Pearson shared."

Well he didn't threaten him, just told him how he didn't like the portrayal. I get you put yourself out there as a writer, but when you really change something up, some people are not going to like it. He shouldn't be surprised that fans think this way and then got defensive. Clickbait material, but TM has clearly gotten a divided response.

 

[Spanbauer]

The "character" had zero lines. She was essentially a mute terminator with no personality. The ability to have photogenic memory was stripped away and was instead bogged down to being something controlled electronically with a ski helmet and implant. Someone please explain to me what made her a good character outside of having 1 cool fight scene for 60 seconds on a bridge?

I knew nothing of the character beforehand but just based on the trailers alone I don't know how one could have expected Taskmaster to be much of a talker. Was pretty clear Taskmaster was simply the silent killer type, probably working for someone else.

 

[Chronos1919]

There wasn't any reason to give this character the title of Taskmaster. Other than having similar "powers" and the outfit being a nod to the character they didn't use anything from the actual history of the character. It was a wasted opportunity, even for Disney, to grow a fanbase for the character and capitalize on merchandising or involving the character in other films or spin-offs. Instead of doing anything new and interesting they disguised the character's identity for an attempt at a shocking twist that didn't land.

 

[yacobschlomo]

I also don't know much about the character, so don't have too many issues with how the character was portrayed. However, I do agree that the "character" in the movie was poorly written (starting to fall into many of the same mistakes/traps the X-Mena films did). They had an easy chance to leave the door open and appease the comic Taskmaster fans by expanding on "The Taskmaster Program". Someone may have mentioned this already, but this could have been a Program where they developed many Taskmasters (one being Tony Masters - and maybe talking about him potentially having escaped, opening the door for his return. Otherwise, how do they continue on with the character at this point as Dreykov's daughter is obviously not a villain) or they could have based on the Program on the actual Taskmaster.

 

[Chronos1919]

That's the issue. They've created another Mandarin in that, just like Iron Man 3, they need to do some retconning or explaining away of the character if they ever want to properly utilize Taskmaster. I'm honestly surprised that Kevin Feige let them use the character in this manner.

 

[matticus]

It is simple - Taskmaster in the comics trains troops and is a merc for hire. He happens to have a great skill set in mimicing people's movements. How cool is that? So clearly you have him train the Black Widows. I mean, doesn't take a genius to put that together. The Nat family gets together to take it down while other Widow's are trying to kill them. Taskmaster is the adversary that takes all of them in order to take him down. They wanted Dreykov Weinstein to be manipulating all women, that is pretty obvious. Surprised they didn't show Dreykov hanging Epstein in his cell. Still surprised they used Bill Clinton meeting with him.