Black Widow review

BLACK WIDOW: 

NATASHA’S FIRST STANDALONE ADVENTURE IS A LOT OF FUN! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

MARVEL STUDIOS

Scarlett Johansson is back as Black Widow

 

            Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson-Lost in Translation, Marriage Story, Jojo Rabbit) makes her standalone feature debut in Black Widow, the latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and first installment of Phase 4. The character made her first big screen appearance in 2010’s Iron Man 2 and has since become a fan-favorite in the MCU having appeared in all four Avengers films and both Captain America sequels as arguably the darkest and most mysterious member of the Avengers. 

            Now, we finally have Black Widow’s first movie with Johansson reprising her role and Cate Shortland (Somersault, Lore, Berlin Syndrome) as director, that will hopefully shed some light on her shady past that we got a short glimpse of in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. After multiple delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film was finally released in theaters as well as Disney+ so enough buildup, what did I think of the movie? I think it’s good, that’s about it. 

            I consider it to be one of the weaker entries of the MCU, but there is some enjoyment to be had and it does try to go beyond the MCU formula in certain ways. Marvel has never done a gritty, Bourne-like spy film with superhero elements in it before so why not? And it does lead to some great family dilemma moments between Natasha and her Russian family, all of whom are a lot of fun to watch and listen to. 

            Set after the events of Captain America: Civil War, the film follows Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Johansson) on the run from the U.S. government, but is forced to confront a conspiracy about her past after a run-in with a new foe known as Taskmaster and to make things even more awkward, she has to reunite with the family she left behind long before she became an Avenger including her younger sister, Yelena (Florence Pugh-Fighting with My Family, Midsommar, Little Women (2019)), their eccentric father, Alexei/Red Guardian (David Harbour (Stranger Things, Hellboy (2019), No Sudden Move), and their mother, Melina (Rachel Weisz-The Mummy (1999)/The Mummy Returns, My Cousin Rachel, The Favourite). When news breaks out that the Red Room (The place where Natasha was trained to become an assassin) is still being operated and manipulating girls into becoming violent killers, Natasha and her family must learn to get along with each other if they’re ever going to put an end to the Red Room for good and save the world. 

            The film also stars O.T. Fagbenle (Breaking and Entering, Radio Cape Cod, The Handmaid’s Tale) as Rick Mason, William Hurt (A.I. Artificial Intelligence, The Village, A History of Violence) reprising his role as Thaddeus Ross, and Ray Winstone (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Beowulf, Hugo) as the Red Room leader, General Dreykov. 

            Overall, Black Widow doesn’t quite live up to its full potential and I would have preferred it if the film was released before Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame (Because spoiler alert, she dies!), but fans of the MCUwill likely still enjoy tagging along for the ride anyway. Personally, I would have liked it more if they had flashbacks of Natasha training in the Red Room to give her more of a connection with Dreykov and a better understanding of their conflict, but for what I got they do the Hero VS Villain dilemma fine enough. 

            The action is pretty standard even for MCU with many of the sequences and set pieces feeling like they’re ripped straight from other Marvel movies, particularly the car chase and aerial battle from Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the prison escape from Guardians of the Galaxy. For the most part, the action sequences are good but nothing spectacular and, in an attempt, to be like the Marvel equivalent of Bourne, they use a lot of shaky-cam during the action which I thought was a big mistake, it isn’t Hunger Games bad, but often it takes me out of the spectacle a little whenever something exciting does happen. 

            Ironically, the best parts of the movie for me are the interactions between Natasha and her family, that’s where the heart and soul of the movie is, and it helps that the actors playing the family are giving their all in every scene. The two who stand out the most are Florence Pugh as Natasha’s confident but also curious sister and David Harbour as their gruff, eccentric, but also loving father who’s best described as Bizarro-Captain America, both Pugh and Harbour do an excellent job working with the material given to them, are very funny, and have interesting personalities.

            Every scene with Natasha and her family are great because while the family is masqueraded as part of the Black Widows, they act just like a real family. A very, very strange family but a family nonetheless! 

            Black Widow is arguably the least flashy of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films that leaves a lot to be desired, but it’s a perfect example of a decent entry in the MCU that tries to spice things up a bit and while I don’t think they went far enough, it does stand out a little more in the crowd. It’s about on the same level as Captain Marvel where it will either do it for you or it won’t. 

            For me, I’m glad I saw it and unlike Captain Marvel, there’s more charm here outside of just the one scene with Captain Marvel and the little girl on the front porch. The film isn’t perfect, but it’s a solid entry in the MCU…the film also doesn’t show what happened in Budapest…just throwing that out there!