Black Widow
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbor, Rachel Weisz
Directed By: Cate Shortland
Rated: PG-13
I’ve been waiting for Black Widow to have her own movie for years. YEARS, I TELL YOU! We’re talking pre-Captain Marvel, pre-Ant-Man, pre-Avengers: Age of Ultron (where her character was nearly destroyed but came back from that disaster! WHY DID THEY MAKE HER FALL IN LOVE WITH THE HULK? WHAT WAS THAT? I cringe to this very day!) Marvel decided to kill her off and then give her a stand-alone movie which makes absolutely no sense. But I’m here today to review said movie.
The announcement of Black Widow’s movie was pretty exciting news to me. Like many fans of the character, it had been a long time coming. Then it got delayed approximately 40 times because of COVID. If it were going to happen to any Marvel character, it was going to be her. Well, the time has finally come and the movie is in theaters. I made my way to the theater to go see it. What’s the verdict?
If I’m being completely honest, Black Widow didn’t live up to my expectations of a Natasha Romanoff stand-alone movie. Maybe I’ve been inside dealing with the pandemic too long. Maybe I’ve become too cynical and picky. Maybe my criticisms are valid. You can be the judge.
Black Widow takes place after the events of Captain America: Civil War and right before Avengers: Infinity War when Natasha Romanoff is on the run. While trying to stay incognito, she receives a message from a past connection. Natasha must confront her past in the Widow program to take down an evil adversary that she thought was long defeated.
Directed by Cate Shortland, Black Widow looks to bring the MCU’s main female Avenger her own standalone story. My biggest issue is this doesn’t feel like Natasha’s story. Yes, Scarlett Johansson excels at bringing depth to the character, as usual. But this feels like an origin story for Natasha’s sister, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh, with a questionable Russian accent.) It’s obvious the MCU is looking to usher her in as a major new character so they utilized this film to introduce her to the audience. By doing so, Natasha Romanoff feels like a sidekick in her movie. It’s a shame because fans like me have been waiting a long time for this and now that it’s finally here, she feels sidelined by a new character.
Shortland introduces some exciting action sequences including a high-stakes prison break and a high-speed car chase. While it’s fun to watch these scenes, several of them feel like a knockoff of the Mission Impossible franchise (notably Mission: Impossible- Fallout) which quite frankly does it better.
The core of the film is about family dynamics. I won’t dive too much into it due to spoilers but Natasha reunites with family from the past. At times, the family dynamic introduced in the film is downright odd. It’s a bizarre situation, to say the least, but the plot goes back and forth with our perception of her family members. Can they or can’t they be trusted? At times, I’m not even sure if the script can make up its mind.
The ensemble of Black Widow includes Rachel Weisz as Melina, a Russian scientist, and former Black widow. David Harbor is Alexei/the Red Guard, an overly confident former Russian spy played for comedic effect. He’s a shell of the man he used to be. Then there’s Yelena Belova played by Florence Pugh, a former widow grappling with her own sense of identity.
This is a Marvel movie so there are multiple villains in Black Widow because you can’t have just one. That would be too simple. Dreykov (Ray Winstone) is a menacing character who bears a creepy resemblance to Harvey Weinstein, surely an intentional decision. He takes in young girls and makes them train as assassins in the widow program. He’s an evil man who is essentially trafficking young girls for his own gain. It’s disturbing to watch. Then there’s The Taskmaster, a robotic-like villain who hunts down Natasha at every turn. Every scene with the Taskmaster feels like a waste of time. It’s like watching a video game that never ends.
As you can tell, I was very excited for Black Widow but it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. There are good moments to be found in Natasha Romanoff’s standalone film. However, the first female Avenger deserved a much better movie.
My Rating: 6/10