“Black Widow” Review

Scarlett Johansson stars in “Black Widow” as the titular spy and Avenger who finds herself on the run and confronting her past in the 24th film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

With it being over two years since the last Marvel Cinematic Universe film was released, partially due to the ending of Marvel’s Infinity Saga and the COVID-19 pandemic pushing back several releases, I was really anticipating “Black Widow.” After 11 years since her debut in “Iron Man 2” and becoming one of the most essential Avengers, we finally got a damn film with Natasha Rommonoff (Scarlett Johansson) in a leading role. And that patience has paid off as “Black Widow” is a thoroughly entertaining film with good action and a strong insight into many people’s favorite Avenger.

Set just after the events of 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War,” Rommonoff finds herself on the run, being hunted by the United States for her part in aiding a now fugitive Captain America. But when Natasha’s foster sister, and fellow Black Widow assassin, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) reconnects with her, Natasha discovers that Dreykov (Ray Winstone), the man who commanded the Black Widows, is still alive and is plotting to use them to infiltrate the world’s governments. To prevent this, Natasha and Yelena team up with their super-spy foster parents, a super soldier named Alexi (David Harbour) and a scientist named Melina (Rachel Wiesz) to defeat Dreykov and free the Widows from his influence. 

What’s most remarkable about the MCU is that, despite having released over 20 films (“Black Widow” being 24th film in the series), it still feels refreshing whenever a new installment comes out. In recent years, the MCU hasn’t had much of a grounded feel, preferring to venture into space and fictional kingdoms like Wakanda. But in the case of “Black Widow,” it’s a deeply grounded spy film with more realistic action than “Avengers: Endgame” or “Captain Marvel.” Instead of spaceships and Infinity Stones, the characters must fight armies of assassins and be engaged in truck chases. 

At the center of the film is Natasha’s confrontation of her past and Johansson, once again, is deeply interesting as Black Widow. The fact that it took so long for this character to get her own film is deeply troubling but I’m glad all the same that we have this new story. While not an origin story, with the film being set after five films that starred Black Widow as a protagonist, “Black Widow” certainly addresses the character’s past and also shows the less-than-flattering elements of her character which she abandoned to become a hero as well as the dark paths she went on to escape her life as a Black Widow assassin. 

But the real scene-stealer of the film is Florence Pugh who is continuing to establish herself as one of the best young actors working today. While an effective assassin, Pugh’s main motivation is to find the humanity that her sister has as well as reestablish her “family” that the life of the Black Widows took from her. She also has a lot of humorous lines, particularly critiquing Natasha’s ideas and plans, but she never feels like the comic relief of the film. 

(From Left) Natasha (Johansson), Alexi (David Harbour) and Yelena (Florence Pugh) reunite after breaking Alexi, a trained super soldier, our of prison.

Harbour and Wiesz are also magnificent in their roles and, along with Pugh and Johanson, the four of them truly feel like this dysfunctional super-family. In many ways, this film feels like Marvel’s version of “The Incredibles” with a family of heroes who must come together to defeat evil despite having their differences (which is fitting since “the Incredibles” is very similar to the comics of The Fantastic Four). 

While the film excels with its heroes, Dreykov feels a bit underdone, continuing the trend Marvel became famous for in Phases 1 and 2 with having good development for their protagonists, but underdeveloped antagonists (with the exception of Loki who is a treasure all of the time). He’s just a kind of disgusting coward who prefers to have others do his work but he has nothing really entertaining about him.

However, one of those minions he has is Taskmaster, an agent who is capable of replicating other’s fighting styles and who has studied Black Panther, Iron Man, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. This villain, while not having a lot of dialogue or development, is just plain cool. Having someone who seems unbeatable because of how well they seem to know you is a pretty scary feeling and the film understands that fear perfectly.

While the story is entertaining enough, it just seems like a fairly standard film for the MCU. Instead of getting a story on par with “Iron Man” or “Thor: Ragnarok,” “Black Widow” feels like “Iron Man 3:” a good film but with nothing that distinguishes it from the entire lineup of the MCU’s films, shorts and television shows.

Overall, “Black Widow” is a fun entry into the MCU which has more than enough fun characters and action to satisfy comic book fans and filmgoers alike, especially if, like me, you desperately wanted to see Black Widow finally get her own damn movie.