Black Widow (2021)
“I’ve lived a lot of lives…But I’m done running from my past.” – Natasha Romanov.
Black Widow (2021)
Directed by: Cate Shortland
Written by: Eric Pearson, Jac Schaeffer, Ned Benson
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Rachel Weisz
With Avengers: Endgame now a distant memory, Marvel launches ‘Phase 4’ of its superhero movie dynasty with Black Widow. And after eleven years, eight movies, and one pandemic, Natasha Romanov finally gets her own origin movie, as we learn more about her mysterious past.
Set between Civil War and Infinity War, the film follows Natasha (Johansson) as she runs from the authorities and reunites with her childhood family. Her sister Yelena (Pugh), a fellow assassin, has uncovered the evil truth about the Red Room - the organisation that trained them - and the Romanovs embark on a quest to stop them.
I read some scathing reviews before going into this, but…Black Widow was everything I expected from an entertaining Marvel movie: fantastic production quality, souped-up visuals, enigmatic actors, decent action sequences and the trademark Marvel combination of action, emotion and humour. Speaking of humour, the film was really, really funny. Marvel always seems to nail its jokes (a facet that DC movies struggle to emulate), but this had me giggling so much that it’s probably the second funniest Marvel movie after Thor: Ragnarok. Natasha bickering with her family provides the fodder for a lot of these jokes, with David Harbour’s ‘Red Guardian’ – the Romanov patriarch – getting the most laughs.
The comic relief also helps alleviate the confrontational nature of Natasha’s background, with the ‘Red Room’ being a sort of child slave ring that brainwashes its captives into becoming killing machines. So, yeah…it’s heavy subject matter, but these topics are often broached in a light-hearted way to dull any chance of a traumatic viewer experience. The film definitely excels as an ‘origin story’, with Natasha’s youth and upbringing explained quickly and effectively in an opening scene, and adds some much needed depth to one of Marvel’s OG characters. It’s a superhero movie, so acting isn’t really a requirement…but the four top-billed stars are all household names, and Johansson does a great job of passing the baton to Pugh, who is set to fill the Black Widow void for Phase 4 of the MCU.
A glowing review so far, but it’s not all fantastic. Some of the actions scenes are filmed a little bit lazily; with the dreaded ‘shaky-cam’ rearing it’s ugly head to hide the actors stunt deficiencies. The climactic action sequence also seems to have been lifted directly from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, so loses points for originality, and the big baddie in the film is arguably the most boring Marvel villain ever. At this stage in the Marvel timeline our heroes are fighting world destroyers and overpowered juggernauts. This bloke is so boring and uninteresting that he seems more like a side quest than a true threat. This results in your run-of-the-mill, mindless, predictable conclusion.
Despite these minor nitpicks and some small deficiencies, Marvel fans will not be disappointed by this film. Natasha Romanov finally gets her origin story, we finally get to meet her family, and there are enough laughs and explosions along the way to make for a fun 2 hours. Recommend for those looking for an easy action package.
Rating: 7/10
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