Black Widow

This review may contain spoilers!

Black Widow  is the 24th feature in the MCU and a direct sequel to Captain America: Civil War. In this Marvel adventure we get a glimpse into Natasha Romanoff's spy background and the family of Russian spies she lived with as a child. The film then brings us to just after the events of the Sokovia Accords and we watch as a fugitive Black Widow is forced to reconcile with her former 'family' and stop the villainous Red Room from crafting more brainwashed Black Widows. This film starts out as a well mapped modern spy thriller, with real cloak and dagger fights at safe houses or a dark espionage-based antagonist in the shadows. Yet the film also knows how to lean into those classic Marvel elements of storytelling; the light sisterly bond between Natasha and Yelena or the hilarious introduction and breakout of Red Guardian from prison. These elements all come together in a very action-heavy final act that watches all the new characters masterfully woven together into these intricate fight scenes and impressive set pieces. I enjoyed seeing the contrast between how good Natasha had become as a person versus how twisted the world she was from is. The cinematography of the film is extremely appealing and worth raving about, the entire Budapest sequence immediately comes to mind when I say this. The special effects for the feature look wonderful, but for a nice change of pace it is the stunt choreography that truly transports me into this fantastical story. The score for the film is a high octane spectacular while the soundtrack boasts an eerie James Bond-esque intro to a cover of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'.

 

Scarlett Johansson, who played Natasha Romanoff, leads this film with absolute class and experience; watching Johansson tread the line between the moral high ground she occupies now and the darkness her life used to be is great to watch. Rachel Weisz, who played Melina, is a much more restrained role who initially seems reluctant to become attached again to her 'family'; Weisz plays the stoic scientist type well while also dealing her character's dry wit excellently. David Harbour, who played Alexei, is very much a role that steals the show in a number of scenes; this role's arrogance and desire to live out his glory days makes him one of the real comedic delights of the film. Ray Winstone, who played Dreykov, is quite a chilling antagonist; seeing the callous indifference he has for the horrors he has wrought or the free will he has taken is rather dark.

However, the best performance came from Florence Pugh, who played Yelena Belova. This role is rather special because the film has a sense of Johansson's Natasha handing the torch to Pugh's Yelena; so there is a lot of expectation around this performance. It is immensely hard to walk out of this film disliking Yelena I find, she has a very youthful energy and this kind of excitement about being free in the world after her brainwashing is removed. This comes through a lot in the sisterly relationship she forms with Johansson, watching the pair lean on one another and then switch to bickering is a fun dynamic. I also think there is some interesting pain hidden by Yelena that we get to see steadily come out over the course of the feature. She was the only member of her 'family' who was unaware that their time in America wasn't real and so not being able to hold onto those connections really destroyed her. Yet seeing Pugh depict Yelena healing from this and reuniting with her dysfunctional spy family is truly a storyline that is right at the heart of this film.

For a film titled Black Widow there isn't a strong emphasis here on giving Natasha much of a final journey. This film is essentially closure for the role and her handing the torch over to a new cadre of MCU characters like Yelena or Red Guardian. Johansson does excellent work throughout and this is a highly engaging film but you don't really gain anything new in respect to Natasha. Everything she has achieved in previous films is just repeated in this one. I also think the film likes to move very fast after the first action scene has gotten underway. We move from one high intensity action sequence where the stakes are high to another. The film only really slows down when the family comes together, I actually think the film would have benefited spreading out the time we spend with these new characters so that the audience can build a rapport with them. I think having this big mysterious sub-plot around Natasha thinking she had killed the leader of the Red Room and his daughter in the past was a little bit obvious and something the feature never put much effort into paying off. Finally the film ends by teasing that Black Widow may well be facing serious repercussions with the law while her 'family' escapes, but the film does a lazy time jump to avoid explaining how she ever really got out of that mess. That truly felt like an abrupt way to close out the film and wasn't as satisfying as it could have otherwise been.

Ever Anderson and Violet McGraw, who played Young Natasha and Young Yelena respectively, were on two spectrums of poor young performers; Anderson just played straight to indifference while McGraw went to young and hapless stereotype. O-T Fagbenle, who played Mason, was the dull yet present tech man with an answer to most solutions; Fagbenle could've been any number of performers and this role would never have gotten much more interesting than it was. William Hurt, who played Secretary Ross, gives his usual gruff cameo but to little impact; I don't think this role has been exciting since his return in Captain America: Civil War. Olga Kurylenko, who played Antonia, is wasted in what really amounts to a minor amount of time in this film; the feature never really wants to engage with Antonia's story too much so they probably should've just left this antagonists as a stunt person.

An absolutely action-packed and well-performed adventure that makes for a nice, if not modest, send off for the original female Avenger. I would give Black Widow a 7.5/10.