Film Review: Black Widow

After numerous delays, the Marvel Cinematic Universe returns to the big screen with Black Widow. Directed by Cate Shortland, and written by Eric Pearson, the film takes place after the events of Captain America: Civil War. Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) is on the run from the U.S. government for violating the Sokovia Accords. However, a series of events reunites her with a kinda-sorta sister figure from her past, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh). The two start working together on a mission to take down Dreykov (Ray Winstone), and end his Black Widow program with the help of their old guardians back when they were undercover in America, Alexei (David Harbour) and Melina (Rachel Weisz).

There has been a lot of desire for a Black Widow film for a while, pretty much since she was introduced in Iron Man 2. Though for one reason or another – probably because of Marvel chairman and former overseer of the film division, Ike Perlmutter, Marvel Studios has kept the character aside until they finally started seriously developing the project back in 2018. The timing is odd though, given the character died in Avengers: Endgame. For many, this might seem too little too late, and it’s not hard to see why that would be the case.

I was quite surprised by Black Widow. It was a film that I wasn’t anticipating all that much, but I had a really good time with it. But who knows, maybe it’s been so long since I’ve seen a Marvel movie that it’s quirks don’t bother as much as it would have if this was the third one I’ve seen in a single year. I don’t think that’s really the case because for many parts of the film, it doesn’t feel like your standard MCU film. At it’s best, it’s a really fun globe trotting spy action movie.

As a pure action movie, I believe this might be the best in the MCU. Relying mostly on hand-to-hand combat, the choreography hits quite harder than previous entries in the franchise. People have bones broken, they get away with more blood and on-screen stabbings than a typical modern, PG-13 tentpole, and the stunt work is really solid; at least, plenty solid enough to forgive some of the obvious CG doubles. And the inclusion of Taskmaster, a villain who mimics the fighting style of all the Avengers, provides for some really cool beats within the action sequence.

But as with some of the best of the Marvel films, the focus is ultimately not on the action, but the characters. While the Black Widow title might make you assume this is the Natasha show, she more or less is on equal footing with Yelena, who I’m sure we’ll more of in the future. The film follows their attempts at coming to terms with the past, about their lost childhoods, about growing up as agents of the stage, and there’s a lot of great character moments that come out of these conversational bits between Natasha, Yelena, Alexei, and Melina. Plus, seeing Harbour chew the scenery is endlessly amusing.

When the film does lean on the “business as usual” when it comes to Marvel spectacle, it does feel more earned than some of the other, more overblown finales of previous films. It helps that the action is more face-to-face, and more personal, giving an edge to some of the bigger moments that prevents it from feeling too bombastic. What keeps it together is that you’re invested in these characters. The main core is very likable, and their banter is funny and endearing, so when they do get into these high stakes situations, you’re just rooting for them to come through.

Black Widow might start off a bit rough, I can’t say I dug the sad piano cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” all that much, but the film genuinely gets better as it goes along. I like that the film doesn’t seem that concerned with creating setups for future MCU projects, the only one being the introduction of Yelena, which works in the context of this film. I can see why that might be disappointing to some who are more invested in the broader implications of the universe, but that doesn’t appeal to me. And as far as this being “too little too late,” I think if you to watch this right after Civil War, nothing would feel off except for its post-credits sequence. I just found this to be a really enjoyable standalone story that gives Natasha her due as a character, and for the most part, seemingly offers Cate Shortland the opportunity to make the kind of film she wanted to make. I enjoyed this quite a bit, despite the awkward timing of its release, and I’m excited at the prospect of seeing Yelena more in this universe.

Black Widow is now out in theaters and Disney+ via Premier Access.