While the pandemic put an abrupt end to cinema-going in most territories for a good long while, the MCU did not slow down as Marvel Studios instead looked to Disney+, where their series have continuously managed to enthrall audiences as the superhero entertainment giant kept building their live action universe on the streaming service.
As the world has started to open up again, however, cinemas have reopened as well, and Black Widow is the first MCU feature film to welcome us back with that familiar opening theme.
With Black Widow, the MCU provides its take on the likes of Ethan Hunt and Jason Bourne, and the film delivers respectable action set pieces, which makes it clear that Black Widow deserves its big screen release in that regard.
Natasha’s toughness is emphasized throughout the film as Scarlett Johansson delivers a solid performance, but the true star is Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, whom we have certainly not seen the last of.
Sarcastic and snappy, Pugh serves as both a reminder of the Black Widow of the MCU films of the earlier phases as well as making the character of Yelena completely her own.
In terms of their chemistry, the two leading ladies spar well, making their connection as surrogate sisters engaging to watch as they set out to settle old scores, which have plenty of references to Natasha’s escapades previously mentioned in the MCU, just as Yelena gets to add some self-awareness to the film as she mocks her sister’s mannerisms.
As for their surrogate parents, Rachel Weisz does well with what she is given, and while David Harbour is still as watchable as ever as the Soviet super soldier, the choice to overwhelmingly use his character as comic relief will not sit well with most fans of the Red Guardian.
Harbour has some action scenes, but whereas effort was made with the action scenes involving Johansson and Pugh, Harbour feels underutilized, both action-wise and dramatically, and the humor used in his scenes largely grates and reduces him to an oafish Russian stereotype.
On the villainous side of things, the film unfortunately largely fails to impress as well.
Ray Winstone’s portrayal of the unscrupulous General Dreykov leaves a lot to be desired, as it relies heavily on the audience having preconceived notions about the degree of Dreykov’s dastardliness based on all the other brusque characters Winstone has portrayed over the years. Similarly, while Taskmaster provides some of the very best action sequences in the film, the character ultimately feels squandered.
As a whole, Black Widow is perfectly serviceable, but it simply lacks sufficient narrative punch and sense of urgency because we already know what comes next for the main character. With Natasha’s arc having long since concluded in the MCU, it is frankly difficult to genuinely invest in her when we know that the events of her solo film have no bearings whatsoever for the outcome of her story in the MCU.
Similarly, the film would have been better served by the original release order, where it would have been shown prior to the Disney+ shows.
Here, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier had many impressive action set pieces and emotionally impactful narrative elements, and Black Widow simply does not surpass The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in terms of action sequences or narrative stakes, which sadly makes the film fall short on both counts.
As the story goes, had Ike Perlmutter not repeatedly thrown a spanner in the works for the production of the likes of Black Panther and Black Widow due to his archaic perceptions of what superhero movies should be, Kevin Feige would have brought both of these characters’ solo movies to the big screen sooner. Black Widow in particular would have been a perfect addition to the second phase of the MCU, as we were still only getting to know the Avengers at that point, and her solo story would have been infinitely more compelling within that context.
Unfortunately, that is not how things played out, and one regrettably has to conclude that Black Widow is, as feared, a case of too little, too late.
Verdict: 6 out of 10.
Black Widow is now playing in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access
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Produced by Kevin Feige
Screenplay by Eric Pearson
Story by Jac Schaeffer, Ned Benson
Directed by Cate Shortland
Starring Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbour,
O-T Fagbenle, Olga Kurylenko, William Hurt, Ray Winstone, Rachel Weisz
