Marvel Studios gives Scarlett Johansson her big sendoff and ushers in another superstar.
For the first time in two years I got to see a new Marvel movie in theaters and let me just tell you, it was glorious seeing that Marvel logo pop up on screen. Fans have been waiting a decade to get a solo Black Widow movie and now we have one. Black Widow picks up right after Captain America: Civil War and showed us what Natasha Romanoff was up to when she wasn't kicking it with the Avengers. It gave us just enough of an origin story mixed with a new tale and introduced some very cool new characters. This will be a completely spoiler free review so feel free to read without worry!
Scarlett Johansson made her MCU debut as Natasha Romanoff a.k.a, Black Widow, in Iron Man 2 back in 2010. She's received critical acclaim and is one of the highest grossing box office stars of all time, but had never gotten to star in an MCU solo film, always playing second fiddle to Cap or Tony Stark. Now, she finally gets the chance to star as the character that has meant so much to her for so long. Black Widow is an exciting action and espionage movie in the same vein as Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It feels like we have known the Black Widow character forever without truly knowing much about her and this movie gave us a chance to explore Natasha's past and meet her adopted family. And what a cast of characters that is.
Florence Pugh (Midsommar, Little Women) co-stars as Natasha's younger sister, Yelena Belova. The brilliant Rachel Weisz (The Favourite, The Mummy) plays Melina, the sisters' mother figure, while David Harbour (Stranger Things) plays Alexei a.k.a Red Guardian, (which is the Russian version of Captain America) and acts as the girls' father figure. All were absolutely fantastic in their respective roles but Florence Pugh absolutely stole the show. The best decision Marvel made was casting her in the role of Yelena to take the torch from Johansson. I wrote about Pugh being a rising star after her breakout 2019, but director Cate Shortland used Black Widow to launch her into mega-stardom. Her portrayal of Yelena was perfect in the way she was able to blend the action with tough emotions and some very funny wry humor. She is one of my favorite actresses and I can't wait to see more of her in the MCU. And please more roles for David Harbour. He was great in No Sudden Move and in Black Widow as the big brute Red Guardian who was just a bit past his prime. Having "Karl Marx" tattooed across his knuckles is one of the funniest things in any Marvel movie ever.
Outside of the cast performances, a couple great scenes stood out to me. The pre-credits scene was one of the MCU's best, giving us a glimpse of Natasha's former life before the Red Room. I also really enjoyed a prison break scene right around the midpoint of the movie. Make sure to stick around for a post credits scene with some pretty significant implications for the future of the MCU. It still blows my mind when credits roll in an MCU movie and half the theater gets up to leave. Where have you people been the last 20+ movies? The action and stunts were great of course, my only real gripe has to do with the villain. I think Taskmaster was wasted in this movie. The true villain was General Dreykov in the Red Room and Taskmaster only acted as his muscle. Taskmaster is pretty cool in the ability to mimic any attacker and we saw them act like Black Panther, Spider-man, Cap, and Hawkeye in this but I feel like we could have gotten more. The costume was pretty sick though and maybe Taskmaster will make a return sometime, I honestly have no idea.
Overall, Black Widow is a more than solid return to theaters for Marvel Studios. I wouldn't put it in my top 5 from Marvel (that's Endgame, Winter Soldier, Guardians 1, Ragnarok, and Infinity War) but it's a very good, enjoyable action caper, even if it might be a smidge long. I wish Taskmaster was a little better utilized, but what really made the movie was the relationships between Natasha and the rest of her family. Nat and Yelena's back and forth sisterly banter was fantastic. It's a really good way to send Scarlett Johansson out of the MCU and bring in the next big star in Florence Pugh to take up the Black Widow mantle. Next up from Marvel is Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in September, brining us a whole new character and story. I'm not sure what my next review will be - possible the new Space Jam because that has the potential to be so bad it's good. If I don't do that one maybe Jungle Cruise or for sure James Gunn's new Suicide Squad movie. Anyways, go see Black Widow in theaters, it's well worth the trip!
- BH
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