Summary
After almost a decade of rumours and development, Black Widow finally gets her own feature. Taking place in the MCU’s past, it’s a final ride for a favourite character while pointing to the origins of several new franchises.
Natasha Romanoff was dead: to begin with. There was no doubt whatever about that. The register of her departure was signed, sealed and delivered in one of many climactic moments in Avengers: Endgame. Yet with a solo film having been in the works since at least 2012, the Marvel Cinematic Universe would not be complete without one (possibly) final outing for Black Widow.
In the grand tradition of recent MCU flicks, it opens in 1995 — around the time Captain Marvel was crashing into the roof of a Los Angeles Blockbuster. Soviet spies Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour) and Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz) have to suddenly leave their small town American home, and after a dramatic chase land a plane in Cuba. Their ‘daughters’ Natasha and Yelena are carted off to the Red Room for kick-ass Widow training.
Following montage set to Malia J’s cover of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit,’ the film proper picks up 21 years later after the events of Captain America: Civil War, with the adult Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) now on the run. Jetting off to various safe houses in the old country, she runs into her ‘sister’ Yelena (Florence Pugh) — and runs afoul of the highly-skilled masked Taskmaster. With a MacGuffin of a red mist that deprograms mind-controlled Widows, the would-be sisters seek their former ‘parents’ in order to find and kill the mastermind Dreykov (Ray Winstone).
BLACK WIDOW is a film of two halves. In the comparatively gentler paced first half, we see more of Cate Shortland’s signature storytelling. The filmmaker that brought us emotionally packed coming-of-age stories (Joy, Somersault) and the delicate and impressionistic portrait of a young woman impacted by wartime regimes (Lore) is present here. At its best, where the makeshift family gently mocks and challenges each other, there’s a real human drama at play. Part of me wanted to just remain here, pondering whether scriptwriter Eric Pearson’s TV background made this an ideal candidate for a Disney+ series about the heroes running about Europe and hiding from the bad guys. Then again, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier already kind of did that.
Yet its the second part where the previsualised action set-pieces take over that slides the film firmly back into MCU territory. Largely taking place on an aerial base — because it wouldn’t be an MCU film without a big object falling from the sky in the finale — there is some seriously badass action here. Yes, it still comes down to hand-to-hand combat between two foes, and with some staging vaguely reminiscent of the Guardians of the Galaxy finale. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a hell of a ride on the way down, combining midair explosions with Lorne Balfe’s bombastic score to great effect.
Johansson clearly slips comfortably into the titular role, turning up to strap on the spandex and pleather for a seventh time. Harbour, playing a now out-of-shape Russian super soldier, serves up some serious Mr. Incredible realness while trying to fit into his old Red Guardian outfit. It’s unquestionably Pugh who emerges as the new action star though, and one can only hope that Weisz returns in some form in later series outings.
If BLACK WIDOW had landed in its original May 2020 release date, it would have launched Phase 4 of the MCU over a year ago. Yet arriving now in the wake of the endless Disney+ content cycle — which has told more complex stories across WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki — it simply becomes a lower-stakes bit of grist for the mill. Indeed, the obligatory post-credits sequence almost makes the preceding two hours a set-up for a different series due later this year. Or it’s simply a last hurrah with a fan-favourite character, one where we get to see her evolve a little beyond her Avengers teammates and conclusively learn the origin story of her vest.
2021 | USA | DIRECTOR: Cate Shortland | WRITER: Eric Pearson | CAST: Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, O-T Fagbenle, Olga Kurylenko, William Hurt, Ray Winstone, Rachel Weisz | DISTRIBUTOR: Disney | RUNNING TIME: 138 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 9 July 2021 (US/Disney+)
