Black Widow

 

8.5/10

In Black Widow's first feature film, which takes place between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, the titular superhero spy (played by Scarlett Johansson), ends up dealing with her tragic past as she goes up against the organization that trained her.  

This is definitely the darkest Marvel movie, even more so than Infinity War.  Think of this like the franchise's version of a modern James Bond film. Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff has a compelling backstory and personal journey in this. Although we get the traditional action-packed finale to a Marvel film, I appreciated that the emphasis still remained with story. That having been said, I do think that too much emphasis was put on Black Widow's past personal experience with her allies. I would have liked to seen more explanation of how the Black Widow program operated. Also, this movie does a good job of successfully filling in elements of BW's backstory hinted in the past without feeling crammed in or being disappointing (like with how the reveal of how Nick Fury lost his eye).

Johansson again does a confident, cool performance as her character. What's fresh is Florence Pugh's performance as Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), another member of the Black Widow program whose got a past with Natasha. She's the funny one in comparison to the straighter Natasha, and has most of the best lines. 

Speaking of Natasha's humorousness, though she's fun, I admit her more jovial attitude doesn't line up with her tragic backstory of being trained as a soldier since her childhood. The character of Alexei/the Red Guardian, though Stranger Things' David Harbour does well in the role, is supposed to be a comedy relief and redemptive character, but it's hard to forgive him based on his past actions. Based on the man he started as, I think the script could've done more to make him remorseful. 

The main villain Dreykov (Rey Winstone) isn't the most stand out antagonist in the MCU, but he's not underwritten like some of weaker ones such as Thor the Dark World's Maliketh. Dreykov has the honor of being Marvel's single most hate-able villain. A lot of villains in the MCU you can understand where they're coming from, though you can't condone their actions, but this villain is just refreshingly horrible.

This is a Marvel film, so there are the traditional big action set pieces, including a couple grand visuals. They have that traditional Marvel feel, but don't do enough to differentiate from other films in the franchise. The editing during the action also feels too quick. On t.he plus side, the hand-to-hand fighting fairs better than the other action parts. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this. The story definitely kept my interest, and it was definitely nice to finally see a movie go into Natasha's past. However, I admit that the plot set up might not work for everyone.