Black Widow — Movie Review
by KJ Proulx
When it comes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I’ve been here from the very beginning, excited for every film. The franchise is by no means perfect, but when you look back on every film collectively, culminating with Avengers: Endgame, you can’t really do anything but praise the effort and the outcome. Ever since they announced they were making a Black Widow movie, I was honestly scratching my head as to why they would go backwards, seeing as the character had died during the events of the massive climax. Well, after a year of delays, it has now been released, but I’m still wondering that same question. Even though this film is good overall, it just feels like it should’ve been released about three or four years ago.
Taking place in between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, Natasha Romanoff finds herself on the run from the government and is being pursued by something directly related to her past. This in turn provides the backstory for the character, which was nice but also felt like just an elaboration of things we learned about her slowly throughout the franchise. Again, I was entertained by Black Widow from start to finish, but it just kind of felt unnecessary. Where this film surprisingly shines is in the supporting cast.
Scarlett Johansson has always been likeable as this character, but I honestly feel that the family dynamic between her sister and parents was the best stuff in the film. Her sister Yelena (Florence Pugh) and father Alexei (David Harbour) stole the movie every time either of them was on-screen. David Harbour is clearly just having a blast with this character and it’s very fun to watch. On the other side, Florence Pugh was easily the best part of the movie for me. Her performance, along with her bond with her sister just elevated the film for me. If Black Widow was simply about Natasha confronting her past, alone, this movie would have been incredibly boring. Sadly though, it does become slightly boring at times.
There were a few instances where things kind of feel like they’re happening because nothing exciting is going on. It really just feels like Marvel wanted to give Scarlett Johanssen her own movie before saying goodbye to the character, but also leaving the door open for someone else to take up the Black Widow title. It’s also kind of difficult to dive into the villain subplot without giving anything away, but when it’s revealed who is under the Task Master outfit, I both enjoyed and hated it. It has a nice payoff but the character until that point always felt underused. Marvel has had a pretty solid track record lately with their villains, but even though a threat is present here, there never really seems to be any big stakes.
Overall, I enjoyed watching Black Widow because I like the character, I like Scarlett Johansson, and I loved the family aspect, mainly a couple of notable scenes in the second half of the film. Even after this film explored her past, I still feel like we didn’t quite get enough from this character before saying goodbye. On top of that, since everything else in the series seems to be building on or moving past the events of Avengers: Endgame, this movie deserved to be released during the time period it takes place in. A film like Captain Marvel jumped back far enough that it wasn’t really an issue and it was a brand new character as well. This film felt like it was trying to accomplish the same thing but ultimately felt like I was sitting in the theatre around 2017. In the end, I still give this film a positive grade and recommend checking it out if you have followed the franchise until this point, but other than introducing one or two new characters that we definitely haven’t seen the last of, Black Widow feels a little too distant from the currently Marvel Cinematic Universe, as it stands now.
Rating: 3.5/5
Check out the trailer below:
