Before I get into my impression of the movie I’d like to, first, applaud Scarlett Johansson for her portrayal and evolution of Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow since 2010’s Iron Man 2.
Over the past 11 years she developed into a standout character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with her breakout performance coming in 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier and culminating here in her explosive, emotional solo outing directed by Cate Shortland.
Marvel Studios’ first theatrical release since Avengers: Endgame benefitted from the delays. It gave us even more time to process Black Widow’s death while building our insatiable desire for, somewhat, movie-watching normalcy.
I sat in Celebration Cinema’s Studio C completely comfortable with a reclining leather chair beneath me and two masks on my face. I was too entertained to remove those covering to eat snacks and drink a beer. I was satisfied by the meal of antics and action that happened on the huge screen in front if me.
Congrats to Disney+ for the success of Black Widow via their Premier Access, but there was no way I was watching this movie any other way than on a movie screen. That was totally the right call.
Black Widow was massive and loud yet, when it mattered, completely enclosed and focused. The facade of Natasha’s childhood family life got a chilling, painful, and emotionally uncomfortable payoff around a dinner table during its setting between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War.
Florence Pugh, David Harbour, and Rachel Weisz were great as Natasha’s respective surrogate sister Yelena Belove, father Alexei aka Red Guardian, and mother, Melina. Taskmaster was a cool bad guy while Ray Winestone was excellent as the mysterious main villain Dreykov.
I enjoyed Black Widow, especially the aspect of having family whether they’re blood relatives or not. The action was over the top but not so much that it looked eye-rolling ridiculous. As for the story, one set between two previous stories, was unique and fresh among its MCU peers, and I thought they did a good job of building on Natasha feeling alone and disconnected while on the run from General Ross for violating the Sokovia Accords.
If this was truly Johansson’s final outing as the troubled Avenger, her long-awaited curtain call was just desserts. |THIS.
[By M.J. Walker]
