One of the more mysterious Marvel characters finally gets her own film, confronting old “family” members and evil figures from her past.
The 24th installment in the long running franchise and set just after the events of Civil War (13 years’ worth of films now in this MCU universe), and what seems to be one of the last heroes to finally get their standalone project – Hawkeye, your time is coming don’t worry. What was meant to be a superhero film that follows the trend of the past few years but felt far more akin to a sexy espionage thriller, something that is much-welcomed change in comparison to the films of her superpowered teammates.
Visually spectacular on all fronts (except for some mildly dodgy CGI towards the end) I felt it to be one of the stronger Marvel films in memory; it was different and unique, less reliant on superpowers and more reliant on fluid hand to hand combat and an emotional backstory. It had genuine humour and introduced interesting new characters (Pugh and Harbour were stand outs in this regard), it is a good solid film for Black Widow to be the centre of attention, and it’s long overdue.
Black Widow is directed by Cate Shortland (whose previous works include Australian films such as 2017s Berlin Syndrome) and she has matched the success and quality of the previous MCU films, which is no mean feat. The action scenes were amazing as you would expect from Marvel films by now; elaborate and intricate, with huge spectacles and plenty of explosions for good measure.
The cast is what propels Black Widow to lofty heights though – the supporting characters in particular – they enhanced the film and created new dimensional layers to the story and to Black Widow’s character. Florence Pugh was very impressive as Yelena Belova (Black Widow’s sister), stealing the limelight from Scarlett Johansson with great ease, and I’m sure we will be seeing a lot more of her character in future Marvel films and series’. David Harbour was brilliantly cast as The Red Guardian as well, adding a great deal of comedic relief and acting as a great foil for the predominantly female cast.
Black Widow begins with a flashback of Natasha Romanoff in her youth (Played by Ever Anderson, Milla Jovovich’s daughter. Nice bit of trivia for you) as she lives in a sleepy town in Ohio with her family. They are forced to leave Ohio (they are secretly undercover agents working for the Russians) and escape to Cuba whilst being chased by S.H.I.E.L.D.
The film fast forwards 20 years and Natasha (Johansson), who is now the Black Widow that we all know, is on the run from the American forces. Her escape is soon interrupted by a mysterious kitted up super soldier, forcing her to explore her origins, specifically the place known as “The Red Room” which is led by General Dreykov (Ray Winstone, who has surely portrayed the most varied gangsters in terms of nationalities), the man who controlled her before she escaped years previously. Dreykov’s plan is to create an endless supply of “Black Widows” and control the world leaders with ease. Natasha enlists the help of her surrogate sister from earlier in the film, Yelena Belova (Pugh) who is a former brainwashed Black Widow assassin for the Red Room, to help destroy Dreykov’s plans.
The sister’s travel to a varying number of locations (they seemed to get to these places with such efficiency, they weren’t travelling coach) searching for clues to the whereabouts of The Red Room. They decided to ask for the help of their surrogate father, former superhero, and the Russian equivalent to Captain America, The Red Guardian, also known as Alexei Shostakov (Harbour) who was betrayed by Dreykov and sent to a maximum-security prison for life. After a daring escape involving explosions that Michael Bay would be proud of, Alexei takes them to the one person who knows where Dreykov will be, their surrogate mother, an experienced Red Room scientist and assassin, Melina Vostokoff (Rachael Weisz) – what a lovely little family reunion, it brings a tear to the eye.
Unforeseen circumstances eventually force them to The Red Room – a lofty secret plane of sorts, high up in the sky – it is here that Natasha finds out all the information she has been craving, about her past and Dreykov’s future. The Russian Avengers as I have now named them, must attempt to destroy The Red Room once and for all – cue dodgy CGI fire for this next bit.
I really liked Black Widow, it was refreshing and very welcome in a franchise where the powered heroes get all the recognition, and the others are there to support. Well, now the supported have risen to the top, and its success gives hope to the other supporting members of The Avengers to be further explored – I’m still looking at you Hawkeye.
The dynamic had the perfect blend of action and story to facilitate the other if one was lacking, it was an intricate balancing act. The story was gritty enough and the plot had structure and depth, it wasn’t full-blown action with Johansson and Pugh in tight catsuits beating people up, they were both bad asses and each had their own emotional tone. Although it did kind of feel like an apology film of sorts, with all Marvel fans knowing about the misfortunes of Natasha in Endgame, this is the film that gives her that just deserved send off, after being abruptly killed off. Still, an entertaining film none the less, and I’m excited to the see what the future has in store for Pugh’s character more than anything.
Black Widow is available to watch in your local cinema now, as well as on Disney +.
No Comment.