After being delayed for a full year, Black Widow finally opened in theaters (and on Disney+). I ventured out to the movies to see the flick, as I am a fan of the MCU and miss watching those movies on the big screen. I thought the movie was… decent! Let’s jump into why.
I had extremely low expectations going into Black Widow. I thought the window for a Black Widow movie had closed a long time ago, and I wasn’t too excited about more prequel stuff. That said, I think the movie does a really solid job at building upon a character that never really had a chance to develop. Always relegated to being the sidekick, Natasha Romanoff finally gets some spotlight in Black Widow.
While Scarlett Johansson is quite good in Black Widow, Florence Pugh is also really excellent. Pugh’s Yelena is a fascinating character, and also gives more depth to Natasha. Without giving blatant spoilers, I really like how the movie tees up the potential of her being the MCU’s new Black Widow.
Let’s get into the things that don’t work too well in Black Widow. If you’ve seen any marketing, you know that Taskmaster is a primary villain in the movie. While Taskmaster’s action scenes are pretty excellent, it was hard for me to agree with how they used the character in the story. Taskmaster’s identity and backstory is entirely reworked in order to fit into Natasha’s and is used as a tool to further develop her character. It’s something Marvel is often known to do - using their villains to further their heroes, and nothing else. I just wish that Taskmaster was the awesome character that they could be.
I also found some issues with Alexi and Melina. Though David Harbour and Rachel Weisz deliver solid performances in the roles, my problems come with the writing. These are two characters that are objectively horrible people, that upheld abusive institutions and subjected people they claimed to care about to such treatment. While they help save the day in the end, it feels like these characters get off too easily in a movie about people having to answer for their behavior.
Black Widow is a decent MCU movie that gives some much-needed depth to a longtime character, while also setting up future franchise plot lines. It’s a very “MCU” MCU movie. I say that to say, if you aren’t a fan of this series, you will definitely dislike this movie. However, if you’re a fan of the franchise and dig the character, you’ll find plenty of reasons to enjoy Black Widow.
