Even Without The Highest Of Stakes, 'Black Widow' Is Still Able To Thrill
Starring Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Rachel Weisz, Ray Winstone, O-T Fagbenle
Rated PG-13
Action, Sci-Fi
Run time: 2 hr, 13 min
Directed by Cate Shortland
In theaters July 9, 2021
Guess what, everyone? Blockbuster season is back and Marvel kicked it off with a bang. After months and months of delays and concern that the long-awaited Black Widow film would end up only on Disney+, we were able to relive the joy of seeing a superhero flick actually in a theater. I was worried I had built the experience up in my mind after so many months away from it all, but with every laugh, jump or gasp the audience collectively made just reminded me of why I love the movies so much. People so excited to see a new iteration of their favorite franchise that they go on opening night, the whispered predictions or questions and the smell of popcorn in the air were all things I’d missed without realizing it. And I’m not sure I could have asked for a better first-Marvel-movie-back than Black Widow.
The movie is set pretty much directly after Captain America: Civil War and shows us what Natasha Romanoff (Johansson) was up to when the Avengers were going through their schism. She’s on the run, but soon gets pulled into a firefight she didn’t know was happening when she comes across a bunch of vials of a substance that an insanely talented, seemingly undefeatable robot-super-person-hybrid is really wanting to get their hands on. Natasha is reunited with Yelena (Pugh), a young woman from her past who went through a similar, if not worse, experience that Natasha has hinted at in many previous movies. To avoid giving too much away, that’s pretty much all you need to know in order to be invested and on the edge of your seat with every turn the movie makes.
Early reviews named Pugh as the scene-stealing star of the film, and they couldn’t be more right. Yelena is darkly funny, incredibly skilled and armed with an army surplus vest that is has an excellent amount of pockets. Pugh and Johansson have such an easy chemistry that they truly seem like they’ve known each other forever. There is the bickering of sisters, the begrudging respect of a potential rivalry and the tentative trust coming from two living with a shared experience. David Harbour and Rachel Weisz do great jobs with their roles, but they fade into the background any time the two leads are interacting. This may have been Black Widow’s movie but Marvel knew what they were doing by splitting the spotlight between her and Yelena. Fagbenie is a delightful surprise in this film, and seeing him have a lighter role than what we’re used to seeing for him in Handmaid’s Tale was wonderful.
It’d be easy to assume that this movie would be a placeholder since the stakes are so low. We know the conclusion of Natasha’s story; we’ve already seen it. Despite some pretty solid plot armor and being aware of just where this tale goes, the 2+ hour flies by as Natasha and Yelena delve deeper into the mysteries the now-elusive Red Room has that they both have escaped from. It feels like such a solid passing of the torch from one Widow to another, and one I can’t wait to see even more of. If this movie (and my current love, the Disney+ Loki show) is any indication of what we could expect going forward into the next phase of the MCU, they’re going to be as steady as ever, and probably dictating the blockbuster box offices for many years to come.