Review: Black Widow Won't Go Down As Top-Tier MCU Content
Not only is the release of Black Widow a reason to rejoice because the movie has finally come to theaters and Disney Plus Premier Access fourteen months behind schedule after being shunted way, way back from May 2020 due to the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic, but it’s also giving Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff the solo adventure fans have been asking to see for a decade. Admittedly, it comes at a point when she’s already been killed off in the main timeline, and the entirety of the film can’t seem to shake off that “too little, too late” feeling.
A breezy prologue sets the stage in 1995 Ohio, with a regular family unit soon revealing themselves to be a cover story for Russian infiltration of the United States. Rumbled, David Harbour’s Alexei Shostakov and Rachel Weisz’s Melina Vostokoff are forced to make a quick getaway, handing their ‘children’ over to Ray Winstone’s Dreykov where they’re indoctrinated into Red Room training, and we’re off to the races.
The following two decades are neatly filled in by the opening credits montage, which also reveals the presence of a relatively big name among the cast that’s been kept top secret throughout the promotional and marketing blitz, so as soon as you see who it is, you can probably guess where things are heading when the big reveal is eventually made.
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After escaping from William Hurt’s General Ross, who’s either hunting for the rogue Avenger or his paycheck, Nat flees to Norway to regroup with O-T Fagbenle’s Rick Mason, who most definitely isn’t who you think he is, with the actor pretty much there to deliver some exposition, a couple of wry quips and ostensibly fill the role marked “tech/gadget guy”.
It’s a sluggish start for what’s been pegged as a propulsive spy thriller, but things kick up a notch when Taskmaster first appears and kicks Agent Romanoff’s ass six ways from Sunday, instantly establishing the villain as a force to be reckoned with. We’re also introduced to Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova and Black Widow‘s primary plot device in one fell swoop, forcing the estranged sisters on a collision course and swift reconciliation, which happens via a bruising showdown in a Budapest apartment, complete with Hawkeye references for good measure.
In fact, you’ll probably lose count of the number of times Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are mentioned, and they loom over Natasha’s entire arc, for better or worse. Black Widow is supposed to be Johansson’s movie, and it definitely is to a certain extent, but as soon as the makeshift family unit are reunited she becomes little more than a cog in what’s still an incredibly well-oiled machine, at points acting as nothing more than a passenger in her own story.
