Jul 26, 2021
Movie Review: Black Widow
Rating: 2 Stars
If it wasn’t for the 58 references to the Avengers, one could mistake Black Widow for being a film that’s not in the mammoth Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not that there isn’t a heavy dose of action sequences with explosive set pieces, but Scarlett Johansson’s ‘Natasha Romanoff’ exists more in a Bond-like world.
Black Widow introduces a Bond-like villain with a Bond-like name who manages his own mind-controlled MI6. The villain, Dreykov (Rey Winstone), even does the Bond thing where he lectures Romanoff about his evil empire and how he has all the power at the tip of his finger in his hovering sky fortress.
Black Widow only borrows some Bond tropes though as the film pads it’s 2 hours and 14 minutes with some brief looks into Romanoff’s ‘family’.
If you were searching for an explorative piece into Romanoff’s character that’s not what you’ll be getting. Romanoff remains guarded in her emotions but she exhibits empathy in juxtaposition with her background as a ruthless assassin. As a result, Romanoff isn’t all that compelling.
Johannson does have a commanding screen presence but that is challenged by rising star Florence Pugh who plays Romanoff’s non-maternal sister, Yelena Belova. Pugh adds a few moments of comic relief but she also adds some emotional weight to the film. The film lacks emotional investment in general. It’s worth noting though because Pugh is a name I imagine will be attracting more starring roles in bigger budgeted films.
Black Widow opens with Romanoff’s non-maternal undercover Russian parents, Alexei (David Harbour) and Melina (Rachel Weisz). Alexei and Melina spend three years raising Natasha and Yelena before they get made and the family is split up in Cuba. Yelena gets subjected to Dreykov’s indoctrinated spy program while Natasha is on the run as the result of the Avengers Civil War. Natasha reconnects with Yelena to learn that Dreykov still runs the Black Widow project. Natasha thought she had killed Dreykov. The duo decides to hunt Dreykov and finish him for good. Alexei and Melina reenter the picture to help track Dreykov down.
The movie slows a bit to consider their broken family dynamic but Black Widow doesn’t have time to give much consequence to emotional trauma. Anytime someone sits down to talk about their feelings, bullets and soldiers come raining in.
Black Widow’s action-centric approach wouldn’t be surprising if it wasn’t for Australian director Cate Shortland being at the helm. Shortland’s previous films have all been in the drama genre. I’d be curious to know what influence Shortland brought to the film in the midst of working within Marvel constraints.
Black Widow also features a somewhat known Marvel villain in the form of Taskmaster (I’m sorry, but this will always be a lame name for a supervillain). Taskmaster has the ability to mimic their opponent’s moves and use them against them. The rub is that Natasha’s fight sequences are fairly standard so outside of her patented Rey Mysterio-esque head-scissor hurricanrana, there’s not much for Taskmaster to mimic.
Though Black Widow doesn’t feel completely saturated in the Marvel formula, it doesn’t differentiate itself enough from any typical action cinema to be memorable. It’s not a wasted 2+ hours but it’s not worth rushing to theaters for unless you’ve been clamoring to see some movie theater explosions post-lockdown.
Black Widow doesn’t find a signature theme to land on and that’s usually where the Marvel formula actually gets it right. Character flaws for Marvel characters are often internal and become a central theme of the story. It’s the way those flaws are presented within the context of the story that drives films like Iron Man or Ant-Man. Black Widow isn’t written with that ambition and the film ultimately suffers for it.
