REVIEW #63 Black Widow (2021)

Black Widow is the solo film for Natasha Romanoff, set after the events of Captain America: Civil War where the American government are hunting her for breaking the Sokovia Accords. Natasha is forced to confront her dark past and mend relationships that she hadn’t thought about since before becoming an Avenger. 

CAST & THE ACTING 

Scarlett Johansson reprises her role as Black Widow for the final time and is joined by a stellar cast. Florence Pugh takes on the role of Yelena Belova, David Harbour is the Red Guardian and Rachel Weisz is Melina Vostokoff, which rounds off their complicated family. Ray Winstone is Dreykov the main villain in the film and Olga Kurylenka takes up the role of Taskmaster. Overall I think the acting was pretty decent, they went for a more comical approach in my opinion which tends to be the way for most Marvel Films these days. There was a nice dynamic between Florence and Scarlett which created good chemistry between the two sisters on screen. Although there was a big injection of comedy, there were moments which really highlighted Natasha’s dark and troubled past and the rekindling of family relationships did appear to dig up those complicated emotions in the character. However I would have liked to have seen a shift in focus from the funny one liners to the more deeper explorations into characters because it would helped us understand Natasha Romanoff a lot better.

PLOT & THE STORYLINE 

I have seen a lot of people question the storyline of the film and especially the Dreykov villain, criticising the fact he doesn’t actually appear too much in the film. However the idea was to show how he was impossible to find but also how he controls every one of his widows around the globe. So every time we saw the widows pursuing Natasha and Yelena we were ultimately seeing Dreykov, so I understood why his physical presence wasn’t required in a lot of scenes. There was certainly a large focus on exploring the dynamic between Natasha’s family and the troubles they had, which I enjoyed. I really liked the introduction of the Red Guardian but I was disappointed at how weak he was portrayed, he come across as more of a gimmick then a super soldier! With Black Widow now deceased after the events of Endgame, Marvel have set up her replacement Yelena really well and I think she will be a great addition to the main roster. So overall the storyline wasn’t perfect but I believe it was a nice tribute to the Black Widow Character.

CINEMATOGRAPHY & SPECIAL EFFECTS 

With any Marvel film you can always expect high quality effects and great cinematography and this was no different. There were huge action sequences, for example the huge finale with Natasha fighting Taskmaster whilst free falling through the air, that looked great. The battles between those characters actually created a few good scenes, the first interaction on the bridge in Norway I think was my favourite. The dark setting with the subtle lighting from the bridge, lit the scene really well and it was the first time we have seen Black Widow’s fighting ability basically completely nullified! I think the fight scene between Natasha and Yelena was also captured nicely, with the camera work flowing smoothly around them. So there wasn’t to much to fault here because this is an area where Marvel heavily invest in to ensure the audience is always entertained.

OVERALL (8/10)

I enjoyed Black Widow, it won’t be my favourite Marvel film but I think it was a great tribute for a great character, who absolutely deserved her own Solo film. Scarlett Johansson is the perfect Black Widow and I think they have got the casting of her replacement perfect as well with Florence Pugh. So I am excited to see her in future projects. The cinematography and special effects were good as you would expect with any Marvel film and finally finding out about what happened in Budapest was a nice touch for Black Widows final film. I actually liked the approach to not show Dreykov in too many scenes, emphasising his control by having his Widows do all his dirty work for him. It did seem like the Red Room was taken down rather easily in the end which was a little bit anticlimactic but overall I enjoyed it. 

Thanks for reading.

Callan