Black Widow (2021)

Black Widow (2021)

6/10

Starring

Scarlett Johansson

Florence Pugh

David Harbour

Rachel Weisz

Ray Winstone

 

Directed by Cate Shortland

 

The movie was not a disappointment. I expected it wouldn’t be as good as Captain Marvel (2019), but it turned out to be a fun ride. From start to finish, the movie is packed with action, explosions, and a lot of talk about family. It gets straight to the point—identifying the target and setting everyone in motion to take him down.

Black Widow is the 24th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and the first in Phase Four. It serves as both Natasha Romanoff’s (Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson) origin story and her solo movie. The film is set after the events of Captain America: Civil War (2016), taking place before Romanoff sacrifices herself to save mankind in Avengers: Endgame (2019). In this story, we see Natasha on the run, forced to confront her past.

The movie features a villain I had been waiting to see for a while: Taskmaster. Taskmaster has the ability to copy and master any fighting style just by watching, making this character almost unstoppable. Unfortunately, I didn’t like how Taskmaster’s role was handled in the movie; we saw very little of what the character is truly capable of.

The plot kicks off after the events of Civil War, with Natasha on the run. She receives a parcel from an old associate, Yelena Belova, who once posed as her sister during a mission where they pretended to be a family spying on the U.S. The parcel contains vials, but unsure what to do with them, Natasha decides to meet Yelena. Before that, however, she has a run-in with Taskmaster.

After Natasha and Yelena have a quick “welcome back” fight, Yelena explains the purpose of the vials—they’re a counteragent to the mind control used on assassins like her. Natasha thought she had already killed Dreykov, the man behind the Red Room program that took young girls, trained them to be assassins, and subjected them to mind control. Determined to end the program for good, Natasha decides to get her old “family” back together—Red Guardian and Melina (another Black Widow)—to take down Dreykov once and for all.

Movies in 2021 seem to revolve a lot around themes of family, and this one is no exception. It’s funny to think this movie might not have ended up in that category if COVID-19 hadn’t delayed its release. One thing I’ll give the movie credit for is how quickly the action starts. There’s barely a moment to breathe before the explosions, one-on-one fights, and car/bike chases kick in.

You can catch Black Widow in theaters or on demand on Disney+.