Respond to these rapid questions in our Black Widow quiz and we will tell you which Black Widow character you are. Play it now.
The year-plus delay of Marvel’s “Black Widow,” which will finally come to an end on July 9th when the film will be released in theaters and available for a premium charge on Disney+, has taken on an additional poignancy. Moreover, there’s a palpable sense that this story would have felt a little out of sync even if it had happened in May 2020. What is it about Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man that warranted three standalone films before Natasha Romanoff received just one? Long before the pandemic, fans expressed dissatisfaction with the way Black Widow was being treated, claiming she was only given her own adventure after the conclusion of her story in “Avengers: Endgame.” The film, directed by Cate Shortland, confirms that Black Widow was capable of starring in her own film a long time ago. Her world contains enough characters, backstories, and intrigue to warrant a full series of books. For a variety of reasons, “Black Widow” feels distinctly like a pre-COVID product. It’s a look back into the past of one of Marvel’s most popular characters that’s truly better so very late than never, and it’s a look back into the past that’s truly better so very late than ever.
The best aspects of “Black Widow” are reminiscent of the ’70s spy movie tone of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” which is one of the best films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Shortland and writer Eric Pearson (a veteran of the Marvel Cinematic Universe who has worked on both “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Endgame,” as well as Thor, Spider-Man, and Ant-Man films and the ABC TV shows) unabashedly draw inspiration from beloved action and espionage classics, including the Bourne films, “Mission: Impossible,” “The Manchurian Candidate,” and, above all, James Bond films (a clip from 007 even plays on a television in the film). While “Black Widow” incorporates all of these spy-action greats into something that feels alive and original on its own terms, it also benefits from tight action choreography by Shortland and a strong cast that is led by Scarlett Johansson, David Harbour, Rachel Weisz, and most notably Florence Pugh in four very engaging performances.
“F9” may have a stranglehold on the word “family” this season, but “Black Widow” also has “family” as a central theme. In the midst of running from one makeshift family, Natasha Romanoff finds herself thrust back into the arms of another. “The Americans”-style opening sequence reveals that a young Natasha and her sister Yelena (played as an adult by Pugh) lived for a brief period in Ohio with their parents Alexei (Harbour) and Melina (Pugh) before moving back to their hometown in New York (Weisz). They appeared to be a normal family, but’mom’ and ‘dad’ were actually Russian spies, and the girls were only there to prepare for their upcoming induction into a super soldier program back in their home country, where they were raised by their grandmother. Following an explosive opening sequence, the credits for “Black Widow” reveal that Natasha and Yelena were transformed from average girls into killing machines, and that they were separated when Romanoff murdered Dreykov (Ray Winstone), the head of the program, and destroyed his Red Room. Did she, or didn’t she?
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Follow Natasha’s story forward to shortly after the events of “Captain America: Civil War,” when she is on the run from her own government and living underground after breaking the Sokovia Accords. While she is away from civilization, she receives a package from Yelena, who is going through her own forced exile after discovering a substance that will free the Widows from their chemical slavery. The idea of super-soldier serums, which was the driving force behind projects like “The Falcon vs. the Winter Soldier,” has been deliberately turned on its head by this. Unlike Bucky Barnes’ stories, which frequently revolved around vials that could transform ordinary men into killing machines, “Black Widow” revolves around vials that can transform killing machines back into ordinary women. She sends a case of the vials to her sister, knowing that doing so will get her to a safe house in Budapest, where she can stay until the situation is resolved. From there, they are compelled to free Alexei, alias The Red Guardian, from prison and eventually reunite with Melina, the Black Widow who was the one who created them in the first place.
Black Widow Quiz
In the same way that much of the MCU is lacking in the villain department, “Black Widow” is lacking in that department as well. New ads have highlighted the inclusion of the Taskmaster, a killing machine that can mimic its opponent’s fighting skills, and those scenes do stand out in terms of action, but parts of the film lack the urgency that would have been provided by a more formidable adversary. Shortland, on the other hand, knows how to keep “Black Widow” looking more polished than a lot of other Marvel Cinematic Universe directors. Shortland and Pearson deliver a more focused film than we’ve seen from the MCU thus far, deftly transitioning from one action set piece to another and only losing its momentum in a couple scenes—an extended family reunion and one of the most talkative showdown scenes in film history in the third act (although one has to wonder if Shortland and Pearson aren’t parodying the Bond films once more with their legacy of monologuing bad guys). It’s not often the case in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the film’s rapid-fire pace works in its favor here because “Black Widow” tells a straightforward story with significantly less filler than many other superhero films. That a no-nonsense killing machine like Black Widow would have a no-nonsense installment makes sense, but it’s nice to see it happen in the real world!
Also, you will find out which character are you in this Black Widow quiz.
That is not to say that there aren’t some interesting diversions for the characters, as well as some interesting tinkering with the themes. The film “Black Widow” has a fun dualistic quality to it that should make future installments of this universe’s projects more interesting. “Winter Soldier” deliberately echoes themes from covert government programs, revealing that Americans do not have a monopoly on this market, and it also deepens Natasha’s lifelong struggle between being a lone wolf and the need to be part of a pack to run away from danger. Much has been written about how “WandaVision” enhanced the richness of previous Marvel Cinematic Universe projects, and there are elements of “Black Widow” that should do the same for Johannson’s previous projects as well as Pugh’s future projects. As a standalone film, it does not exist in a vacuum; rather, it adds to the films in which Black Widow appeared alongside other superheroes.
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On that note, hardcore Romanoff fans may be dissatisfied with how much screen time is given to the other members of her family, particularly Red Guardian and Yelena, but the performances of both actors are strong enough that any complaints should be unfounded. A comparison of Harbour’s performance in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” to his performance in this week’s “No Sudden Move” reveals a significant range for an actor who appears to be on the verge of a remarkable decade of work on the verge of a remarkable decade of work In the end, however, the film truly belongs to Pugh, who delivers flawless performance after flawless performance in a project that is clearly intended to pass the torch from Johannson to Pugh, who will appear in Disney+’s “Hawkeye,” in much the same way that Captain America’s shield was passed from Steve Rogers to Sam Wilson in the first place. Pugh proves to be more than up to the task, displaying just the right blend of strength and vulnerability throughout the film. It’s a top-tier MCU performance, and it’s the film’s most memorable performance.
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Similarly to much of the MCU, the third act here becomes cluttered and repetitive, but the film recovers with a remarkable final action sequence that sends characters and debris hurtling through the sky (a staple of the MCU, but Shortland’s choreography makes it feel urgent once more). It is, at the end of the day, a film that succeeds on its own terms, a long-awaited expansion of the story of a beloved character that will make her ultimate sacrifice in “Avengers: Endgame” seem even more powerful in hindsight than it already does. Every summer blockbuster is being heralded as a sign that the world has returned to normalcy; however, “Black Widow” is more of a reminder of what fans loved before the world began to spin out of control.
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