It’s also thrilling to see a classic genre populated by more women fighters, a rare treat to see Pugh haphazardly operating a helicopter as Johansson parkours her way on foot. Where Natasha has coped by turning cold, Yelena has coped with humor-and she pokes fun at Natasha’s Black Widow crouch, complete with the hair flip, adding much-needed levity. Her deadpan is pitch-perfect, coaxing humor out of a traditionally stoic Scarlett Johansson. Florence Pugh does excellent work as Yelena, who is also a Black Widow. The fabric of the universe doesn’t bend and time doesn’t shift, but the film is plied with pseudoscientific, futuristic technology befitting a spy-tinged Marvel world.īlack Widow is strongest when its leads, Natasha and little sister Yelena Belova, are fighting, whether against one another or working together. (Part of the fun is recognizing which Avenger that Taskmaster is emulating, from Captain America’s shield to T'Challa’s arm-crossing stance.) The result is a rare Marvel film that feels satisfyingly street level, in a Jessica Jones kind of way, while still playing with scale and classic superhero elements. When she fights with Taskmaster - who does feel superhuman thanks to their fight style based in mimicry - there’s a sense of real danger. Natasha isn’t superhuman but rather the most “optimized” version of a human, and when she takes a punch it looks like it hurts like hell. It’s a nice dial back from Marvel films whose heroes can feel immortal, threatened only by a villain like Thanos and the power of the Infinity Stones. The film flits between international locales, motorcycle chases, rescue missions, and fight scenes in close quarters that have a real sense of urgency and mortality. With WandaVision playing with the sitcom form and Loki serving high-concept science fiction, it feels natural for Black Widow to be styled like a James Bond espionage thriller, complete with a broody title sequence. Though it resolves on a hopeful note, it leaves an aftertaste of intense tragedy for one of Marvel’s original Avengers.īlack Widow benefits from a post-Endgame era that has unshackled the Marvel Cinematic Universe from its own precise format, if mostly on Disney+. The film centers on affirming why she continues on the path of heroism, beyond just escaping the confines of her past life. And Natasha already defected to S.H.I.E.L.D., though viewers will get clarity on why she joined in the first place. There isn’t a catalyzing event that gave Natasha superpowers - no radioactive spider bite or gamma bomb. Much of it doesn’t feel like a Marvel film at all, thanks to the darker tone used to tell the story of a Russian program that kidnaps young girls and trains them to become assassins. It’s a superhero flick but also an espionage action-thriller, a dysfunctional family drama, a send-off, and overwhelmingly, a film about recovering from abuse. Black Widow bridges the gap between a more mercenary Natasha, and the woman who threw herself off of a cliff so Hawkeye could survive - introducing us to her “family,” following her mission to destroy the “Red Room” where Black Widows are trained and making it clear she always had qualms about being a trained killer. The film is set between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity Wars, when the Sokovia Accords forced the team to split up and reassess, though viewers know the team reunited (with Natasha remaining a steadfast member). With Black Widow, Marvel is finally digging into that mysterious past, giving the original Avengers team’s only woman far overdue time in the limelight. A trained Russian assassin decked out in black tactical wear and an ever-changing range of hairstyles, Natasha Romanoff easily shrugged out of one identity and into her next, wrangling with a guilty conscience over her past lives. Of the core Avengers team, Black Widow’s past has always remained the most shrouded in mystery. Black Widow is a thrilling, though heavy-handed, espionage take on Marvel’s standard fare that adds tragic depth to Natasha Romanoff’s superhero story.

Black widow title sequence