WARNING: SPOILERS
After years of waiting for this movie to be released, I can say it was enjoyable, but it could have been excellent. At least it was better than most of Marvel’s filler movies and sequels. Maybe the bittersweet excitement of watching Scarlett Johansson reprising her iconic role had something to do with it or the excellent casting choices like Florence Pugh and David Harbour.
Let’s start with the positive first. The opening scene of “Black Widow” was a nice change of pace from other Marvel movies that usually start with an explosive action scene. This movie showed an ordinary family having dinner, giving us a quick glimpse of Natasha’s childhood in Ohio. This set up the theme of family that was explored throughout the whole movie without making it cheesy like in the “Fast and Furious” saga, and it allowed us to empathize with the girls before the action kicked in. The opening credit sequence was unusual for a Marvel movie but worked perfectly for “Black Widow” as it skipped briefly over Natasha’s training and still managed to make the montage dramatic with a mystical cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
As this movie takes place immediately after “Captain America: Civil War,” we see Nat’s life as a fugitive, apparently quiet and isolated at first, until a message from her estranged sister draws unwanted attention and forces Nat to face a dark side of her past. Taskmaster’s surprise appearance introduced the fantastic style of combat scenes that characterize this particular movie as they were incredibly fast, creative and elevated the stakes and tension, thanks to an amazing group of stunt doubles and choreographers. Black Widow always gets some of the best hand-to-hand combat scenes and this movie was no exception. Fans of the comic books were excited to see Taskmaster give Natasha a challenging opponent for once, but this excitement was short-lived due to some flaws in the writing of this character, which I’ll explain later.
The heart of the movie was, without a doubt, Florence Pugh. Not only is she an amazing actress with an impressive emotional range (remember her in “Midsommar”?) but her performance is also comedic gold. Marvel jokes tend to get old really fast, but Yalena’s personality added a fresh touch of humor that complemented Natasha’s more serious demeanor, although they both shared heartwarming moments in some scenes. I was surprised by the amount of character work that went behind this movie, especially for Yalena and Natasha, and even their parents despite their minor relevance to the plot. Their reunion let these characters find some closure or open up to share their sorrows, and it was the ideal moment of calm before the storm of the climax.
Overall, the best part of the movie was Florence Pugh and the fact that she’ll appear later in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Black Widow’s predecessor. I’m happy with that. But let’s talk about what didn’t work.
First of all, the timing. This movie should have been released before “Avengers: Infinity War” so it made chronological sense instead of interrupting the flow of phase four. Its original release date was May 1, 2020, and it got postponed due to the pandemic, but even then it was a bad call to have it come out so late. An earlier release of “Black Widow” would’ve made Natasha’s death in “Avengers: Endgame” more impactful than it was, as the audience would’ve had a clearer sense of who she was. This would’ve also made the stakes during the actual movie much higher, but as it came out after Natasha’s death, there was no reason for us to worry about what might happen to her in the movie.
The biggest disappointment was Taskmaster’s portrayal in the movie. Comic book fans were eager to see an accurate take on the villain but the MCU writers changed it completely in a desperate attempt (and a bit lazy, to be honest) to make her fit into the plot. The change of gender was no issue at all because that isn’t what defines a Marvel character, but her abilities in the movie were different from the source material and the only “special” thing about her came from the suit, not the human. The fight scenes with Taskmaster were amazing, but she had no dialogue and no actual personality to make her more interesting. The writers only wanted to give Natasha an emotional connection to the character and make the reveal of Dreykov’s daughter a “big reveal” for the audience. It wasn’t. This only made the movie less believable by showing that a girl and her father survived an assassination attempt by a ruthless Black Widow due to … plot armor.
Lastly, the revelation of what happened in Budapest was another disappointment. This has been referenced countless times by Natasha and Clint and raised crazy fan theories about what actually happened. The movie hinted at it and explained it through a brief exposition instead of giving us an actual scene of this supposedly difficult moment in the character’s life. It would’ve been a great action scene. Instead, it was summarized in a one-minute flashback and a conversation.
