Black Widow (2021)

Title: Black Widow

Year: 2021

Genre: Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi |

Runtime: 133 min

Director: Cate Shortland

Starring: Scarlett Johansson,  Florence Pugh, David Harbour

7,1/10

A BRAINDEAD COMPLETION OF NATASHA LAST FILM

Marvel Studios latest addition Black Widow takes place between  Civil War and Infinity War. Natasha Romanoff is on the run and returns home, finding her family and decides to take down the leader of the Red Room where they castrate female assassins. The first part narrates the story of her childhood. Then she finds her sister, breaks out their dad in jail and eating dinner with her mother. Mother runs a farm somewhere in Russia.  Occasionally Black Widow fights the so-called Taskmaster that is a woman who was part of a former experiment.

Scarlett Johansson returns to her iconic heroine Black Widow but deliver nothing deep or nuanced to the character. She feels robotic and emotionless. Florence Pugh plays her sister and has a more dynamic twist on her character, with irony and sensibility. David Harbour plays a stupid pig-like father that doesn’t do anything besides play a fatherly role and has some weird one-liners. Rachel Weisz plays Melina Vostokoff / Black Widow, Romanoff’s foster mother. Romanoff’s parents were killed by the head of the Red Room, General Dreykov.

The writing and dialogue are outstandingly bad. The acting is not in favour of the film but leaving only Pugh self on the top. It was made only because it was Scarlett Johansson final film in her contract. It doesn’t add something new to her background and the way it was executed felt fairly optimistic for a superhero film. A little more Russian spy and assassin would be in its place. There are some ingredients there but not clearly enough to appreciate the story and the way the narrative went out. The Red Room is crashed and the captured female assassins called Black Widow are liberated.

A lot of the run time could have shortened and doesn’t connect honestly to the MCU and more character or interaction from the Avengers would be appreciated. Her character was there from the beginning of the whole shebang and it tragic that it meant nothing by the end. Characters with no explanation are pop-up just like Julia Louis-Dreyfous character Valentina in the end credit scene.  Interesting is that director Cate Shortland gave Pugh a more prominent role than Johansson, introducing her to the universe as the established lovable assassin and with her appreciated talent at such age, it could mean that a generation-change is underway with her taking it on. It’s a braindead film with fewer action scenes than expected and no character scenes with no obvious connection to the MCU.