Black Widow Black Widow

Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises.

Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger.

Scarlett Johansson reprises her role as Natasha/Black Widow, Florence Pugh stars as Yelena, David Harbour portrays Alexei/The Red Guardian, and Rachel Weisz is Melina. "Black Widow" - the first film in Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe - is directed by Cate Shortland and produced by Kevin Feige.

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REVIEW: Black Widow

You can safely file away Black Widow under both of the following categories: better later than never, and better see it when it opens.

Better late than never? Well, for more than a decade, a standalone Marvel movie for Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow (aka Natasha Romanoff) was always a rumour, and never a reality.

The most human member of the Avengers stable - with no superpowers or tech gimmicks to enhance her extreme fighting abilities - this fascinating character deserved much better than the "yeah, yeah, we'll get to you when we have the time" treatment.

Better see it when it opens? Well, as the first major Marvel motion picture to be released since 2019's Endgame spectacularly marked the end of an era for the original incarnation of the Avengers, the pressure is on Black Widow in a big way.

Fans starved of Marvel's fabled shock, awe and shrewd humour will be expecting more of the same in their usual quantities. However, that hardcore fanbase will also be wanting Black Widow to pivot into fresh new territory. It is a pleasure to report that the movie delivers all that it should on both of these crucial fronts.

Story-wise , the timeframe in play here comes in a few years ahead of Natasha's jaw-dropping demise in Endgame.

Once again, we are back in that period (2016, roughly) where the Avengers had broken up, and Natasha had gone into hiding in central Europe for a while.

While in Budapest, Natasha crosses paths with her long-lost younger "sister" Yelena (Florence Pugh). The exact nature of their relationship will be explained in the punchy prologue that opens Black Widow.

What their reunion (accompanied by one heck of a house-shattering fight by way of hello) does reveal is that a notorious top-secret program that Natasha believed she had ended before joining the Avengers is still going strong.

The reckless Russian military strongman Dreykov (Ray Winstone) commands an allfemale army of super-soldiers , each welded to his nefarious cause by means of chemical control. Therefore Natasha and the wisecracking , bone-snapping Yelena (who deserves her own spin-off after this) must break up Dreykov's druggy stronghold over these women once and for all.

This they will do with the erratic assistance of two Russian agents who once posed as their parents in the 1990s : the brilliant bio-scientist Melina (Rachel Weisz) and the brawny brawler Red Guardian (David Harbour).

While the usual blockbuster flaws (mammoth two-hour-plus duration, and flat spots galore) are still part of the mix here, there is a welcome new emphasis on nuanced character development and a narkier, darker sense of humour that makes Black Widow a very welcome addition to the Marvel fold.

Review by LEIGH PAATSCH from the July 1, 2021 issue of The Herald Sun Digital Edition. To subscribe, visit https://www.heraldsun.com.au/.

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