After over a year of being shelved due to a worldwide pandemic, Disney and Marvel Studios have finally released BLACK WIDOW in theaters and on Disney+ Premiere.
While this movie has been long overdue to give Natasha Romanoff her dues in a leading solo movie, the timing of this film is still quite sad. Mainly, because everyone who saw AVENGERS: ENDGAME knows Natasha did not survive that film. Her sacrifice is a big reason why the Avengers were able to take down Thanos and his army.
But now in BLACK WIDOW, which takes place after the events of CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR, Natasha takes the helm of her own film, yet feels like she is actually just as much of a supporting character as audiences are introduced to her younger "sister" Yelena Belova. And Yelena steals the show in this movie.
It seemed more than obvious how Yelena would/could take the spot of Natasha in the Marvel Cinematic Universe moving forward after the character was revealed to be in this movie. But we will come back around to this further down in this review.
The tone of this film is very similar to CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER and even the villain Taskmaster feels like a watered down version of the Winter Soldier. Taskmaster is an assassin who mimics those he fights. However, Taskmaster is a wasted character in this movie. Sure, this is an adaptation of the comic book version of the character, but even the mimic action scenes do not do the character justice. A failure for this villain who had great potential, regardless of the fact it was not a he and it was revealed to be a she. There are doubts Taskmaster will be anything more than what was seen in BLACK WIDOW, but Marvel Studios is bringing back the real Mandarin in SHANG-CHI so never-say-never when it comes to a return of Taskmaster.
Moving on.
What is really at the heart of this film is family. And that is Natasha, Yelena, and their "parents" the Red Guardian and Melena. Their banter is great as is their chemistry. But that is not enough to pull this movie out from ranking in the bottom half of all Marvel Studios movies that have been release so far. This is not to say the movie is bad, but it isn't the best the MCU has to offer either. Dare it be said this is a one-and-done watch. Some will disagree and that is fine, but this film is more of a set-up for Yelena so it does have its place in MCU.
The real villain is Dreykov, who runs the Red Room which is where Natasha and Yelena were trained to be assassins and he continues to train young girls to be killing machines. His hideout is the Red Room which is a flying fortress hidden in the clouds.
Really?! So Tony Stark with all his worldwide tech never saw a flying fortress? C'mon now that is some terrible, and lazy convenience writing. Stark's Iron Legion drones, seen in AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, would have spotted this fortress easily. A big fail here.
Anyway, back to Yelena. She is fantastic and steals every scene she is in. Red Guardians does too, but Yelena is just as much the lead as Natasha is and that is fine because when the final credits roll you see her mourning at Natasha's grave when Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine appears and tells Yelena she can kill the man who killed Natasha and shows her a photo of Clint Barton. So yeah... Yelena will be back in the Disney+ HAWKEYE series coming this fall.
All-in-all, BLACK WIDOW will benefit from the fact that the last MCU movie release was nearly two years ago with SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME. Seriously. And because of the fanbase's insatiable thirst for more stories in the MCU, BLACK WIDOW will still be a big hit for most fans.
Written by Daniel Wolf, Founder & Publisher
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