Black Widow Movie Review
It should come to nobody's surprise at this point that Scarlett Johansson continues to own the role of Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow and here she gives her most vulnerable performance yet in the role. Sure this film should've been made sooner, but I still really appreciated finally getting to see a much more personal story where we can finally learn more about her past too. With this solo film and Avengers: Endgame, I definitely have a greater appreciation than I ever had before for the character. It felt very much like Natasha's own film that just happened to have some excellent supporting characters in it. And speaking of those supporting characters, as wonderful as Johansson is, it's Florence Pugh who is really the real MVP of the show as Nat's long lost adapted sister Yelena. Pugh just completely elevates this film with so much charisma, vulnerability and sheer star power, continuing to prove that she is absolutely one of the very best young actresses working today. The on-screen chemistry between Pugh and Johansson is also off the charts great and surprisingly endearing. Yelena is for sure set to become a new fan favorite character and I for one am so pumped to see Florence Pugh return in more upcoming MCU projects. David Harbour is also a terrific scene stealer as the Red Guardian, providing many of the film's strongest comedic moments, but also brings a great physicality to the character too. Though a little more underutilized, Rachel Weisz is also magnetic as always in her role.
This film honestly has some of the most heart and sincere emotions from any MCU film. I wasn't sure about it from the previews, but the family dynamic between Johansson, Pugh, Harbour and Weisz was unexpectedly by far my favorite aspect of the entire film. Whenever these characters would interreact with one another, it just really warmed my heart in unexpected ways and there was just a very natural chemistry between these actors. I would have loved to have seen even more of this element, because if this film had just been these characters bickering the whole time that wouldn't have been an issue for me. But this is still a superhero film of course, and with that aspect certainly comes along some satisfying action set pieces. The action is exciting and even consists of some pretty tense hand to hand combats. Director Cate Shortland brings a much grittier tone to this than other Marvel adventures and certainly shares a similar feel to other espionage films such as Mission Impossible or James Bond. I liked the more personal, smaller stake and in particular I really loved the entire opening sequence. Being a MCU film though, there are still plenty of comedic moments here most of which actually worked to great effect at least for me and I thought this film managed to balance the levity with the darker moments better than others in the franchise have done in the past.
Now, I do have my fair share of criticisms that keep me from calling this one of the best Marvel Studios films. My biggest issue being easily the immensely forgettable and half baked villains. There was lots of anticipation for the villain Taskmaster and unfortunately for me, the execution of this character left a lot more to be desired. They definitely nailed the physicality of this character, I certainly enjoyed all the action with Taskmaster, but in regards to the actual characterization and the twist that they throw in here (which on its surface I did not actually mind), I was much more underwhelmed with. Ray Winstone also plays another major villain here, and is just completely wasted. I love Winstone, but the character of Dreykov hardly felt much more than the standard evil Russian baddie that we have already seen in dozens of spy films of this nature. Marvel has really delivered some fabulous villains in recent years, but these are definitely two of their more forgettable ones. The finale of this also isn't bad by any means, there's still lots of good stuff there, but I definitely found myself much more interested in the smaller scale and grounded nature of those first two acts than what is a much more traditional Marvel climatic battle. Some of the CGI here I really felt like could've used some more work as well.
With all of that being said though, while Black Widow may not be a top tier MCU film by any means, I do think it absolutely is a very worthy and satisfying entry for this franchise that was worth the long wait. Packed with satisfying action, great performances, solid humor, and a surprising emotional core, this is all around quality summer blockbuster entertainment that definitely marks a promising beginning for the Phase 4 film slate and I imagine most Marvel fans will generally be very happy with this new film. It was so much fun being back in a theater with a crowd and thoroughly enjoying a rock solid film. If you can find a theater near you open, I highly recommend watching this one on the biggest screen possible. This is one of those Marvel films that I'm actually starting to like even more upon reflection and I'm certainly excited to watch it again real soon.
Final Grade: B
Comments
Post a Comment