Review: 'Black Widow' delivers gritty action, and gives Scarlett Johansson a perfect swan song to her Marvel character
Scarlett Johansson finally gets a chance to be front-and-center in a Marvel movie in “Black Widow,” and she makes the most of the opportunity — bringing genuine emotion that adds some heft to the superhero spectacle.
“Black Widow” is the 23rd movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but don’t necessarily expect everything to go as you assume it will. This is also the first in the so-called “phase four” that follows the post-Tony Stark era, and the first to hit theaters in two years (thanks, COVID!). It’s also the third movie to have a female superhero in the title (after “Ant-Man and The Wasp” and “Captain Marvel”), the second to give that female superhero sole billing, and the first to have a solo female director — Australian filmmaker Cate Shortland (“Lore,” “Berlin Syndrome”) — in charge.
Shortland and screenwriter Eric Pearson (“Thor: Ragnarok,” “Godzilla vs. Kong”) — with story credit to Jac Schaeffer (show-runner for “WandaVision”) and Ned Benson — are hemmed into a precise window in the life of Johansson’s character, super-spy and now Avenger Natasha Romanoff. That time is late 2016, right after the events of “Captain America: Civil War,” when the Avengers splintered and sent Natasha on the run — and shortly before what happened in “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame,” of which Natasha didn’t survive to see the outcome.
First, though, a pre-credits flashback to 1995 Ohio, where sisters Natasha (Ever Anderson) and Yelena (Violet McGraw) live a happy suburban life with their parents, Melina (Rachel Weisz) and Alexei (David Harbour) — but, we soon learn, it’s all an elaborate cover for Melina and Alexei’s work as Russian spies, answering to the nasty Gen. Dreykov (Ray Winstone).
In 2016, Natasha is dodging Gen. Ross (William Hurt, in it for a minute) and the enforcers of the Sokovia Accords, hiding out in Norway. But something else is hunting her: A hyper-efficient armored assassin known as the Task Master. Natasha soon figures out the Task Master isn’t after her, but something in her SUV: A bundle of vials that contain a clue to who sent them — her “sister,” Yelena.
Yelena, played as an adult by Florence Pugh, is what Natasha used to be: A Black Widow, a super-assassin trained by Dreykov to kill on command. Unlike Natasha, who was trained through psychological conditioning, Yelena is controlled via chemicals — and the vials are a gas that breaks Dreykov’s control over the Widows. Yelena needs Natasha’s help to get to Dreykov, so she lures Natasha to the one place she doesn’t want to go: Budapest. (The city is referenced in the first “Avengers” movie and “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” and now we get to find out why.)
Eventually, we get a “family” reunion involving Natasha and Yelena finding their fake parents: Alexei, a super-soldier once called the Red Guardian (think Cap, but all in red), and Melina, who helped Dreykov create his most powerful weapons, an army of Widows.
Shortland adds a ground-level realism to the hand-to-hand battles, more street fight than kung-fu ballet. This lets us get up close with Johansson and Pugh, who both revel in adding a layer of expression to the choreographed combat. That grittiness extends to the CGI-aided finale, a battle through a sky of falling debris that feels like an attempt to outdo the finale of “Winter Soldier.”
The movie delivers some good humor in the byplay among Pugh, Weisz and Harbour, the fake family who’s more real that anyone is willing to admit. Best of all is Johanssen, who finally gets to show Natasha as more than a cat-suited sexpot or the Avengers’ dour event coordinator. If this is Johansson’s final bow as Black Widow — and it would take some serious retcon work to avoid that — she gets to go out on top, showing Natasha’s battered, resilient heart as she finally earns some redemption for her past sins.
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‘Black Widow’
★★★1/2
Opens Friday, July 9, in theaters everywhere, and streaming (for a fee) on Disney+ Premier. Rated PG-13 for for intense sequences of violence/action, some language and thematic material. Running time: 133 minutes.