Black Widow (2021) Review

So after a delay of over a year Black Widow is finally out and I watched it today and here is my review for it. The premise of the film sees after the events of Captain America: Civil War, Natasha Romanoff is on the run and forced to reunite with figures from her past to uncover a mystery. 

Main Character

Scarlett Johansson is back for potentially her final time as Black Widow and she is really good in the main role here. We have always seen her as a supporting player but she is thrust into the main character and thrives. Her really interesting backstory is further explored and it allows us as an audience to get more time with her and really see and learn more about her. She is also great in the action sequences and has great chemistry with the rest of the cast as well. 

Supporting Characters

Florence Pugh plays Yelena and for me she was the best part of the film. The chemistry between her and Johansson is fantastic and was the emotional crux of the film, she is great in the action scenes and nails the humorous and emotional scenes that are required. Dave Harbour and Rachel Weisz play there bizarre parents and they are both great, Harbour is sometimes seen as comic relief and does it well but also has some good emotional moments for him to deliver. Weisz is more stoic and intense but plays an important role and you see how these four are so dysfunctional but really need each other. As seen in the trailer Taskmaster is the villain here and I think diehard fans of the character will be disappointed but I thought it worked for this film. He reminded me of the T1000 from Terminator 2 and was just a warrior hunting Black Widow but there is very little character there to bet invested in. That links to the greater issue that is Ray Winstone as the villain and that whole part of the film, it is really generic and he isn't given anything interesting to work with and his motivations and whole arc is kind of in the background and it just didn't work for me. 

Story  

The story is decent, this is basically a film about the concept of family and how it isn't always the people you choose and that part of the film was good for sure with all the actors really selling it and I grew to care about all of them and the relationships that get built up. But again my main criticism was the whole villain angle of the film, Taskmaster isn't as interesting as he could have been and the whole generic Russian bad guy is surely played out but used here and I also had an issue with the actual ending of the film. It is really abrupt and doesn't really make sense when linked up to its place in the timeline. 

Script 

I thought the script was good, I have seen some criticism of the amount of humour involved but I actually though this film took itself quite seriously for the first act. The model for the MCU is to try and balance the humour and drama and I thought the film did it well, I felt the drama when it wanted and I laughed when it wanted so I give the film credit for that. 

Style  

The film has some huge action set pieces but I thought they all worked really well, obviously there is a difficulty to raise tension and stakes with a prequel but the film did as good as possible with those limitations. The film is paced well, and felt an appropriate length, though maybe 5 more minutes at the end would have been appreciated. 

Overall

Overall, Black Widow is a great fun film that is worth the year long wait for big Marvel fans. If you are on board with The MCU then go and see Black Widow as you will enjoy it and there is a big post credit scene here too. 

Rating - 8/10