As I mentioned in my Shang-Chi and the Legend if the Ten Rings (2021) post recently I’ve been feeling a bit “Marvelled out” of late. At one point I was totally up to date with everything they put out but I’ve suddenly found myself a couple of movies behind, not to mention series’!
After realising the new Hawkeye series was out (one I have been keen to see) last night I figured I should at least watch this film since a friend told me that the two may be linked in some way…
Black Widow (2021)
If you haven’t seen it, it’s a comic book, sci-fi/action/adventure starring Scarlett Johannson (Avengers Assemble), Florence Pugh (Midsommar), David Harbour (Stranger Things), Rachel Weisz (The Mummy) and Ray Winstone (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) among others.
This is what it’s about according to the internet:
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.
Other than my disillusion with the Marvel films lately I haven’t been overly excited about this one for a number of reasons.
The main one is that I just couldn’t see how they could make a really entertaining stand-alone film based around the Black Widow character. Granted I’ve never read the comics, but she’s always seemed more of a solid supporting character as opposed to someone like Iron Man or Captain America.
That said, I did enjoy this movie. And contrary to what I thought, there was a lot of story to be told regarding her character.
If you haven’t seen it yet, this film is set in the aftermath of the events of Captain America: Civil War (2016). The Avengers have disbanded with those who disagreed with the Sokovia Accords on the run and being hunted by S.H.I.E.L.D.
If you were to watch all of the Marvel movies in that weird chronological order that some people think is acceptable (it makes no sense because the post credit scene leads on to the next film!!) then the next relevant film to the Black Widow/Natasha Romanov character would be Avengers: Infinity War (2018) - Just in case you were wondering how she was back after the events of Avengers: Endgame. 😵
Anyway, as I said I enjoyed this film.
It has a similar feel to Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and has lots of action, some good characters (David Harbour’s Red Guardian being my favourite), a decent enough story and some good performances from all involved - although Ray Winstone proves yet again that he’s no good at any accent other than his own cockney one. 🤦🏻♂️
I wasn’t actually aware going in that Florence Pugh was in this. She’s popped up in a few things I’ve watched lately (Midsommar being the most recent) and I think she’s a really good actress who seems to be able to turn her hand to anything. I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of her in the future.👌
All in all this is an enjoyable movie, if not slightly forgettable compared to a lot of Marvel’s other offerings.
It’s currently streaming on Disney+.
Seen it? What do you think? 🤔🕷