Moving Pictures

MARVEL STUDIOS’ ‘BLACK WIDOW’ WELCOMES SUPERHERO MOVIE FANS BACK TO THEATERS AND THE MCU

BY JOE NOLAN, FILM CRITIC

Scarlett Johansson returns to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the eponymous supersoldier in Black Widow. This is the first film in the fourth phase of the MCU, and it also feels like a fresh start for theatrical screenings following the worst days of the pandemic. This story takes place immediately after the events of Captain America: Civil War. The Captain America films are the best Marvel films, and Black Widow compares favorably to the best Marvel movie of all, Captain America: Winter Soldier. Winter Soldier is great because it insists on being a top-shelf spy thriller that just happens to be a tights and capes superhero flick.

Black Widow is similar in its embrace of espionage flick tropes and devices, and both films also manage to evoke dark themes and heavy moods while never getting too bogged-down for a breathless chase scene or an acrobatic knife fight.

Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Johansson) has appeared in seven MCU films after being introduced in Iron Man 2 (2010). But it’s only in this new film that the title character finally gets her origin story. Black Widow revisits Natasha’s traumatic childhood being raised with Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) by their superspy guardians Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour) and Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz). The family lived an idyllic life in Ohio before being forced to make a dramatic escape to Cuba. There the girls are separated from their guardians and sent to the Red Room where they undergo trauma-based mind control and military training to become the next generation of lovely and lethal Black Widows. Director Cate Shortland handles all this history before the opening credits roll and her pacing is brisk and bracing throughout this globe-hopping action-packed espionage epic.

Following the Sokovia Accords the Avengers have been put under the command of the United Nations. Romanoff and the rest of the team have scattered and gone underground. Yelena discovers a secret antidote to mind control and enlists Romanoff to help her to keep it safe from the relentless Taskmaster — imagine Captain America meets Boba Fett — who’ll stop at nothing to secure the special formula. Shortland is best known for dramas like Lore (2012) and Somersault (2004), but she takes to action filmmaking like a natural. Again, like Captain America: Winter Soldier, Black Widow manages to be an intelligent high-stakes spy flick with fully realized characters in complex relationships. However, it’s also brimming with

gunfights, char chases, helicopter crashes, prison breaks and tons of close-combat fighting sequences. Ray Winstone takes a brutal and brooding turn as the head of Red Room, and Harbour brings a very funny take on Red Guardian, but Black Widow is a movie about super women who are all completely believable as spies, soldiers and world class assassins. I haven’t seen a movie packed with this many great girl fights since the Kill Bill saga.

After Black Widow’s sacrificial end in Avengers: Endgame (2019) it’s fun to have her back in a stand-alone chapter of her own. Johansson is mostly known as a glamorous leading lady, but she’s evolved into a legitimate action star in her turn as Romanoff, and she leaves Pugh with big shoes to fill as the new Black Widow for this next slate of Marvel films. With Black Widow Shortland, Johansson and Pugh manage to deliver a go-for-broke action thriller infused with a women’s story about familial trauma and the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood.

Black Widow opens at theaters and on Disney+ with Premiere Access this Friday, July 9