'Black Widow' review — Marvel takes a stumble
“I'm done running from my past.”
After a two-year absence thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Marvel Cinematic Universe returns to the big screen. After Phase 4 got off to a strong start earlier this year with the Disney+-exclusive shows WandaVision and Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Marvel begins the Phase 4 films with Black Widow — a solo film for one of the founding Avengers. Plans had been in the works for a Black Widow film since 2004, long before star Scarlett Johansson ever got involved with the character, for a film centring around Russian-super-spy-turned-SHIELD-agent Natasha Romanoff but have only finally manifested eleven years after the character’s introduction in Iron Man 2 (2010).
In many ways, Black Widow feels incredibly overdue. Natasha has been an integral element of the Avengers universe having appeared as a core member of the team in seven films since 2010. With a strong lead actor and an interesting, unexplored backstory for the character, the solo film seemed like a perfect sendoff for the character following her death in Avengers: Endgame (2019). Unfortunately, the film is a mixed and underdeveloped film that fails to give Romanoff or Johansson their due.
Black Widow is set directly following the events of Captain America: Civil War (2016) which makes the film feel out of place in the current Marvel slate. As the Disney+ television series and the films slated for release later this year push the story forward, we’re given a film that is about what Black Widow was doing before Avengers: Infinity War (2018). Instead of being an interesting character drama about her origin and overcoming her past, the narrative resigns itself to filling in a gap that was never needed to be filled.
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| Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh in Black Widow. Photo: Marvel. |
This is reflected in how the central character is written. Natasha lacks clear motivation until the second half of the film when she receives a half-baked drive based upon her mysterious birth mother — this ultimately being a plotline never fully resolved — and making up for the sins of her past. However, the exploration of Natasha’s inner demons is far from the film’s priority as the character is criminally underwritten. We are never given a clear image of her past or what she actually went through. All the audience is provided with are surface-level explanations. By the time we actually arrive in the fabled “red room,” the results are far less brutal than we may have been expecting. The current trainees are shown performing combat drills that don’t seem to line up with the trauma that Romanoff is clearly deeply burdened with.
That’s a problem that occurs throughout the film. It has many interesting ideas, yet cannot craft a film deeper than those original ideas. The film’s central antagonist, General Dreykov, is a fantastic example of this problem. The Russian military commander, head of the program which trained Natasha and the other Black Widow agents, has devised a plot to take over the world with his network of highly trained assassins. He claims to be able to manipulate all geopolitical events, yet we’re never provided with examples of his power. How does Dreykov use his influence? Where does he exert his control? What events has he been involved with? Instead, we are given a montage of news footage with photos of his assassins superimposed over top.
Dreykov is played by Ray Winstone who gives a dreadful performance thanks to his underdeveloped character. He is nowhere near creepy or unsettling or cunning enough to convince the viewer that he is a villain to be feared. In many ways, his character traits reminded me of Kilgrave from the Marvel Netflix series Jessica Jones. Except, in that show, Kilgrave is one of the best elements of the whole series. If you want to watch a show about a female superhero overcoming an abuser, watch the first season of Jessica Jones.
Dreykov’s assassin, the Taskmaster, is another example of poorly developed concepts and core ideas. While we’re told that he has the ability to mimic the fighting ability of anyone, those skills are poorly utilized and the character is given a few throw-away and unremarkable fight sequences.
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| Johannson, Pugh, and David Harbour in Black Widow. Photo: Marvel. |
However, the characterization of many of the supporting characters is much stronger than Dreykov or Romanoff. Romanoff’s adopted family serves as the best part of the film. Florence Pugh, playing assassin Yelena Belova, who serves as the film’s heart and soul. Rachel Weisz and David Harbour, despite their sometimes weak Russian accents, are charming and funny and provide wonderful contrasts to each other and the sour demeanour of Johansson’s character. Harbour is incredibly amusing without ever feeling like the comic relief. Instead, his character feels like a broken man trying to hold himself and the family he never truly had together as they face their trauma together.
What I cannot in good conscious praise are the action sequences. The visual effects of this film and truly atrocious. Poorly rendered effects and uneven lighting abound as the film moves into its third act. The standards for American action have truly fallen if this is considered to be good by many of my fellow critics. In an interview with IndieWire, director Cate Shortland accredits her influences on Black Widow’s action to films like “Silence of the Lambs” and “Oldboy” and, as the article states, “documentary footage of people fighting.” I find myself in disbelief. Shortland seems able to name-drop films well enough but none of their lessons show through in her atrocious action filmmaking.
Black Widow is a major misstep for Marvel. Released four years too late for it to make narrative sense and with rough plotting and horrible action, Black Widow is an unfortunate start to Phase 4. While the television series have promised a new creative direction, Black Widow feels too stuck in Marvel's past to make itself distinct.
Two final thoughts. First, the decision to tattoo “Karl” and “Marx” on Alexei’s (Harbour) hands was a stroke of genius. Second, the editor of the opening credits sequence and particularly whoever decided to set it to a bad cover of nirvana’s “Smells Like Team Spirit” should be held in the prison Alexei was in.
Score: 2
Black Widow is now playing in theatres and streaming with premiere access on Disney+.
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