‘Black Widow’ Sends The Character Out With A Whimper

By Nolan Cleary, Editor-in-Chief

Intended to be Marvel Studios’ big return to the cinemas post-pandemic, Marvel’s Black Widow finally delivers Marvel fans on the promise of an individual outing for a character who largely appeared on the sidelines of other Marvel films for the past 11 years. The movie is intended to be the last hoorah for Scarlett Johannson’s portrayal of the now-iconic character, following her untimely exit in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame.

The plot attempts to create history for the character. Serving as an in-betweenquel of sorts for other Marvel films, Natasha Romanoff is forced on the run, following the events of 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. After being hunted down by the villainous Taskmaster, Romanoff is forced to reconcile with her former KGB family to stop the villainous Drakoff, a Russian operative who created the Black Widow program to recruit young girls to become Russian assains. Romanoff, who previously escaped Drakoff’s control must now free others from his enslavement.

Black Widow starts off strong, with an opening akin to 2009’s Watchmen. As the film continues, however, it becomes more apparent how uninspired Black Widow feels. The film attempts a darker tone than the usual Marvel fare, with blacker colors surrounding the screen, as opposed the optimistic gleeful visuals one might expect from a typical Marvel outing. Fine, that’s justifiable, but the film never takes its concept to the max, bottoming out before it can deliver on any truly inventive ideas or themes.

While it earns points for not following the typical superhero playbook, Black Widow’s solid first act devolves into unengaging melodrama quickly. Any sort of tension is quickly drowned out by annoying side characters introduced to further the plot.

The baddies of the production feels dull and uninspired, with the duo receiving little history or legitimate motivation. One particular villain is given a bizarre twist that throws the already troubled film into further limbo.

The acting talents of Florence Pugh, David Harbour, and Rachel Weisz are wasted in roles that only appear to upend the story, whilst stealing the spotlight from Johannson’s supposed final showdown. Indeed, a Black Widow outing appears to have been highly demanded by fans of the franchise, as one was even depicted in a Saturday Night Live sketch depicting Johannson in the title role nearly six years ago. For all the fanfare surrounding the much demanded film, the final project feels like little more than a Jason Bourne wannabe of sorts, a project coming too little, too late.

Indeed, the action scenes are impressive, and the fight choreography is sure to wow audiences, but with hardly any attention to its character or plot, Black Widow ultimately feels like a sluggish bore to get through, a bottomless pit of nothing with no ending and no reason for any existence in the grand scheme of things.

Compared to recent Marvel/Disney+ outings, such as the much acclaimed WandaVision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki, Black Widow, like its protagonist within the story, struggles from an identity crisis, as it feels unable to justify its existence outside of outpouring fan demand, to which it delivers the dullest possible outcome.

4/10