REVIEW: 'Black Widow' doesn't slay
Scarlett Johansson stars in Black Widow, directed by Cate Shortland.
We’re all thinking the same thing – where was this years ago? For all of the MCU’s carefully planned steps, Black Widow seems like an anomaly, recapping the foibles of an already-dead character – spoiler alert! – when we’ve been conditioned to look forward for Easter eggs about new characters, new plots and new films. It took Scarlett Johansson seven appearances in other MCU films before her titular character received her own standalone film – through no fault of her own – and while we should applaud it because it’s a well-acted and well-produced film, know that it also doesn’t quite live up to the rest of the library.
Black Widow tries to do two things. First: explain Natasha Romanoff’s backstory, whose first appearance was an abrupt introduction in Iron Man 2 as eye candy (watch it again and count how many times she gets ogled – not Marvel’s proudest moments, I’m sure) and a mysterious S.H.I.E.L.D. spy. Second: her travels between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Infinity War. The first part is interesting because her backstory is what prompted fans to ask for this film in the first place, but it’s not very well fleshed out, and the second part is a pretty typical good vs. bad film with some very uninteresting villains.
The opening scene shows a ton of promise; Alexei (David Harbour) and Melina (Rachel Weisz) are Russian spies and surrogate parents for young Natasha and baby sister Yelena, but their cover is blown and they’re forced to retreat to Cuba. Natasha and Yelena are separated and taken to the Red Room, a top-secret training program for Soviet assassins under the control of General Dreykov (Ray Winstone). It establishes Natasha’s mixed American-Russian background, her “family” relationships before the ones she forms with the Avengers and the reason why she often toes the line between hero and villain.
Natasha’s ersatz family, played by David Harbour and Florence Pugh.
Unfortunately, that’s all we really get. The rest of Natasha’s upbringing and story are told in an opening credits montage before we skip to the present day, and very quickly events are put in motion to unite Natasha with Yelena (Florence Pugh) as they tag-team their way to Dreykov, who was presumed dead but still maintains control over numerous other Black Widow assassins to do his bidding. The rest of the film follows Natasha and Yelena kicking all kinds of butt and teasing each other and passing many Bechdel tests (the vests with pockets bit is hilarious). Without them, the rest of the film is a chore; Dreykov is a cardboard cut-out of all the Cold War Soviets from ‘90s political thrillers, and his henchman, Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), is a robotic puppet with literally no lines despite an interesting backstory of her own and possessing a lengthy comic book history.
Given how unique Natasha was among the original Avengers – the only female, and without superpowers – I expected some political statement about female empowerment – Widows in the Red Room are forced to go through sterilization – but the film only casually mentions it and avoids it the rest of the way. That’s not unsurprising considering how conscious Disney is about its appeal to audiences who live in countries where freedom of thought and opinion and lifestyle is not always tolerated. I don’t want to be hit over the head with radical feminism like a Brie Larson press tour, but who better than Black Widow to convey that message? The character who’s had relatable trauma and also makes the ultimate sacrifice in Endgame?
Given how successful WandaVision was in portraying Wanda going through the stages of grief while adding much more to the MCU, wouldn’t a series outlining Natasha’s sacrifices in the Red Room and its ramifications on her personality and worldview be much more interesting? We’d get a 10-hour version of her backstory through her eyes and flesh out the other dangers that don’t involve superpowered villains, rather than a two-hour romp with an ensemble supporting cast, as strong as they may be. Black Widow was put on the backburner for far too long, and when it finally came her turn to shine, it was too little, too late.
Black Widow gets two and a half stars out of four.
