Black Widow
      
Director: Cate Shortland
Year: 2021
Rating: 7.5
After having to sit on the bench in Iron Man, Captain America and Avenger films, Black Widow and Scarlett Johansson finally get their turn to shine in the bright lights. This was the first film I saw in a theater after Covid. The theaters had re-opened and it was a thrill sitting there nearly by myself, munching on popcorn and watching this big bash of a film. back to life as we know it. Decided to re-visit it again - on video this time. It is still great fun and it is a shame that there will not be any more Black Widow films. There will be a film though with Black Widow’s sister in it - coming out in 2025 titled Thunderbolts. Black Widow is a unique character in the Marvel Universe and that is the reason why she was so popular and that people were demanding that she get her own film.



She has no super powers – just a highly trained assassin with formidable physical skills and an ability to take a pounding.  An assassin for Russia which gives her character a twist – until she changes sides and joins the Avengers. her first appearance in comic form for Marvel was in 1964 and some years later she got her own comic. I am not a student of the Marvel Universe, so I am not exactly sure where this fits into the chronology of the events that are in the films, but apparently Black Widow aka Natasha Romanoff has had a falling out with them and is on her own. Well, not exactly on her own as she gains a new but old family in the film.


 
In an opening scene in the film, her father (David Harbour) and mother (Rachel Weisz) turn out to be Russian agents living undercover in Ohio. Sleeper agents. They have to make a run for it when they are discovered with their two daughters Natasha and Yelena (later to be played by Florence Pugh). It is the first of many action set-pieces to come as they have to fend off the authorities to fly a plane to Cuba. With the father outside on the wing hanging on. Once there, we realize this family was not a family at all – totally fabricated by the Russians – and the two daughters are immediately taken to be trained to be killers. Jump ahead into adulthood and Natasha has become an Avenger and Yelena has jumped ship as well. None of this foursome have had contact with each other, but Yelena comes into the possession of a parcel of blue fluids and not knowing what it is, she sends it to Natasha thinking that the Avengers can look into it.

 

This begins the chain of events that pack the film with big budget action. Their old boss Dreykov in the Red Room wants those liquids back and sends his helmeted enhanced killer (Olga Kurylenko) to retrieve them – leading to set-piece number two as the Black Widow and the killer battle it out on a bridge. But that jut sets the stage for set-piece #3 when Black Widow goes to see her “sister” in Budapest. This was a big one beginning with them trying to kill each other that is interrupted by other Black Widows who have been trained by Dreykov. A big chase through the streets of Budapest does ultimate damage of course to pedestrians and cars. Afterwards, the two of them decide they have to find Dreykov and kill him. To do so, they need dear old dad.



He is in prison but Harbour has of course had experience breaking out of Russian prisons (Stranger Things) – set-piece #4. They hook up with mom and ahead of them is a huge set-piece #5. It is really too much – excessive CGI – as these Marvel films tend to do in their finales. The film sets up this next film with Pugh, Harbour and Olga. Marvel never misses an opportunity to promote the next film. In between the set-pieces that must have cost a bundle, there is some time off for family interactions, family recriminations, family love and Harbour as the over the hill super soldier Red Guardian who once fought Captain America but now can barely fit into his old suit providing some needed levity. Black Widow is really the only Marvel character I care about – a shame she won’t be back.