BLACK WIDOW review: Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh shine in an action-packed MCU spy caper

After numerous release days due to the pandemic, the Black Widow feature film is finally out in theatres and available as a “Premium Access” add-on for Disney+ subscribers. While we’ve had plenty of MCU content to keep us busy with the slate of Marvel shows for Disney+, this is the longest we’ve gone without a proper new MCU film in years, and for the most part, Black Widow was worth the wait.

Unlike her Avengers teammates, Natasha Romanov / Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) was never given much chance to shine in the previous MCU films, which made her sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame all the more upsetting to fans. The new film seeks to remedy that, but its timing is unfortunate; given that we all saw Black Widow fall to her death in Endgame, how can a Black Widow prequel film have any real stakes?

The film remedies that issue by essentially being a stand-alone spy thriller that just happens to feature an Avenger in the lead role. More than any of the other 20+ MCU feature films, Black Widow, stylistically and tonally, feels like a movie mostly free from the puzzle-box confines of trying to tell a story that slots into a massive franchise thread.

Set between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, the film follows Black Widow as a Jason Bourne-like creature, on the run from the authorities after breaking the Sokovia Accords (here’s hoping this is the last we ever have to hear about Sokovia in the MCU). While hiding out in Norway, she’s attacked by the masked Taskmaster, the bodyguard of the nefarious Soviet General Dreykov (Ray Winston) that placed a young Natasha and her sister Yelena in the horrific Red Room program, where they were tortured and turned into agents known as the Widows.

Following the brazen attack, Natasha meets up with Yolena (Florence Pugh) to get back in touch with their parents, Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian (David Harbour) and Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz) in an effort to take down Dreykov and destroy the Black Widow program for good.

With elements of stellar recent spy shows like The Americans and Killing Eve, Black Widow moves along at a brisk pace, while allowing for some welcome personal moments between this very unconventional family of trained Soviet killers. Cate Shortland does a great job staging the white-knuckle action sequences, and the film might just feature one of the most thrilling chase sequences in the entire MCU canon so far. Black Widow feels like a movie with something to prove – as only the second Marvel movie centered on a female character, the film seems poised right out of the gate to silence any of the toxic fanboys who thought a Black Widow movie wouldn’t have the same level of action or comedy as the Iron Man or Captain America films.

Alongside the incredible action sequences and bristling hand-to-hand combat, Black Widow is also one of the funniest Marvel movies to date. Written by Eric Pearson (responsible for the hilarious Thor: Ragnarok), Black Widow is infused with some great sibling bickering between Natasha and the younger Yolena, who truly steals the show here. David Harbour is also comedic gold as the schlubby father trying his best to relive his glory days as the former super-villain Red Guardian.

Yet amidst all the sitcom-style family hijinx, there is an extremely dark undercurrent running through Black Widow. The Red Room program is based on kidnapping young and vulnerable women and subjecting them to brainwashing and torture (including forced sterilizations) to ensure their loyalty. Compared to a CGI horde of Sokovians falling to their death, this is real-world horror that hits much harder than any other evil plotting we’ve seen from these films so far.

Aside from some dreadful faux-Soviet voice work that would even make Boris and Natasha blush, Black Widow is a thrilling new entry for the MCU that still manages to feel like its own beast. It delivers a fitting send-off to Natasha, while likely setting up her younger sister for her own spotlight. We may know how Natasha’s story ends, but we definitely haven’t seen the last of Yolanda.

Black Widow is in theatres and available as a “Premium Access” purchase on Disney+ now.