It's been a long time coming but we finally have a Black Widow movie and it's really good, I really enjoyed it. It works well, the characters are good, set pieces are good, the family dynamic it has going on is really good, the villain situation is maybe not as good but that’s marvel and everything comes together in the end to make a movie I think anyone can enjoy but also fits well into the wider MCU. The one is one extremely glaring problem with this movie, it probably should have come out 3 or 4 years ago.
Black Widow hails from the Captain America Winter Soldier realm of the MCU. A world of spies, subterfuge, that is much more comparable to our own reality. Granted its Marvel, there are enhanced individuals, technology that we don’t have but we are not in space and nobody has magic powers here. Instead we get fights in the Style of the Winter solider, set pieces while not possible are still somewhat plausible and that slick action that you see in nearly every MCU thing.
At its core Black Widow is about its characters and mostly the family dynamic between Natasha, Yelena and later David Harbor's Red Guardian/Alexi and Rachel Weisz's Melina. ScarJo and Florence Pugh are great together with their sister relationship. Yelena is especially interesting as she is a master assassin Black Widow but due to the circumstances of her life she acts like a kid, and is very green when it comes to the outside world. David Harbours Red Guardian is pretty cool, he is a walking Russian Stereotype but he's funny, gets some cool moments and is great addition to the MCU. Rachel Weisz's Melina does get a bit of the short end of the stick here but she has moments and rounds out the cast well enough. On the villain side we have Taskmaster and Dreykov. Taskmaster is a cool villain with a really cool gimmick in that Taskmaster can replicate the fighting styles of the other Avengers which is cool and its nice recognizing the moves be it Hawkeyes bow skills, Captain America's Shield moves or even Bucky's Knife trick but as cool as this stuff is it does not have the biggest impact on the story. Dreykov is ok but does not have a ton of screen time and some of the stuff that happens in the final confrontation is a bit off. Ultimately the villain is not the main story here, it’s the family dynamic and that works really well. We get quite a bit of downtime with these characters and it gives them space to be distinct well mostly, Melina does not show up till later but does get her moments especially during the big reunion part of the movie. I would argue that Black Widow does the family theme better than F9, it’s a more interesting dynamic, things are a lot more focused we see the characters grow and see the consequences for their actions.
As for the rest of it, the action is good, fight scenes are that more Captain America/Russo Brothers style though the Black Widows do fight quite differently. Thanks to task master we do get a bit of Black Widow vs the Avengers when the different fighting styles are used. The set pieces are pretty good and ramp up as the movie progresses. The intro flashback is done really well and it does a good job of setting the scene for the movie. As for the major set pieces they are good, there is one sequence in a prison that’s our re-introduction to the red guardian which is really fun and the final big set piece is also pretty good. It is a bit reminiscent of Winter Soldiers Climax but it's still good. Highlight of the movie would have to the family reunion, everyone is really good in this and its gives everyone some time to shine.
As for the big elephant in the room yep this movie should have come out years ago. It is really a shame this did not come out mid-late phase 3. It’s a good movie, the characters introduced are really fun and it sets up some stuff for the future but seeing this after Endgame and knowing in the back of your mind Natasha's ultimate fate it overshadows the movie quite a bit. Imagine seeing Red Guardian or some of the Black Widows in Endgame it would have added to the movie. Its good ScarJo got her movie the Black Widow movie was really overdue but at least for me it did feel a bit late.
Overall Black Widow is a good movie with good action but really shines with the family dynamic of its characters. Its great that we finally got a Black Widow movie and after all the cosmic and scifi stuff the MCU as been doing its nice to see a more grounded story. Im glad Black Widow exits but yeah it should have come out years ago.
I'm normally a big proponent of watching the MCU in release order but if your doing a marathon, going through the MCU for the first time or rewatching it at a leisurely pace do yourself a favor a watch this before Infinity War