“Black Widow” is the twenty-fourth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the first post-pandemic installment and the first blockbuster that many people are willing to risk their lives to see. Is this movie so good that it is worth being etched on your tombstone as the cause of death? Absolutely not, but you may be familiar with curiosity and the proverbial cat. Scarlett Johansson is still playing Natasha Romanoff, one of the few Avengers without powers, but not anti-climactic like Hawkeye.
Since Johansson made her introductory performance as Romanoff in “Iron Man 2” (2010), Marvel has been promising to give her a standalone movie. The timing makes sense in terms of marketing, but the long delay seems artistically like a mistake since she feels less germane to the MCU plot. After “Avengers: Endgame” (2019), it feels like a cynical attempt to keep the hero alive long enough to create a successful successor so the title of Black Widow can be used like an ATM whenever needed. She will be the MCU’s Bond with different women playing her in the future. I don’t mind, but it affected my perception of the film.
“Black Widow” takes place immediately after the events of “Captain America: Civil War”(2016). Our titular hero is on the run from Ross who is allegedly trying to enforce the Sokovia Accords, but drama from the past interrupts her Avengers sabbatical, and she returns to her roots to wrap up unfinished business, which includes reuniting with her “family,” whom she hasn’t seen since they were undercover agents in Ohio in the nineties.
Standing on its own, “Black Widow” is a solid movie. There are clear good and bad guys, plenty of humor, chicks kicking ass, pleasing action sequences. It feels more like Bourne than Marvel because the superpower hijinks are understated and casual.
“Black Widow” may be the most mumblecore entry in the franchise. Romanoff (how do they get assigned last names?) is the equivalent of the adult who just lost her job or got divorced then must return home to deal with some unresolved trauma, i.e. her forced induction into the Black Widow program. It feels more like an ensemble cast than a star vehicle for Johansson, which is not bad, but felt a bit like a cheat after decades of delay. Black Widow is the only Avenger without powers, but she can throw down with the best yet now we are meeting scores of people who can kick her ass or at least fight her to a draw. Making a credible threat to the titular hero is necessary, but it does endanger what makes her special. The film does have numerous subtle moments when she gets the upper hand by outwitting the opposition or using her opponent’s strength against them whether it is Taskmaster’s polarizing priorities or the villain’s irrepressible desire to show off how powerful he is. I always loved that Black Widow used her opponents’ arrogance and their false perception of her vulnerability to get intel, but in an unexpected twist, I wanted more of those characteristic moments than hitting first, talking later. When she reunites with her “sister,” and they fight, I enjoyed the spectacle, but thought it was stupid. I get it. Yelena will make a great Black Widow.
Florence Pugh plays Yelena, and I have been a fan of Pugh’s since Lady Macbeth. I prefer her to Johansson so I am actually thrilled that the mantle has passed. I just do not like the manipulation. Pugh steals the movie as Yelena keeps Romanoff accountable for not looking back after she made it. Her hard-earned, trauma-tinged joy at freedom provides a window into understanding the titular character’s development. She is like a tiny little Klingon who is even thrilled at being able to choose how she dies. Pugh and Johansson work well together, and thank God the story actually makes sense why the two would put on those white Black Widow suits other than to signal that they are the good guys. Side note: who are the doctors that performed the hysterectomies on the Black Widows? Yes, it is horrible to take away people’s reproductive choices, but considering that the surgeries seemed to have few side effects on their victims, would they be willing to share their secrets? They look great, have unparalled physical prowess and no negative side effects.
The white suits come in handy when it is time to pick up “dad,” Alexei, a former super soldier known as Red Guardian. David Harbour is hilarious as the self-centered has been who rests on his laurels but still manages to be loveable despite his messiness. He acts as a more human foil to Captain America who rarely stumbles as he ages. Alexei’s incessant boasting may also contain a teaser regarding how Steve spent his time before reappearing on the bench in “Avengers: Endgame.” He reminds us that as impressive as all the onscreen shenanigans are, there is a world filled with more powerful characters who could squash them like bugs.
Alexei’s work wife, Melina, another Black Widow turned scientist, holds the key to stopping the Black Widow program, but will she? I wanted more screentime for Rachel Weisz, who has been a convincing action star since “The Mummy” (1999). “You didn’t get soft on my watch,” she admonishes her suspicious “daughter” when they visit her. She plays an ambiguous figure because she does seem to be a bit emotionless and does not see the problem with inflicting harm as an intellectual exercise. I felt as if she could turn on them at any moment and was uncertain of her agenda, which brings me to my only problem with “Black Widow.”
Women are people so they can be evil. “Black Widow” gives us a world where even the most powerful women are victims without agency. The Black Widows have a FemBot quality, but with a Nikita storyline to retain their humanity. Because of patriarchy, I do not necessarily have an issue with that premise, but once the characters are given a choice, they are all good. There is not one Ghislaine Maxwell in the bunch? Internalized misogyny is a thing, and sisterhood and solidarity are missing at the voting booth.
The lack of nuance and texture when it comes to gender and geopolitical history compared to Agent Carter and Dottie Underwood, an early Black Widow, is disappointing. I am a Cold War American baby of the eighties and resent that Putin contributed to bringing Presidon’t to national prominence, but the equating of Russia with bad, and US with good is a dumb oversimplification. Underwood was evil, but by the second season of Agent Carter, Underwood seemed less evil, and Carter seemed more naïve. Given what we now know about Hydra, Underwood’s opposition to the US and Carter retroactively makes sense. Suppose Black Widows were always the good guys or at least not as polarizing as their Western counterparts who bought into propaganda. By completely taking away the agency of Black Widows and not imagining a world where Red Guardian is correct to be proud of himself for fighting on the side of angels as opposed to being proud of raising murderous daughters, the MCU has taken a step backwards.
The MCU and Johansson also missed an opportunity to implicitly apologize for past sins. I loved that the Black Widows had more women of color than a Woody Allen film set in Manhattan, but Russia has a huge Asian population so “Black Widow” missed an opportunity to give Asian actors more representation. We needed more Asian Black Widows. Asian fans should not have to wait until Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings or Eternals to get their life.
“Black Widow” is consistent with majority culture feminism fictional idea that white women will be Moses and lead all women to liberation. Johansson’s brand of feminism permits her to belong to Time’s Up speaking against James Franco while working with Allen (“I believe him, and I would work with him anytime”). Gloria Steinem pushes against this narrative in popular culture. Steinem says, “One of the ways in which the history is not so accurate about the women’s movement is that it’s made to seem as if white women were the center of the women’s movement, when in fact Black women were always disproportionately present in the leaders of the women’s movement.” Maybe the film tried to reflect it by casting a black Black Widow as Taskmaster’s caretaker, which is a role that people are comfortable with black women occupying, but I think not. I have zero helpful suggestions on how to make a story where instead of Pugh, Black Widow’s successor is a black woman or at least a black woman plays a more prominent role in the liberation of other Black Widows, i.e. actually gets to be a character with a name that viewers remember. The MCU at least borrowed a page from “Get Out” (2017) by showing a woman of color struggle against mind control.
I paid to see “Black Widow” because I did not realize that when I saw “Iron Man” (2008) a little over thirteen years ago, as a completist, I was committing to eighteen years of watching movies regardless of how problematic the actual film was. I enjoyed it, but Summertime should have been the first movie that I saw when reentering the theater. I wanted butter popcorn, and “Black Widow” fits the bill. It did not make me want to see more Cate Shortland films, but it put her on my radar. “Berlin Syndrome” (2017) seems like a natural transition after seeing how Shortland depicts women fighting captivity.