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'Black Widow' (12A)



Director: Anders Thomas Jensen

Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Rachel Weisz 

Where can I watch?: Black Widow is in cinemas and streaming on Disney+

Rating: 2.5/5

Review: Pipped to the post by DC, Marvel's first female superhero-fronted movie introduced us to a completely new character in Captain Marvel. Years later, and only after (spoiler alert!) her character was killed off in Avengers: Endgame, we get the much-awaited, highly anticipated Black Widow movie. One of the most complex characters of the MCU, surely this female-led, female-directed film would break the usual Marvel formula and bring us something a little more interesting? Unfortunately not. Despite being helmed by Cate Shortland, this is hardly a feminist film. Aside from the numerous establishing shots of Scarlett Johansson's ass, a misjudged joke about menstruation (seriously, are periods still funny?) and multiple glimpses of svelte young women in skin-tight suits, the film never seems to give its titular character credit where credit's due - again and again, Natasha is referred to alongside the Avengers, and never in her own right. It's as though she cannot be seen as a single, powerful entity in herself - she has to be positioned alongside the men in order to be recognised. It's a disappointment. There is, however, some joy to be found in the introduction of Yelena (Florence Pugh) - stomping into the film with attitude aplenty, Pugh steals every scene she's in with a combination of wry humour and just a little scenery chewing. Pugh is undoubtedly the strongest element of an otherwise rather bland film.  

There were a couple of other problematic elements too: why, why, why must English and American actors be directed to put on horrendous Russian accents? It's just ridiculous and pantomine-esque. Similarly, we're all used to the pattern that superhero films follow now, but it somehow felt more plodding, more box-ticking than ever here. And, although the bad guy lost at the end (surprise, surprise!), was the real villain actually vanquished? Of course not! If this film is anything to go by, anti-feminist behaviour is very much amongst us. Also, where was the cool music from the trailer? It doesn't appear in the film once, apparently replaced by a remix of Soviet marching music...

A Must-Watch?: Unfortunately not. Despite having her name in the title, the eponymous character actually gets fairly little of the limelight. Rarely spoken of without a reference to the Avengers, we actually learn surprisingly little about Natasha Romanoff at all. A samey-samey plot, confusing direction a couple of pretty poor 'twists' make this a highly forgettable MCU outing - certainly not the film the character deserved. 

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