"Great plan- I loved the part where I almost bled to death!"
This movie has been long overdue and I don't mean just because it was delayed for over a year due to the pandemic. Scarlet Johansson has been consistently brilliant throughout the MCU as Black Widow and as the original female Avenger it's absurd that she didn't get a movie until now. The film is even set earlier in the timeline, between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War when Natasha was on the run and couldn't get help from the Avengers.
The plot sees Natasha team-up with fellow black widow Yelena (Florence Pugh), who was also her 'sister' for three years of their childhood on a secret mission in America, to once and for all take-down the Red Room and it's leader General Dreykov (Ray Winstone).
There is so much to love here. The glue that holds the film together is the family dynamic between Natasha, Yelena, Red Guardian Alexei (David Harbour) and Melina (Rachel Weisz). Every scene where they are together is brilliant, with lots of comedy and a tension that feels appropriate to a family dynamic yet is heightened by the circumstances they were brought together.
Johansson has always been brilliant as Natasha and she gives us more of the same here but with a chance to show her vulnerable side a little more and having the most brutal fights we've seen her involved in. The stand-out star of the film though is Florence Pugh as Yelena who is undoubtedly going to return to the MCU at some point in the future. She's just as tough as Natasha but she has an even stronger sense of humour and manages to be genuinely hilarious whilst still remaining a character you can take seriously. I've always been impressed with Pugh but this is another level and it's only a matter of time before she is the superstar at the front of the poster.
The villains of this are not the strongest. Dreykov is really nasty but there isn't a great deal of characterisation behind him. I'm not sure there's really meant to be though, he's a personification of the patriarchy and his whole life is about controlling and abusing women. The Taskmaster is always a big threat when they are on screen and I liked the subtle references to fighting techniques picked up from other Avengers. They're identity is a mystery that is revealed just before the film's climax and though I didn't see it coming, it wasn't a revelation that completely knocked by socks off.
This is very much a feminist action film. Most of the heroes are female and the whole plot is about taking down the Red Room which is basically just the patriarchy. It wanders into some quite dark areas for the MCU but only really touches upon things it could have gone much further into. Some viewers have felt that it's a shame that it remains firmly on the side of being Disney family-friendly but I think it actually does a decent job of getting these issues into the film without becoming a film people won't bring their kids too.
Really this was everything I wanted the film to be. It successfully expands on Natasha's background, gives us a great and fun family dynamic, excellent action sequences and is really the first Marvel female led film that properly tells a story that couldn't have worked with a male lead. As an added bonus it gives us the character of Yelena who I really enjoyed and can't wait to see more of.
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