My Review of "Black Widow"

Black Widow had finally come out in 2021 after so many delays. It wasn't the movie's fault it was the whole pandemic thing that was happening in the last year and a half. I wasn't sure how this movie was going to play out because this movie was coming out after Avenger's End Game. If anyone remembers that movie they would remember that Black Widow had passed away.

This movie starts out in the past. Actually it starts even earlier than you expect. It's when Natasha Romanov (Black Widow) was just a little kid. Her and her family lived what seems to be a regular family life in a small town in Ohio. It looks like the perfect loving family but obviously it isn't.

Not long after they've established the loving family the father starts to act a estray and the secrets quickly get revealed. This family isn't your traditional American nuclear family. They are in fact Russian spies living as Americans. This cold war aspect of the MCU has been touched upon in many cases, most notably the Winter Soldier.

There's a twist to this one though. Since the two young girls are so young they really developed a love for the setting that they were living in. All this is suddenly snatched from them and they are charted off to do secret spy work for the rest of their lives.

The movie continues to war monger with the Russians. The head of this organization doesn't really have a name like SHIELD or HYDRA. This secret Russian organization is just simply known to be in the shadows. There's not much of a parade for them. I guess this is to simplify having to refer to them in later MCU content.

We later jump to the time period right after Captain America: Civil War. The Avengers are on the run including Black Widow. Her sister from her fake family, Yelena has sent Black Widow some sort of antidote serum.

Basically the head of the Russian shadow organization has kidnapped young girls around the world and trained them to be his assassins around the world. Yelena had recently been cured of her assassin hold with a very strange serum. Now she's totally awakened and wants to save the other young women. The serum she sends to Black Widow is the last of the serum to release these young women from the clutches of this Russian kingpin.

Obviously the old family of yesteryear will eventually team back up again to thwart the dastardly deeds of this madman. It's quite predictable but the character development of each of the characters is done quite well.

I thought that there was a lot of geopolitical issues with this movie, namely the fact that Black Widow is now a hero only after she joins up with Americans. She's the only one without an accent and it does come about a little weird that they're all Russian and decide to speak in English with Russian accents to each other. I mean, when there's no English speakers around it doesn't make sense. That's just a nitpick though.

There's tons of nitpicking to do in this movie like why did the big bad guy train all these women assassins and yet he has these men as bodyguards? These women are supposed to be the best of the best.

I have to commend them on trying to explain Black Widow's superhuman like strength. The explanation has something to do with the female assassins having so much focus that they're able to do superhuman feats of strength. It still doesn't make sense to me but whatever. Not a lot of the strength and power consistency ever made sense throughout the MCU and I'm just going with it.

Although I would have liked a little better consistency with this movie. There's a number of times when Black Widow has her face smashed in and she takes such a huge beating. After all this she still has no markings on her face and her suit is always clean. You'd think there would be at least a scratch off on her but maybe since they're flying the wind cleaned off all the blood and dirt off her I don't know.

Again there's a ton to nitpick about this movie don't get me started with the fight scenes. Let's just say if they're all wearing the same outfit and in a darkly lit area with quick camera shots you're not going to understand whos getting hit. There's a few times I didn't even know if Black Widow was doing well or not.

Then again none of the Marvel movies are perfect. What's most important is the fact that they were able to build the characters correctly. I really liked all of the characters that they introduced to us. Whether it was the Homer Simpson like father figure or the plucky younger sister. Each one of them has their charm and I felt invested in these characters.

Overall, I have an idea what they're going to go with some of these characters, especially with the end cut scene. Hopefully these characters will continue to make a mark in the MCU. I had a good time watching it but I don't think I'd push myself to watch it over again. I have to give this movie a 6.5 out of 10. It's not my favorite MCU movie but it's definitely not a horrible movie either. There is a ton to enjoy in this movie.