Back in the MCU: “Black Widow” as spoiler free as I can make it

This may have been the most Bondian of the Marvel movies. It is oddly the one where I feel most of the action sequences serve to advance the characters and not merely exist as set pieces. And - and - the characters are for the most part, well-drawn. 

Naturally, I am not going into spoiler territory here, but I have to at least mention what worked for me, as well as what did not. This has all to do with the characters and little to do with the plot. Though, there be holes, aye. 

I don’t think it’s giving too much away to say the the film borrows a fair amount from “The Americans”, one of the best shows, ever. We have already seen in the trailers, the four principles sitting around a table and David Harbour (Alexei aka The Red Guardian) expounding on “family.” 

There is some expert bait and switch as befits a decent espionage flick in the grand 007 tradition (not to mention a clip on TV paying additional homage); likewise, many of those action sequences do pop, and there are moments of genuine tension regarding the likely fates of some of the characters. Obviously, Natasha survives to fight another die and meet her fate worlds away in exchange for the Soul Stone. But there are moments when you think, “huh, maybe they are going to finish x off here.”

Again, not saying, not giving anything away. However, not all the characters have been written equally well. If I’m being honest, Rachel Weisz’s Melina is a wee underwritten, but she’s so good it may not matter as much as what they did to/with Harbour’s Alexei. Harbour is fine, but he’s given a thankless role; a Drax but more of a dunderhead and there just isn’t enough of anything there to breathe life into. It’s one of the rare moments in a Marvel film when this has happened and frankly, it does a disservice to a fine actor and a possibly more meaningful character. 

The theme of family is the driver here and if you have seen “Red Sparrow”, and the aforementioned series, you already have a handle on how this “family” was formed. Even though it wasn’t a real, biological family, it was very much real to Florence Pugh’s Yelena, a younger Black Widow trained like Natasha, in the notorious Red Room. This is when the script clicks: the scenes between Johansson and Pugh are electric and real. 

I had my doubts that Pugh would read as believable as a trained assassin, but she more than pulls it off, and to be sure, the sequence in which she and Nat battle it out by way of “it’s been a long time” seemed kind of dumb, actually. Well-choreographed, but…well, dumb.

Having said that, the rest of their interactions are so tight. You do get the feeling that these are two women who had their childhoods snatched from them and were going to spend years attempting to heal from the trauma visited upon them. Yelena is more clear-eyed and less rueful about her actions of the past than Natasha, but Pugh invests the character with a genuine groundedness in how she relates to others and how she comports herself.

As for Natasha, I still feel this character gets the short end of the stick. I root for her and accept that her personality is ever shifting because of who and what she was, but then, there are moments - and this applies to her other appearances in the MCU, where that back-story is hinted at being much grimmer than any Marvel movie could handle. We see more of that story here, but while grim, and while I get it, I’m not sure I completely buy what they’re selling.

Again, I can’t go into great detail, but there was something almost anticlimactic about the how a specific event that played out in Nat’s defection to SHIELD added to her “ex-hitwoman’s guilt.” It does make sense, in the course of what happens following Nat into the lair of where the Red Room exists; but a larger issue came up there for me, too. Again, in the writing.

There is a confrontation between Nat and the mastermind behind the Red Room and its nefarious dealings that, while well-done enough, felt even more James Bondish; as in, coaxing the villain out to describe his plans, etc., etc. Given that both Ray Winstone and Scarlett Johansson are such pros, this plays out well enough, but there was an emotional sag here that didn’t seem to go very far. 

I wish I could go into greater detail, but there were other moments in the film where the pay-off didn’t feel earned or the rhythm of the sequence was off (owing to really stupid comic relief or just not well-thought-out editing). Again, this is unusual for a Marvel film (not unprecedented; I had similar issue with “Spider-Man: Far From Home”, “Thor: the Dark World”, “Iron Man 2” and some others) and it didn’t negate my enjoyment of the film overall, except I really did want a better story for Natasha Romanoff.

The Taskmaster, the seriously deadly hit-person in a kind of Iron Man suit, is also underserved (not that the Taskmaster isn’t a badass) and reminds me of Marvel’s early days with their “villain problem”; i.e., someone so dangerous but winds up easily stashed away/defeated (even if momentarily), and void of personality (although in this case, burdened with a tragic origin story.) Actually, Taskmaster comes across as a more opaque victim along the line of Hannah John-Kamen’s Ava (“the Ghost”) in “Ant-Man and the Wasp”. A closer analog might be Nebula. 

There are genuine heartfelt emotional beats, though; moments where you may find yourself a little misty-eyed and these are earned. And no, not just because of Nat’s fate. Pugh is the emotional cornerstone here and she delivers beautifully. 

Cate Shortland, the Australian writer of “Deadline Gallipoli” and the director of “Somersault” with Abbie Cornish, has a strong sense of character dynamics and for the most part, how to position action sequences so that they’re not gratuitous, but the script has its holes (again, nothing I’m going to lay out here) and lapses in where to apply comic relief and not serving the actors as well as possible. 

This last is a pity because Eric Pearson is also the writer behind “Thor: Ragnorak” and was a script doctor on “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame”…On the other hand, he also wrote “Detective Pikachu” and “Godzilla vs. Kong”, not exactly the summits of screen writing. The story was provided by Jac Schaefer, the showrunner for “WandaVision” and Ned Benson who wrote (and directed) “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby”; no flies on either of them. Sometimes, though, things just don’t work.

The cinematography (Gabriel Beristain, whose work with Marvel goes back to “Blade: Trinity”) is very effective; there are evocative scenes that locate the characters in a world that is at once mundane and magical and the action shots aren’t cluttered or slapdash; there’s a good sense of space and who’s hitting who. Mostly, though, the close shots between characters and on individuals tell as much of the story as anything in the dialog (and in all fairness to David Harbour, there scenes where his physicality is allowed to express more than the ham-handed dialog he’s saddled with.)

Altogether, it is worth your while. As a send-off for Natasha, it has some very moving moments and if it isn’t a top-rank Marvel movie, it remains far better than similar fare.

There is an end-credits scene that is worth waiting for; it provides a genuine sense of closure on this chapter and Nat’s tale while looking forward to other developments. 

Writing about a new Marvel film is both refreshing and annoying. I don’t really want to spoil anything for anyone, but it is a really good feeling to have one to write about, at all.