BLACK WIDOW – Review by Sherin Nicole
Basically: Black Widow aims for spycraft action and doesn’t miss.
Black Widow is a nice surprise for action fans. This new Marvel movie launches into the espionage and assassin genres with the unblinking verve of a Bourne or a Wick. It’s an unexpected form for an Avengers offshoot to take. But that’s what makes it work. The filmmaking is tailored to the Natasha Romanoff character, not to the wider cinematic universe. That’s good decision making. Can you imagine Black Widow’s story playing out without lethal women hopping from country to country, while hand-to-hand smack blasting their opponents, in order to stop an enemy who uses them like disposable combat dolls? Sorry, I meant “disposable action figures” and I can’t imagine it going any other way either. But I’m still surprised. Just because we’re right doesn’t always mean we’re accurate.
Black Widow takes place in the in-between times when Tony Stark pulled an ego trip (just like most reformed arms dealers) and decided everyone needed to be good little super soldiers for the government. The Sokovia Accords were broken and Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), respectively known as Cap and Black Widow, went on the run. You call that movie Captain American: Civil War; I call it ‘Avengers Disassemble.’ And as a callback to the first paragraph: I’m right. Continue reading
