Black Widow hit theatres and Disney Plus recently and marked the return of Marvel films to the cinema after just over two years!
The long-awaited solo film for Natasha Romanoff played by Scarlett Johansson has sparked several headlines over the lawsuit from Johansson and plenty of theories with some insightful scenes.
We are going to be taking a closer look at the film and because of its position in the MCU timeline and the fact it has been a few weeks, there will be spoilers, so if you haven’t seen it yet, go watch it now and come right back here. We’ll wait…
Wait, When Did This Happen?
There does seem to be some confusion surrounding when this film takes place. Which is entirely understandable because it’s the first film to happen out of time with the rest and yet be sandwiched between two other films.
Unlike Captain Marvel which takes place a couple of decades before most of the MCU (Except for Captain America: The First Avenger of course), Black Widow follows on from the events of Captain America: Civil War and leads into Avengers: Infinity War.
We learn more about Natasha’s childhood and her ‘family’ before being thrown into the events which fill out the time spliced with a few flashbacks for good measure.
Natasha must reunite with her estranged ‘family’ in order to shut down an evil Russian organisation which abducts young girls and turns them into weapons.
Because we know she makes it to Endgame, the stakes never get that high, but it is rare for 90% of Marvel films to kill off a main character anyway so I don’t think that effects it too much.
Behind The Scenes
By sheer numbers, Black Widow has not had a great run so far.
With a production budget of $200 million and likely matching or exceeding that in marketing costs due to the very, very, very dragged out release (thank you pandemic), this film has likely cost Marvel anywhere up to $500 million.
And considering that the Box Office is still coming in just shy of $350 million, I don’t think producers are all that pleased behind the scenes.
But that is not to say that this isn’t a good film.
Following on from the blockbuster hits of Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home, this movie was expected to easily pull in over a billion dollars, but unfortunately, circumstances didn’t favour it and the release on Disney Plus alongside theatres hindered its ongoing potential.
In fact, the first weekend after Far From Home’s release saw very similar domestic earnings at the box office with a total of just over $80 million earned for Black Widow and just over $90 million for FFH.
How Does It Compare?
So, listen, this isn’t going to crack my top 10 for all time favourite marvel movies, but it’s a solid story with some laughs and provides a sweet background to bid farewell to Romanoff before she goes on to meet her fate.
I warned that I may contain spoilers here but honestly, what is there to spoil, we watched trailers for this in anticipation for well over a year, we knew the start and end before the lights dimmed in the theatre, even the reveal of a character like Julia Louis-Dreyfus‘s character Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine was overshadowed by its reveal in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier series so all that this film has going for it in terms of new, is how Romanoff got her cool military jacket for Infinity War and the potential introduction of some new characters like Yelena Bolova played by Florence Pugh.
Out of 5 Stars?
This movie scores a solid 3.5 out of 5 stars.
There was nothing inherently wrong with it, it just didn’t have anything that was incredibly right. Hopefully the lawsuits don’t dampen relationships too much for the future relationships between Florence and the studios, but we will just have to cross our fingers.
And while you’re here, why not check out our review of Loki, the latest Disney Plus series prior to What If? Airing on August 11th.
Ben Gibbons