Women kicking ass in Captain America: The Winter Soldier-level action scenes? Yes, please.
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It’s finally here. The one Marvel film fans have been anticipating long before the pandemic hit and forced us all to wait an extra year longer than the many we had already clocked in – Marvel Studios' Black Widow.
Directed by Cate Shortland, starring Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Rachel Weisz, William Hurt, Ray Winstone, O-T Fagbenle and Olga Kurylenko.
It’s spotlight on Natasha Romanoff, aka the titular character, following the events of 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. She’s on the run and finds her past catching up to her — a past long before she became an Avenger.
Without giving away too much (or anything at all), Black Widow is a solid vehicle for one of the OG Avengers. Shame that it’s also Scarlett Johansson’s bittersweet goodbye to the character she’s played in 8 films over the course of a decade. At least it’s also a great window for introducing new characters to the MCU roster — most notably David Harbour’s Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian who served as the film’s comic relief (imagine a Russian Peter Quill, if you will) and Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova who’s just as badass as Natasha is, if not more.
Pugh’s introduction the the superhero genre easily outshines that of Johansson’s. She brought depth with her performance, elevating a simple action flick by bringing the heart, delivering sharp one-liners, kicking butt (all while pulling off an accent no less!) — proving time again she’s one of the greatest of her generation.
Black Widow may be one of the simpler MCU films the studio has on their roster but where they lack in complexity, they surely made up for in action (think Captain America: The Winter Soldier-level fight scenes). There was zero room for the sexist male-gaze Natasha was subjected to when she was the only female amongst men in prior MCU films. Just plain female badassery and we are here for it! Definitely one worth seeing on the big screen.
Side note: Think Up Anger and Malia J’s haunting rendition of Nirvana’s "Smells Like Teen Spirit" accompanying the opening credits may very well be one of the more powerful starts to a film I’ve seen in all of 2021. Stayed up all night thinking of this and Florence Pugh.
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