Black Widow

Black Widow is the titular Avenger's solo entry that fills up more gaps in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's chronology of events with her side of stories. We're inaugurated into her life as a kid living in Ohio before she's forced into the Red Room mercenary program, her escape from it till the eventual revenge to take down said entire operation.

The best technical prowess the film has to flex is its action sequences. Oh Lord, is it riveting! Be it the Budapest vehicular chase, Black Widow's / Natasha Romanoff's (Scarlett Johansson) first encounter with Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) off the bridge accident, plane pursuit in the beginning, Red Guardian (David Harbour) rescue in midst of an avalanche, massive climactic escapade on air or the group effort by widows to finish off our protagonist, the stunts are tactical, real and excellently filmed! Whenever a situation revolves around Taskmaster arrives, the danger is always threatening and present which is a huge plus!

While the story definitely has a beating heart inside it somewhere concerning how tragic Natasha's childhood is, the impact of these pivotal moments are severely diminished when it's played off for comedy. Separation from family at a very young age on top of the fact that her parents and beloved younger sister aren't real family at all is truly heartbreaking, but the full potential of this exact heartbreaking scenario even during the reunion scene is not at all realized. The same can be said about Natasha's guilt that she has killed a kid once, but they quickly withdraw that dark past by saying said kid is alive and is the current Taskmaster. Imagine the possibilities of rendering Black Widow as an even more complex character if they had stuck with the initial narrative choice! Also the revelation about Taskmaster will be a hit or miss depending on the audience watching the flick. While Red Guardian's jealousy towards Captain America is adorable, it doesn't resolve into anything.

Yelena's (Florence Pugh) description about how the widows' reproductive organs are destroyed is graphically brutal, in a positive way! She makes fun of her sister's superhero landing pose, which is hilarious. Where the plot goes downhill severely is after Natasha meets Dreykov (Ray Winstone). If she's already informed about the pheromonal lock beforehand, why does she act surprised when that same info is told by Dreykov? All aside, the 90s flavored music and cinematography style is fitting. Face swap tech, pig manipulation and the new white costume set are awesome!