Black Widow Blu-ray Review

THE MOVIE — 2¾/5

Note: This portion of the review does contain major plot spoilers.

Plot Synopsis: Natasha Romanoff (SCARLETT JOHANSSON), aka Black Widow, confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy, and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger.

Review: Black Widow is a movie that probably came out several years too late as it probably would’ve been more appropriate to come out circa 2013/2014 after her debut in Iron Man 2, not 2021 and after her death in Avengers: Endgame. But as it is, the movie itself was… pretty bland with nothing especially memorable and filled with some dumb moments that were rather laughable, including a scene where our heroine has to break her nose to defeat the baddie. From what I can surmise this was taken from the comics, but just goes to show what may work in a comic book may not translate to live action film unless done right. Which it wasn’t.

This is not to ignore a secret base high up in the sky. How nobody was able to find it, from Tony Stark to SHIELD, is a bit much to believe. And it’s not it’s a small installation, even with some sort of cloaking device to make it invisible to satellites doesn’t make whole lot of sense, as cool as it might look on screen, the logistics are another matter.

On the positive side, I thought for most part the performances were fine. Scarlett Johansson is in form as Black Widow (well, one of the Black Widows as the movie shows there are several, so Natasha apparently is not so unique using the moniker). I don’t think she’s especially great and kind of sleepwalks in a role she’s played for a decade now but she still looks good kicking ass.

Florence Pugh, a star on the rise courtesy of her role in Lady Macbeth, has a few decent scenes opposite Johansson and she is set up to be the new Black Widow presumably in any future Avengers movie. I think she’s a solid actress and interested to see what she brings to the role in the future (she’s apparently a regular on Disney Plus’s Hawkeye television series. Only drawback, wasn’t buying her Russian accent. Not awful but did sound off at times.

The rest of the cast were adequate enough I suppose. David Harbour is in his third comic book movie following the small role in Suicide Squad and then the woeful Hellboy reboot. It’s a shame they just made him into a useless buffoon and offers nothing to the movie (he gets his ass handed to him by Taskmaster quite easily); Rachel Weisz is a fine actress and has a couple decent moments while Ray Winstone’s Deykov character, the big baddie, was pretty lame with some weird power of aroma that controls women. So dumb and how Natasha ultimately defeats him is absurd, and I don’t care if it was taken from the comic book, still really dumb.

Then there’s Taskmaster him… herself. I’m not a Marvel fan, never grew up reading those comic books so I don’t have a dog in this fight and really don’t care about the gender swap, although not sure it was necessary however. The role, well outside of the stunt work, was played by Olga Kurylenko whom I remember as the Bond-girl in Quantum of Solace. Nothing much to her performance and the Taskmaster character isn’t more than a high-tech henchman… person.

Black Widow was directed by Cate Shotland marking her first major film after helming a few independent films including Berlin Syndrome starring Teresa Palmer and was scripted by Eric Pearson who wrote Godzilla vs. Kong and Thor: Ragnarok, the latter I absolutely loved. The direction itself was okay, pretty cut and dry but at least some of the fights were well choreographed while the script and dialogue probably was the film’s biggest fault, and that’s beyond the villain’s pheromones.

SPECIAL FEATURES – 2½/5

No slip cover with the Blu-ray release as seems to now be the norm for Disney/Marvel. Inside is a Digital HD copy redemption code.

Sisters Gonna Work It Out (5:24) — This featurette looks at the complicated relationship between Natasha and Yelena.

Go Big If You’re Going Home (8:50) — A bit of everything, more or less a short making-of featurette with behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with members of the cast and crew including Scarlett Johansson, director Cate Shortland, and others.

Gag Reel (2:54) is filled with general on-set goofiness.

Deleted Scenes (14:11) — There are nine scenes that didn’t make the cut, guessing for pacing issues or didn’t add very much to the plot or character developments.

VIDEO – 4½/5

AUDIO – 4½/5

OVERALL – 2½/5

Overall, Black Widow is a movie that was released a few years too late for sure, however the execution of what we did get was lackluster with a few plot points that didn’t make very much sense, however I did like Scarlett Johansson even if she feels like a side character at times while Florence Pugh hopefully gets some better material if she’s to be the new Black Widow within the MCU.