Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy, headed up by Dreykov (Ray Winstone), with ties to her past involving her estranged sister Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), arises. Purged 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. She becomes separated as a child from her family including Yelena, Alexei, her father (David Harbour)and Melena, her mother (Rachel Weisz), only 21 years later, they show up to assist her to combat Dreykov's plot.
Others to round out the cast are Ever Anderson as young Natasha, Violet McGraw as young Yelena, O-T Fagbenle as Mason, William Hurt as Secretary Ross, Ryan Kiera Armstrong as young Antonia, Liavi Samuel as Lerato, Michelle Lee as Oksana and Nanna Blondell as Ingrid.
This was directed with such action, adventure and thrills by Cate Shortland ("Somersault" '04, "The Silence" (TV movie) '06, "Lore" '12, "Berlin Syndrome" '17) plus TV and shorts. This was helmed with the same intensity and explosiveness as its predecessors which reside within the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). She is certainly able to showcase her actors in scenes where it becomes personal to being fraught with chaos and peril. This takes expressive talent for any director. It was interestingly written by Eric Pearson ("Thor: Ragnarok" '17, "Godzilla vs. Kong" '21) plus TV and video shorts, based on a story by Jac Schaeffer and Ned Benson, which is based on on the Marvel comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Although the writing wasn't Academy Award worthy, (but you had to know this), it still gave its audience that one two punch, which is why these are such a crowd pleaser. Considering all that was going on, the cohesiveness and pacing was amazing, however it was slow about two-thirds the way through and then picked again soon after, but probably could've been shaved about 10 minutes off the running time. And, of course, the visual effects predominantly designed by ILM (Industrial, Light & Magic), Weta Digital and Digital Domain were seamless and looked great on the large screen.
Certainly if you see this, it must be viewed on the large screen as opposed to your TV set; in fact IMAX, which it's also presented, would be killer. Any Marvel fan will love this. And if you don't know it, wait until all the end credits have rolled, since there will be a little surprise at that point.
Out of 4 Stars: 3 Rated: PG-13 134mins.
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