Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh in Black Widow.
The long-called-for solo outing for Scarlett Johansson's Marvel character finally arrives in cinemas (and on Disney+ Premier Access) after more than a year of pandemic-driven delays.
Following a pre-title sequence revealing Natasha Romanoff's childhood in a Russian sleeper cell 'family' unit based in the US, we settle in the time
period just after 2016's Captain America: Civil War, when a fugitive Romanoff teams up with her resentful former 'kid sister' Yelena (Midsommar's Florence Pugh) to take down the Widow spy programme that trained and controlled them both.
The mission brings them into contact with their former 'parents' played by David Harbour (Stranger Things) and Oscar-winner Rachel Weisz (The Favourite), needlessly de-aged with CGI in the prologue. Marvel is obsessed with digital de-aging.
Following years of questionable treatment towards the character, it's gratifying to see Johansson take the lead as Black Widow, especially in a film about female autonomy. But it's undeniable that most of the fun here comes from Harbour and Pugh, both of whom texture the proceedings in interesting and unexpected ways.
Harbour is a blow-hard Russian superhero also-ran known as Red Guardian, and his fragile ego provides many laugh-out-loud moments. Pugh's prickly Yelena is the true star player, however, hilariously calling out Romanoff's superhero affectations while clearly yearning to reclaim their past bond. If Pugh is the future of Black Widow, as rumoured, then we are in good hands.
