Film Review: Black Widow

Film: Black Widow

Theatre: Hoyts Victoria Gardens

Stars: 3.5

I'm a Marvel movies fan. I have been for a while, so I place that caveat on this review.

And this movie, which gives Natasha Romanoff  a.k.a. the Black Widow,  has most of the required Marvel tropes. Things blowing up? Check. Underlying dry humour? Check. Fast paced action? Check. References to other Marvel characters? Check. Stan Lee cameo - unfortunately not, as Stan Lee died the other year. 

Other than missing Stan Lee, yep, it's a Marvel movie. 

Nott the best of the Marvel stable, but it's still very entertaining. 

The movie provides Black Widow's back story, set originally in the last seventies, then moving forward to the nineties. 

RottenTomatoes.com says the film is about "Natasha Romanoff, 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."

That says it better than I ever could. 

This is a solid Marvel film. The action is pretty unrelenting, as Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) goes from scene to scene. Always a bit of a loner, you watch as she reconnects with her 'family', her 'Dad' (David Harbour), Mum (Rachel Weisz) and sister, Yelena (Florence Pugh). 

For me, the things that made the film were the family dynamics, which were as real as they were funny. Dad, Alexei, a.k.a The Red Guardian, is an absolute crack up. Rachel Weisz's Mum, Melina, gives the role gravitas. I loved Florence Pugh as Natasha's plucky little sister, Yelena. Part of me now wants to go back and see Fighting with my Family, in which she is even more awesome. Oh, and then there's Ray Winstone as the baddie - he makes a great baddie. 

I think the only thing that really grated on me were the Russian accents, which I found a tad overdone. 

But the action is fabulous. Fabulous enough for me to offer to take my friends eleven-year-old boys along to see it next weekend. 

Relatively unknown director, Cate Shortland's direction is pacy and sure. What she does really well is the family dynamics, which will have you tittering throughout. 

And of course, there is the short clip at the end, eluding to the next installment in the Marvel Comic Universe. 

So, in all, a solid film. Okay, it's not Guardians of the Galaxy or the Avengers series (or Deadpool. Love Deadpool), but it is still a very entertaining. 

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