Black Widow! The Movie We’ve All Been Waiting For
- Neha Regis
- Aug 30, 2021
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 7, 2022
Disclaimer: This review might spoil the movie. If you haven't watched the movie and are planning to, do not read, yet.
Marvel fans, like myself, have been waiting more than a year for the famous Black Widow movie. The delayed release of the movie brought suspense to everyone around the country, but was this movie really worth the wait?
Before diving into Black Widow, one must look at Romanoff's past. Natasha Romanoff was orphaned as a child and "rescued" by Dreykov and taken to the Red Room. The Red Room is a Soviet spy organization that takes young girls and trains them to be masters of espionage and assassin. At the end of their training, the girls had surgery that took away their ability to have children. Eventually, she broke free from them and joined SHIELD. Her mastery of martial arts made her one of the most deadly agents at SHIELD. She was later chosen to be a part of the Avenger's initiative which brings us up to date.
In 1995, the Red Room assigned four of their spies to infiltrate a neighborhood in Ohio and pass as an ordinary family. One of them was a 10-year-old Natasha Romanoff. This movie takes place before Black Widow's death, after Captain America Civil War. Most of the Team Cap Avengers were arrested, and Natasha is separated from her surrogate family. Natasha learns that her previous attempt the destroy the Red Room had failed. Now the organization uses mind control to keep their assassins in check. Along with the help of her family from 1995, she tries to take the Soviet organization down once more.
The movie often mentions the importance of family. Natasha was blessed with the Avengers after she escaped the Red Room. But, she rarely mentions the family she had before. In the duration of the movie, she learns that her old family is still very real. When looking deeper, one can also find that this movie also showed that women are more than just objects. They can be amazingly selfless heroes in the same way that men can. Like I mentioned in the Falcon and Wintersoldier Review, the fourth phase of Marvel has significantly evolved from the first movie. The diversity they include nowadays has inspired a lot of people. It spreads the message that heroes can be male, female, any race, and any shape.
In previous movies, Scarlett Johansen's hair was never tied back and they put her in costumes that exaggerated her body. The reason being that they chose looks over practicality. It isn't realistic for a secret agent to have hair flying in her face during a fight. However, this new movie focused more on Black Widow's ability not looks. The female characters almost always had their hair in braids which is a lot more practical for a warrior. This movie was directed by one of the first solo female directors in the Marvel Cinematic Universe which could be a reason the movie portrayed a lot of feminist ideas.
Black Widow was very different from your typical Marvel movie. It fell in more with the James Bond spy genre. My favorite part of the movie was getting a closer look at Natasha’s past. However, it seems unfair that the character got her first solo movie after she died. Black Widow was never the main character, but she was still a very valuable one. It's nice to see that Marvel made her an important part of the team. Without her sacrifice, the Avengers wouldn't have gotten the soul stone.
On the other end, I think Marvel should have given us more background information on the Red Room before this movie came out. The only mention of it was in Age of Ultron, and I was left very confused. In my opinion, the movie wasn't worth waiting for more than a year. The suspense made me assume the crew would add something extra to it. I hate to say that I was a little disappointed. Nevertheless, it was a great movie to watch and was very entertaining. Under normal circumstances, I would rate this movie a five out of five. However, the confusion about the Red Room and the incredibly long wait, make it a four.
In the end, I think this movie had great potential to change everything in the MCU. I believe that it still could. This movie is definitely on my list of must-watch movies, and I'm looking forward to the new Marvel movies to come.
"At some point, we all have to choose between what the world wants you to be and who you are" - Natasha Romanoff
Read our other article about The True Definition of Feminism
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