Black Widow 2021

Finally the wait is over and the Black Widow has been released. I feel like I have been waiting forever to see this movie and in reality I have waited an entire pandemic to get to enjoy it.

The brilliance of the MCU is that they can tell us an old story about a dead hero who once had a 'family' before the Avengers became her family and not have us realize even once that she is dead in the current MCU. We also get to meet Natasha's 'sister' (the amazing Florence Pugh who has my vote to be the new Black Widow for the MCU) and there begins our story of redemption.

Set after AVENGERS CIVIL WAR we find Natasha on the run who finds her sister in the Budapest and decides to help her take down the infamous RED ROOM which is the training ground for all the elite fighting women being used by a Russian general as assassins. The same organization that turned a young Natasha and her sister into trained killers. They also come face to face with The Taskmaster, a sorta super assassin who can mimic any fighting style he has studied like Natasha's or Captain America's.

David Harbour is fantastic as The Red Guardian, Russian's version of Captain American complete with the strength of a super soldier. He is the only real father that Natasha has ever known and the family reunion is a highlight of the picture. Alexie's family might have been fake and a scheme by the Soviet state but his love for the girls is genuine and that theme of family strongly propels the second half of the film. A great setting of the table no matter how twisted his pride for the murders his 'girls' have committed turns out to be. Rachel Weisz is also very good and is one of those actresses that never seems to age.

The family stuff is great as are the huge action set pieces. It's hard to be an original action movie anymore but Black Widow finds new and fresh ways to put it's characters through an emotional and physical wringer. Definitely one of my all time favorite MCU movies. Make sure you stick around for the after credit scene. The MCU is always got a surprise or two for us when one of those show up.