Marvel’s ‘Black Widow’: An Emotional Send-Off for Natasha Romanoff

Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Studios.

SPOILERS AHEAD.

Phase four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has introduced us to WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Loki so far. This ambitious phase of the MCU has proven to be innovative and captivating.

The most recent feature-film that was released was Avengers: Endgame in 2019. In the second-to-last installment of the Infinity Saga, our hearts were shattered by the deaths of Tony Stark aka Iron Man and Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow. They sacrificed themselves in order to save humanity. Knowing her devastating fate, we are now able to say an official farewell to Natasha Romanoff. 

This film definitely delivered with the performances given to us by Johansson, Pugh, and Weisz. Although the film is centered on Scarlet Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff, Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova stole the show. It was like Yelena was made for her to portray. Pugh does such a great job at portraying emotions with facial expressions. She was mesmerizing to watch and Yelena is my favorite character from the film.

Johansson seemed as if she never left for a brief period of time. Natasha Romanoff was introduced in the MCU 10 years ago and she’s definitely mastered the character. It was amazing to see Natasha’s character expanded more because the other films didn’t give her character much growth. Black Widow definitely allowed her to grow and we got to see a different side to her as well. It’s bittersweet knowing this is the last time we will see her portray Black Widow.

Harbour being cast as Alexei was genius casting. It was like he was made for this role. He had me crying from laughter during many parts. He was a great addition to the film and the MCU. I’m excited to see more of him because I absolutely love him as Hopper from Stranger Things. Being in this film and the MCU will give him more exposure.

Weisz was great as well. I liked Melina but I do wish we got to see a little more of her so I hope we get get to see more of her in future projects.

The cinematography was nothing like Black Panther, Thor: Ragnarok, or Doctor Strange. It was simplistic as far as camera movements. Static shots and zooming in and out were used.

The visual effects weren’t horrible but I feel like there were definitely points where you could tell that they were fake and artificially included.

Cinematically speaking, the film was extremely formulaic as far as cinematography goes. It felt like traditional Marvel like the Iron Man trilogy for example. Lots of chaotic action shots.

Black Widow was released on July 9, 2021. The film was met with favorable reviews from critics particularly praising the performances from Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh and the action sequences. In its opening weekend, the film made $215 million globally, $80 million domestic and even $60 million on Disney+. 

Fans have been going crazy since Black Widow came out. Most of them talking about Pugh’s performance as Yelena and the sister duo of Natasha and Yelena. My Twitter feed has been full of edits of Yelena. Many fans easily fell in love with the character and even said that she was the highlight of the entire film.

 

 

Black Widow is available to stream exclusively on Disney Plus.

Director: Cate Shortland

Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Rachel Weisz

Producer: Kevin Feige

Cinematographer: Gabriel Beristain