Black Widow

Directed by Cate Shortland, Black Widow follows Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff as she and her estranged sister (Florence Pugh’s Yelena) team up to take down a vicious enemy named Dreykov (Ray Winstone). There’s little doubt that Black Widow suffers from many of the problems one has come to associate with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including an abundance of incoherent action sequences and an often impossibly convoluted narrative, and yet it’s equally clear that the movie, though palpably overlong and riddled with tedious interludes, generally comes off as a relatively watchable endeavor that benefits from its agreeable, entertaining performances – with Johansson’s affable work here heightened by her palpable chemistry with costar Pugh. (And this is to say nothing of the appealing dynamic between the actors’ protagonists and their Russian spy parents, David Harbour’s Alexei and Rachel Weisz’s Melina.) The picture’s transformation from interminable to tolerable is especially impressive given that it contains a hopelessly impenetrable first act, as Shortland delivers an arms-length opening stretch that’s eventually (and thankfully) alleviated by an unexpectedly engaging, dialogue-heavy sequence set within a remote cabin – with this all-too-short-lived scene providing the viewer with much-needed context and character development. (It’s impossible not to wish, ultimately, that more of the movie had focused on smaller, quieter moments like that.) By the time the predictably frenetic and entirely overwhelming climax rolls around, Black Widow has cemented its place as a hit-and-miss blockbuster that doesn’t, for the most part, fare as poorly as many of its similarly-themed (and less-than-spellbinding) brethren.

**1/2 out of ****