BLACK MAGIC
THIS FITTING FAREWELL FOR SCARLETT JOHANSSON’S SPY-TURNED-AVENGER KICKS OFF A NEW PHASE OF MARVEL MOVIES
THE opening theatrical salvo of phase four of Marvel’s cinematic universe unveils a mechanised mercenary called Taskmaster, which perfectly mimics the fighting style of any adversary.
Imitation doesn’t end with this armoured antagonist.
This hugely entertaining spy thriller nods reverentially to Mission: Impossible, the Bourne franchise and James Bond (an excerpt from Moonraker plays on a TV screen), as well as earlier chapters in the Avengers saga that jive sweetly between explosive action set pieces and heart-tugging emotion.
Set in the tumultuous period between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, Black Widow is a fitting send-off for Scarlett Johansson’s former KGB spy.
A pulse-quickening prelude in 1995 Ohio distils Natasha Romanoff’s (Johansson) formative years as one quarter of a Russian sleeper cell with fake parents (David Harbour, Rachel Weisz) and a younger sister.
They flee the suburban Midwest under the cover of darkness to the haunting melody of Think Up Anger’s cover of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit. Twenty-one years later, Natasha is an enemy of the state. She has violated the newly ratified Sokovia Accords, which surrenders command of the Avengers to the United Nations, and is on the run from US Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross (William Hurt).
Hawkeye, Falcon, Ant-Man and Wanda Maximoff have been captured and are imprisoned in the maximum-security Raft.
Captain America and Natasha remain at large. She goes off-grid and resurfaces in Norway, aided by smitten private contractor Rick Mason (O-T Fagbenle).
Natasha’s past gate-crashes the Scandinavian serenity and she reunites with ‘sister’ Yelena (Florence Pugh) at a Budapest safehouse to learn the shocking truth about chemically subjugated Black Widows controlled by General Dreykov (Ray Winstone).
To assassinate the sadistic puppet master and destroy his secret facility, the Red Room, Natasha and Yelena must orchestrate an awkward family reunion with Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian (Harbour), the Soviet Union’s super soldier equivalent of Captain America, and scientist Melina Vostokoff (Weisz).
Black Widow, directed by Cate Shortland, returns the MCU to the big screen with several groundshaking bangs and thunderous blasts of Scottish composer Lorne Balfe’s score. Johansson, also an executive producer, is given space and time to rub salt into her character’s psychological wounds and add gravitas to Natasha’s sacrifices later in the franchise.
An elegiac post-end credits sequence teases conflict with a “cutie” Avenger and lays the groundwork for a Disney+ TV series later in the year.
In cinemas from Wednesday and available on Disney+ with Premier Access from Friday