Black Widow — now streaming on Disney+Hotstar, over a month and a half after its Disney+ debut — is frustrating onmany counts. As an espionage action thriller, it's a mishmash of other moviesof its ilk. A fisticuff between the film's female leads is reminiscent of thechoreography and cinematography from Paul Greengrass' Matt Damon-led JasonBourne films. Black Widow's early Budapest car chase is drawing on theenergy of Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible. Another shot in that sequencereminded me of the 2012 James Bond movie Skyfall, with Daniel Craig and JavierBardem. A character even watches a Bond film during Black Widow — the1979 Roger Moore-starrer Moonraker, to be specific — that serves as a bit offoreshadowing for events later in the Marvel movie.
Displaying all the worst tendencies of Marvelmovies — a flat visual style, a generic structure and an instantly-forgettablevillain — Black Widow isn’t merely uninteresting, it almost goes out of its wayto avoid having any sort of personality. Marvel waited too long to give NatashaRomanoff a solo film of her own, and because of this hesitation, robbed herstory of all stakes.
At times, it almost feels like as if directorCate Shortland (Lore, Somersault, Berlin Syndrome) and her team studied thegreats of their genre while scouring for inspiration — and ended up borrowingtheir best qualities. That may well have worked out.
Unfortunately, Black Widow’s action is anamalgamation that seems to be aping others, without ever getting close to thoseheights. The only spark of originality is the Marvel movie's self-awarenature. That allows it to skewer its title character's oft-used “hero pose,” ortake down a braggadocio man-child who's overconfident in his abilities.
But the bigger crimes are reserved for thefilm's characters. Black Widow is too little too late for ScarlettJohansson's Natasha Romanoff, who deserved a full arc outside of her Avengers exploits.Instead, she's gotten a farewell flick. It also wastes its helmeted villain Taskmasterwho had the potential to be a lot more. Thankfully, Florence Pugh's YelenaBelova is better served.
Marvel never actually makes standalonemovies, so a cynic could argue that Black Widow is essentially a $200million (roughly Rs. 1,490 crores) backdoor pilot. This is Pugh's Marvel launchvehicle, as a replacement of sorts for the outgoing Johansson, who was killedoff in the studio's biggest movie of all time, Avengers: Endgame.
And lastly, Black Widow isadditionally frustrating for fans in India because it's the first MarvelCinematic Universe movie in years to not release on time or in cinemas.Indian Marvel fans, especially those who watch English movies in local-languagedubs, have had to endure a long wait. It's taken a while largely thanksto Disney+'s Premier Access day-and-date release strategy — that hasseparately drawn Disney into a lawsuit with Johansson, overreduced earnings from missing box office profits. And it's skipping cinemasthanks to Marvel's packed slate, what with Shang-Chi and the Legend of theTen Rings out the same day in cinemas.