I was apprehensive about this film. After all, Natasha Romanoff of the MCU died in Avenger’s Endgame. My presumption was that this was an origin story and sometimes those work well in retrospective, sometimes not. Remember Hulk?
It was tempting to just buy access on Disney +, but frankly, after well over a year of not going to a theater, I wanted to see a film – almost any film – in a big screen format.
I was pleasantly surprised. This was a good film. It’s not great, but it is solid. Natasha’s origin story had some cool twists I didn’t expect. What really carried this film was the supporting cast. David Harbour plays her pseudo-father/Russian super soldier, Red Guardian. I enjoyed his scenes the most in the film. The thought of a Russian super hero counterpart to Captain America is not new in the comics, but the MCU has more or less glossed over such characters.
This is an action film and some of the chase scenes reminded me of a Jason Bourne film, but that vibe works because this is about spies and assassins. The special effects are good, but not overpowering the plot. The flow of the story is simple, with the twists and turns being centered on the characters. In fact, you don’t actually get screen time with the villain until the last parts of the movie – which is something I think they should have done earlier.
Overshadowing all of this is you know the fate of the lead character. Knowing that, you mentally tend to focus on the secondary characters, which are solid and offer a lot of potential for incorporation to future films or series.
The post-credits scene is good as well, especially if you watched Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney +. The fact they tied into that series is encouraging and fun.
The film is not a big home run for me, but a solid four out of five. I felt like I got my money’s worth and was impressed with the writing that went into this story.
Notes From The Bunker 