As a person who collects comic books I have had to come to peace with the fact that I will never get a movie that is completely faithful to the comic books. But I’ve also come to the conclusion that comic books are not always faithful to themselves.
The history of the Black Widow has been written and retconned then rewritten again. The movie uses the retconned version of her history to establish the plot.
It took me a while to figure out where in the timeline of the MCU that Black Widow takes place but after thinking it through it appears the movie takes place between Captain America Civil War and Avengers Infinity War.
Black Widow is on the run, as are some of the other Avengers, because they have all violated the Sekovia accords. In order to escape General Ross she heads to a safehouse in Norway where she receives a package that forces her to confront her past. In order to remain mostly spoiler free I won’t reveal much else in specifics.
What I liked about the movie: it starts to reveal how Natasha Romanoff became Black Widow. It doesn’t cut too many corners in explaining how she became an assassin. Does it go far enough? I’m not sure. It being a Disney film I think this part of the movie was muted. I’d have liked the dark parts of the movie to be even darker.
I also liked the amount of action in the movie. It is mostly non stop from beginning to end with the obligatory monologuing done by the villain
Which brings me to what I didn’t love about the movie and what most Marvel movies suffer from, terrible villains.
The main reason this movie suffers is the the origin of the villain in this movie has absolutely nothing to do with the comic book. Taskmaster is boring and predictable. That being said, the fight sequences are pretty cool.
Was this a great movie? No. Was it worth 30 bucks? Hell no. Was it a good movie? Yes. But that’s why I’m bummed. Because good is about all it is.
martysmeanderings 