Black Widow spoiler-free review: Black Widow is a love letter to Natasha Romanoff

Black Widow’s journey to the big screen for her first solo project since making her Marvel Cinematic Universe more than a decade ago in 2010’s Iron Man 2 has been a long and bumpy road.

Marvel first announced the character’s standalone film at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2019, the plan being for Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff to take center stage in her first solo film in May 2020. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Marvel was forced to delay the film multiple times before finally setting the stage for Black Widow to open in theaters and on Disney Plus on July 9.

While the wait for Black Widow has been long, the wait was more than worth it as the film is truly a love letter to the character of Natasha Romanoff and a perfect sendoff for the fallen Avenger — presuming this is indeed her swan song.

Is Black Widow good?

Black Widow is the action-packed and epic spy thriller MCU fans have been waiting for! It’s a breathlessly entertaining feature filled with stunning action sequences and rich characters the MCU will quickly fall in love with.

Rachel Weisz and David Harbour deliver incredible performances as Melina and Alexei aka Red Guardian bringing so many layers to these characters. Harbour is sure to be a standout favorite, which should be far from surprising to Stranger Things fans who are sure to enjoy his latest scene-stealing performance!

Florence Pugh is absolutely brilliant as Yelena! Audiences are going to fall in love with her the moment they meet her and that love will only grow as the film goes by. The character’s introduction is hands down one of the greatest MCU character introductions yet and we’re eager to see what the powers that be have in store for the character, as Yelena is a character we fully expect to be a staple within the MCU for years to come.

Pugh and Scarlett Johansson complement one another so incredibly well and bring so much heart to the roles resulting in one of Marvel’s most compelling duos to date! The chemistry between Yelena and Natasha rivals the best duos we’ve seen within the MCU, which is so bittersweet in knowing that this is likely to be the only time we’ll see the characters share the screen due to Natasha’s death in Avengers: Endgame.

This brings us to Scarlett Johansson.

Black Widow is truly Johansson’s master class and a love letter to Natasha Romanoff. Director Cate Shortland gives Black Widow the respect she’s long overdue with a powerful and emotional story that allows the character to shine like never before.

After more than two years without an MCU to enjoy, Black Widow is the perfect film to bring the MCU drought to a close and is one fans are sure to be talking about for years to come. Our one and only complaint is that the film will leave you wanting more from its central quartet and there is no denying the film managed to capture lightning in a bottle with the incredible chemistry between the principal cast.