7 underrated Marvel movies that deserve more recognition
By Bryce Olin
Black Widow
- Release Date: July 9, 2021
- Director: Cate Shortland
- Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, O-T Fagbenle, Olga Kurylenko, William Hurt, Ray Winstone, Rachel Weisz, and more
Black Widow is easily one of the most underrated of all of the MCU movies. If this movie happened three or four years earlier, it could be a top 10 MCU movie in my opinion. It doesn't totally fit where it's released, given the events of Avengers: Endgame, but it's such a strong movie. We needed a look into Natasha Romanoff's past so much earlier. It's criminal that it didn't happen until 2021, but that's just how it happened.
Black Widow explores Natasha Romanoff's upbringing and time in Russia. She's forced to return to her homeland and stop General Dreykov while also reopening some old wounds from her past. The action, stunt, and fight sequences in this movie are epic, as good as any MCU movie of the last few years.
Overall, Black Widow didn't perform that well at the box office. Reviews were decent for the film, but this movie is much better than it gets credit for. It's so great to see Scarlett Johansson in this role one more time. I also enjoyed the introduction to Florence Pugh's character, Yelena Belova, and David Harbour's character, Alexei Shostakov, also known as Red Guardian. We'll see both of those characters again in Thunderbolts in 2025!