Black Widow (2021) directed by Cate Shortland
Following the events of Captain America: Civil War, Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) is on the run from Secretary Ross (William Hurt). She tries to lay low, but her more remote past catches up with her. She's at a safe house in Norway when her off-the-grid resource guy brings some stuff from her Budapest safe house. The items include a small ammo box that has some mysterious chemicals in it. She's ready to take it to the dump but en route she is intercepted by Taskmaster, a villain who can imitate the fighting style of anyone just by watching them. Taskmaster has watched the whole back catalog of the MCU and easily mimics Black Widow's moves. She realizes Taskmaster is after the chemicals, not her, so she escapes with them and then heads to Budapest for more answers. She finds out the Red Room, the Russian secret project that trained her, is still active and training more widows. Natasha wants to finish the job she thought was finished long ago, i.e. shutting down the Red Room for good. At this point in the MCU timeline, the Avengers are all either against her or in jail, so she has to find other help--her former Russian "family" including her "father" the Red Guardian (David Harbour), her scientist "mother" (Rachel Weissz), and her "sister" Yelena (Florence Pugh). They were all part of a spy project in the 1990s to steal stuff from America. They posed as a family for three years in America before fleeing to Cuba, where they were separated. Natasha and Yelena went to the Red Room. They have baggage like a family does even after twenty years apart.
The story moves along at a good pace, balancing out action, plot exposition, and interpersonal drama. The twists were nicely unpredictable and the ending was, like most superhero movies, a bit too over-the-top. Some plot elements look like they were recycled from other Marvel movies. Dealing with the "sins from her past" went by too quickly. Even so, the film was entertaining and had built up enough excitement and heart that I didn't mind them turning it to eleven.
Recommended.
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