It didn’t take long after the first Avengers movie for fans to start asking for a Black Widow solo film. As they watched other characters be brought into the MCU with their own solo movies, fans became very vocal about the lack of attention one of the founding characters was getting. Now, after a long Covid delay, fans finally get a chance to see a foundational character get their long overdue solo film. Will fans be pleased with the expansion on a multi movie supporting character, or has Marvel squeezed all the juice out of this fruit?

Scarlett Johansson (Natasha Romanoff) has worked hard for over a decade bringing this character to the large screen in a key supportive role. After a long wait she finally gets a chance to play center stage. In Black Widow we get more action from her than we are used to seeing and her performance was well on par. This film was well deserved for all her hard work in creating the MCU. Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova) plays her estranged sister and brings a more jaded counterpart. Florence is a great actress and is a good addition bringing more depth to the Black Widow character. David Harbour (Alexi) is fun and good comic relief while Rachel Weisz (Melina) adds some veteran acting to round out a solid cast to tell this story.

While the cast performs well despite the weak Russian accents, Black Widow still felt lacking. The story takes place between two existing MCU movies so it fails to drive the MCU forward. It tells a story if one was to ask “What was Black Widow doing during the gap between Civil war and Infinity War?”. The problem is no one was asking that question. Instead of telling us a true origin story and showing audiences the dark side of Black Widow’s history, Disney decided to keep her wholesome image mostly intact by moving laterally in the MCU wasting an opportunity to bring real depth to this character. Black Widow brings in a popular character by using Taskmaster as the main antagonist which should please many fans, however when placed is the massive MCU index Black Widow will be placed somewhere between Dark World and Ironman 3. This is disappointing after an extended waiting period due to the pandemic. Its possible that the long form storytelling recently presented on Disney+ has made this film seem weak in writing and plot. There are a few good takeaways from the film however leaving the theater Black Widow felt more like a wasted opportunity.