Black Widow (2021), directed by Cate Shortland

There is a lot to like about the long overdue standalone Black Widow film that tells the origin story of Avenger Natasha Romanov. It has an engaging story about the nature of family, with a strong but subtle underlying theme about combating the abuse, control and trafficking of women and girls. Florence Pugh as Yelena provides a fabulous counterpoint to Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha, the script allowing them some emotion and humour to lift the often-dour Avenger. In flashbacks their child versions represent great casting. Rachel Weisz and David Harbour are great as the main supports, while Ray Winstone makes a suitably evil villain. The plot draws on the TV show The Americans, which fits neatly into the broader Marvel Universe of super soldier rivalry. The film’s style is very Bondish – cheekily referenced at one point, which doesn’t fit quite as well. In an otherwise real-world story the wham bam, barely-a-bruise excessive comic book violence, OTT extended action sequences and ever-conveniently provided hardware and infrastructure sits awkwardly. There are no gods or superheroes to justify the schlock aspect, so while the film is mostly entertaining it does drag in parts, despite running a very reasonable (for Marvel) 140 minutes. Fewer violins on the soundtrack and more songs like the Nirvana cover would also have improved it. But how refreshing it is to see a female-led action film; there should be more of it.