After Civil War, Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) is a fugitive. She is hiding out in Norway when she is attacked by a mysterious, skull-masked assassin, later called Taskmaster (Andy Lister*). Taskmaster isn't after the Black Widow, however, but a box of vials sent to her by her estranged sister Yelena (Florence Pugh). Natasha returns to Budapest to find her sister, which leads her down a dark path into her past.
This movie was long overdue, made even more so by delays from Covid. It was never going to live up to all the hype, but I'm happy to report that it's still a really fun movie. A lot of reviews are rightfully praising Pugh for scene-stealing but a lot of that is because the character of Natasha Romanoff was written to be extremely serious. Johansson has to play the straight man for the runtime of her movie, barely cracking a smile, while Pugh, Rachel Wiesz, and David Harbour (in particular) get to be hilarious. It works, but it does feel like she got further short-changed.
This movie was going to be my litmus test for whether or not I felt comfortable going to a theater yet. I considered it. I'm fully vaccinated, I've been in stores again, restaurants, and work. But I also just didn't feel like leaving my house on a Friday night. So I watched the premiere of a Marvel movie at home on my couch on Disney+. I do not like paying $30 for what is essentially a movie rental, but I invited a few friends over and then it was basically like what I would have paid for theater tickets. I'm not saying it's going to be my new go-to, or that this is the death of theaters, but it was super nice to sit on my couch with friends and watch a brand-new movie. There is no price to high to be able to fast-forward through the credits to get to the post- scene.
*Okay, so the Taskmaster reveal could conceivably be a spoiler, so I've left it with the head stunt double, who probably did the majority of the screen work since the character is masked like 95% of the movie.
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