The result is a film that is fun to watch, but very little else.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 23, 2024

What ensues is a film that isn't interested in planting seeds for future Marvel movies -- which is actually a refreshing change of pace.

| Sep 10, 2021

Almost completely lacking in Black Widow is any sense of outrage over the grotesque violations of human rights and human dignity at the root of the whole premise of the film.

| Original Score: D+ | Aug 28, 2021

More women is its only decent idea. Otherwise, it's business as usual. Otherwise, it's all formulaic bish-bosh, smash-crash action scenes broken up by lame jokes and lame philosophising along the lines of: "Your pain only makes you stronger."

| Jul 29, 2021

Shortland does a solid job with the material, but even she isn't able to entirely gloss over how Natasha randomly keeps disappearing in her own movie or how what is supposed to be her story frequently focuses on other characters.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 26, 2021

I appreciate the way that Cate Shortland adapts herself well to an action film... This is one of the individual [Marvel Cinematic Universe] films that I would keep.

| Jul 23, 2021

It suggests to me that there was never a real grasp on what this film was supposed to be.

| Jul 23, 2021

Director Cate Shortland has a sharp eye for directing action sequences, but the script is flawed.

| Jul 17, 2021

To ensure that all of our behemoth pop culture franchises become one indistinguishable mass of content, the MCU is now faster and furious-er...

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 13, 2021

In all the ways that matter to an MCU fan, Black Widow the film meets or exceeds all expectations. It is a killer action flick, and a unique viewing experience... in that I loved it, and the fact that I loved it also makes me livid.

| Jul 12, 2021

Pursuit of the nameless something just out of reach is the motor that keeps Black Widow whirring. If nothing else, it puts the self-serious quest for a dumb jeweled glove in perspective.

| Jul 10, 2021

"Black Widow" never feels more than just a footnote in the story, a detour that holds no weight in the larger M.C.U. narrative, except to set up Yelena for a larger role in the future.

| Jul 10, 2021

The film put flesh on the bones of the character in a way that hadn't been done before. I enjoyed it and I wasn't bored, though I was baffled by the accents.

| Jul 9, 2021

It's a strange movie: front-loaded with its best action, its zippiest writing, its canniest pleasures, then derailed by exposition that only serves to let the air out of the room for being so obvious rather than deepening what's there.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 9, 2021

The film ceases to be about Natasha wrestling with her heroism; by pitting her against a raging misogynist, Black Widow tries to simplistically cast Natasha as a pop-feminist icon.

| Jul 9, 2021

Black Widow gives Marvel's superspy the callback-filled swan song that she and the loyal audience deserve.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 9, 2021

Coming out more than a year after it was supposed to, it feels like an awkward reminder of what Marvel failed to do early on in its run, but occasionally, mostly whenever Pugh is in control, it's a thrilling preview of what's to come.

| Jul 9, 2021

Johansson and co-star Florence Pugh are terrific, but the lightweight story relies on implausible plot turns and cheap soap opera antics.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 9, 2021

The approach largely works, in more small-boned fashion, thanks in part to the crispness of the action, whose fight sequences have as much in common with the kinetic aspect of the Bourne saga as superhero-style pyrotechnics.

| Jul 9, 2021

Though her selflessness goes against what life has continually taught her - that relationships are a weakness that will always let you down - it's also the skeleton key to her legacy. What a thrill to finally be able to understand it.

| Jul 9, 2021