There’s an intimate scene early on in Black Widow, where the Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s resident superspy pops the top off a beer and settles in to watch a movie. Although short, it’s an interesting look at a rare human moment for Natasha Romanoff, played by MCU veteran Scarlett Johansson, a character that’s been robbed for more than a decade of any significant development on her humanity outside of the context of superheroics. She’s a founding member of the Avengers, part of the original seven members, but has been relegated more often than not into an ensemble player to the group’s bigger superheroes like Captain America. Fans have long complained that Natasha Romanoff was constantly being pushed aside. So now Black Widow has finally arrived, after a year-plus long delay, to explore the past relationships and some backstory of the MCU’s first female hero. Better very late than never, I guess, even after she’s dead.

Director Cate Shortland and writer Eric Pearson (Thor: Ragnarok) take espionage elements from the best in the spy genre, particularly the Bourne and Bond films (Natasha even watches Moonraker on her laptop), and adds some Marvel flair into them. Black Widow opens during a particular time in Natasha’s childhood, wherein it’s revealed that she and her “sister” Yelena (Florence Pugh) spent three years in Ohio with their “parents” Alexei (David Harbour) and Melina (Rachel Weisz). It’s a scene that’s straight from The Americans, complete with an undercover family assimilating with the locals. After escaping from SHIELD, Natasha and Yelena were inducted back into Red Room to finish their transformation into killing machines. But Natasha murdered the head of the program, Dreykov (Ray Winstone), defected to SHIELD, and the rest is history.

Jumping back to the main story of Black Widow, which takes place between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, Natasha is currently on the run from the authorities led by General Ross (William Hurt). While off the grid, she receives a package from Yelena, who’s also in hiding after discovering a chemical antidote that cures the Widows from mind control. Yelena figures it’s the only way to stop the Red Room and Dreykov for good, so she sends a case of the vials to her sister as a call for help and meet her in Budapest.

Shortland successfully keeps Black Widow flowing seamlessly, jumping from one set piece to the next in easy fashion. It’s a driven film with incredibly well done action choreography unabashedly inspired by the Bourne films, but with much less shaky-cam nonsense that other MCU movies seem to have adopted. The fairly controlled scope of the plot perfectly complement the moody dynamic of the hand-to-hand combat throughout the film. There’s something refreshing about seeing more grounded superhero action, a breather from the continuous, immense destruction caused by larger than life beings. “I doubt the god from space has to take an ibuprofen after a fight,” Yelena says in one scene.

Like a lot of the MCU, Black Widow is severely lacking on the villain front. One of Natasha’s internal guilt is escaping her old life and leaving her “family.” Her character all throughout the MCU is an exploration on how she juggles her violent past and present heroic status. So it makes sense for Taskmaster to be the enemy – a highly skilled assassin with the ability to mimic any fighting move in sight. When Natasha finally encounters the character, she’s practically fighting herself and the Avengers, but none of the humanity. The villain being a mirror image of the hero is a common trope, but it only works when there is an established personal connection. Taskmaster is mainly a hitman, tasked to eliminate our protagonists, and ultimately being shunned aside for Dreykov as the primary rival for Natasha treats the character as an afterthought.

What works best, however, is the engaging performances of its main cast (bad Russian accents aside). At just over two hours, Black Widow never felt like a drag even in parts where the movie slowed down to focus on character work. Johansson, Pugh, Harbour, and Weisz all played the dysfunctional family flawlessly, and even the typical Marvel humor of incorporating quips didn’t feel out of place at all. Yelena’s mockery of Natasha’s superhero poses and exaggerated fight moves build a playful dynamic between the sisters. Perhaps it’s because we’ve never seen Natasha play off with characters she has an actual familial relationship to that the constant banter come off highly engrossing. The standout of it all is Florence Pugh, whose performance just finds the right balance between strength and vulnerability. She is the movie’s MVP, and proves she’s more than ready to take on the mantle of Black Widow going forward, in the same way Steve Rogers passed on the torch to Sam Wilson.

Unfortunately, what seemed like a solid spy action movie with Marvel characters buckles down as the third act resets into the “big fight” routine due to it being a property of a systematic franchise. Nevertheless, Black Widow is still a welcome break from the high stakes entries typical in the MCU. It’s an enjoyable ride into the character of Natasha, even if it’s years too late, and even does a better job in bringing full-fledged female characters than the “girl power” money shot in the end of Avengers: Endgame. If this is really the last time we see Natasha gracefully delivers hurracanranas to baddies, then it’s a well-deserved swan song for the beloved character, and all it took was her death.

Rating: ★★★½