Black Widow

I'd gone into this movie having already seen a few non-spoiler critiques of it, and they all pointed out the same flaws: Florence Pugh's accent comes and goes at will. The movie's at its best when it focuses on family, and at its worst when it functions as a Marvel movie. It's several years too late, as nothing in the movie makes it feel necessary to have told this story at this time (unless you count the post-credit stinger, which ... shrug). Taskmaster got built up and ultimately didn't amount to much beyond a cool-looking sub-boss. And most of all, for being a movie ostensibly about Black Widow, she feels like a third wheel in her own movie. You learn something about how she became Black Widow, but not who she is as a person. All of these are true. And yet all of these have a flip side where there's a positive element buried within them. Pugh may not nail the accent, but her punk-rock, insouciant version of a Black Widow is a real joy. The family parts are the best acted and the best scripted moments ... and they also slow the movie to a crawl, advancing little to nothing. The "MCU" scenes, meanwhile, are taut, exciting, and the fight scenes are some of the best choreographed in an MCU movie in a long time. After the sheer scope and magnitude of Endgame, I think continuing with another raise-the-stakes chapter in the MCU would've been pushing it. Black Widow, as a movie, accomplishes this. It may not be the best-suited vehicle for this character, but it's the best time for this movie. Not every villain has to be Loki or Thanos, people. And while Natasha Romanoff does still seem frustratingly ill-defined and out of reach, this was not the time to fill in the gaps. This was a flashback. The character is dead. Giving her all these huge character beats and a big development arc would've felt out of place, especially if you then attempt to go back and watch it in chronological order. So, you ask, if I was able to find the silver lining in all the criticisms of the movie, why is it not rated higher? Because the whole is still not equal to the sum of the parts. This is a good movie. A fun movie. But it's not a GREAT movie, and what remains frustrating is you can see a great movie peering through the cracks. The two halves of the movie -- the family beats and the MCU beats -- are fine on their own, but never coalesce. It's funny where it needs to be, the action is great (reminiscent of recent Bond movies, the Bourne movies, and even Captain America: Winter Soldier), the acting is solid (aside from Pugh's accent), but they don't seem to work together; they all feel like separate components. It's a movie that does what it has to, but you can see it struggling to do what it is capable of, and it can't figure out how. And while it isn't enough to sink the movie, it isn't enough to make it rise to the upper echelon. Put it this way: the best MCU movies are worth re-watching because you get a fun action movie, great comedy, and character development all rolled into one package, and it pulls you in because of it. Thor: Ragnarok, the first Captain America, the first Iron Man, just to name a few. This is more of a put-it-on-in-the-background movie. Never boring, but never something you need to keep both eyes on either.