A solid and enjoyable upper mid-tier MCU flick. The interplay was good and the action was mostly exciting in this long overdue Widow spectacle. It certainly helped that it was a much down to earth film, with no gods and very few super powers, just mostly people battle people for personal dramatic reasons and not to save the universe. Interpersonal stakes always win out over ticking clock sky lazers (not that they don’t have their occasional place).
The film was carried by the exchanges from a stellar cast. Pugh stole the show, injecting youthful play, impudence, brightness, and charm; easily setting up a character & actress that I can’t wait to see more from. She is funny and adept at both the tragic serious and athletic action entanglements. Harbour was such a likeable oaf with a heart of fools gold, whether the boastful superhero wannabe or pretending to be on the set of the Americans. His humor was rightly cut with Weisz’s properly subdued cold Russian killer, played with detachment but could adeptly handle the submerged blips of emotion. Winstone felt a bit out of place. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to do a Russian accent or not, but it didn’t work. He also just felt a bit miscast. In the right role, he can kill it with the best, but he seemed a bit lost and over his skies here. This is all to say that Johanson, despite other great roles and captivating performances as her Widow character, felt toned down and subsumed here. Oh well.
*Nerd note: Taskmaster is one of my favorite villains in comics. There was excitement when the decided to bring the character into the MCU. Was this version a disappointment? Yeah, a bit. But, I am not devastated by it. I understand that they wanted to tie the character more into Natasha’s history and emotional journey. Does it work? No, not really. Kind of shoehorned, especially with the most simple and vague explanation of powers/history. Still, I liked seeing one of my faves come to life. Maybe they will have a resurgence later in the MCU.
Action was generally followable in the proliferating Bourne/Wick-’lite and wants to be’ style. Not much stuck out visually and the whole felt generally plausible except for a couple leaps (like certain skydiving or helicopter scenes). It could have been better but it also wasn’t bad in any way. Serviceable and fun.
