Shortly after the events in Captain America: Civil War (2016), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding in Norway, but a violent encounter with a masked figure brings her back in touch with her sister (Florence Pugh).

The first movie in Marvel’s ”Phase Four”, following Avengers: Endgame (2019), is indeed a step back in time, but still delivers the goods in terms of action and entertainment, looking more like a James Bond movie at times. Still, the post-credits sequence teases us about the future.

Pugh is feisty and David Harbour amusing as the Soviet version of Captain America, who’s lost his touch (and slim waistline).

2021-U.S. 134 min. Color. Widescreen. Directed by Cate Shortland. Screenplay: Eric Pearson. Comic Book: Stan Lee, Don Rico, Don Heck. Cast: Scarlett Johansson (Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow), Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova), David Harbour (Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian), Rachel Weisz (Melina Vostakoff), Ray Winstone, William Hurt, Olga Kurylenko. Voice of Jeremy Renner. Cameo: Julia Louis-Dreyfus. 

Trivia: Co-executive produced by Johansson. Filmed in 2019 and delayed more than a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Emma Watson and Saoirse Ronan were reportedly considered as Yelena. Followed by a miniseries, Hawkeye (2021).

Last word: “I kind of think a Marvel script is like when you get a great music producer in and you do a remix and a premix and you’re just sampling all these different things. You know, people like Scorsese say, ‘It’s not a movie.’ It’s kind of like it’s not a movie – it’s a different type of thing. Because [producer] Kevin [Feige] talks about how one movie will come in and hit the other movie and crash through it. And I think that is a different way of creating and editing.” (Shortland, Variety)