"Black Widow" - SPOILER ALERT

Wow! A spoiler alert that is more likely to be a spoiler alert than most of my reviews since this is a fairly current movie.

The wait is over! After a long hiatus, that gave me lots of time to catch up, Marvel is finally back in action! Lots of new stuff being released in these final few months of 2021!

And the wait is over for Black Widow to finally get her own movie. It's a shame that she didn't get her own movie before the MCU eventually killed off her character. I was expecting and hoping that "Black Widow" would give us some clues about her still being alive. Sadly, that is not the case, but at least we can look back on her life and take comfort in knowing she had a family and reconciled with them.

"Black Widow" had all the makings of a classic Marvel movie - super heroes, a villain (although not a very strong one, in my opinion), action scenes, deep emotion, and just the right amount of humor in an otherwise serious movie. Admittedly, I had to watch it three times and read a summary in order for everything to click. There are some parts where if you blink you might miss an important piece of the puzzle. I guess I blink a lot, though thankfully not at the same part each time. 

While this movie is titled "Black Widow" and it is presumably about THE Black Widow that we've come to know and love, Natasha Romanaff, I saw this more of a passing of the torch. It's Natasha's story, but it's also her family's story. Her dad is a good supporting character, her mom is brilliant, but  most notably, this is Yelena's story. 

Yelena Belova is a very strong character, physically, mentally, and figuratively, but she also clearly has a sentimental side. Her sense of humor reminds me a little of Thor. I don't think she realizes how funny she is sometimes, which is admirable. Like her sister, she has been through a lot (to put it lightly) from a very young age, but she has come out on top. Florence Pugh plays this role flawlessly. I like everything about her and I'm so looking forward to seeing her in the new "Hawkeye" series, as well as (hopefully) in more movies in the MCU.

I am sad that Natasha is gone. I feel like I'm mourning her loss all over again since I thought maybe there was some hope that she was miraculously still alive. However, I'm happy that the torch has apparently been passed on to Yelena. Kudos to whomever cast her and developed her character. It gives me hope for the future of the MCU.