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Why Black Widow Is My New Favorite Marvel Movie

This Marvel fan has a new favorite movie in Black Widow, the origin story of Natasha Romanoff. As a huge fan of the Marvel universe in general, and especially Marvel movies, it’s saying a lot for me to classify this as my favorite Marvel movie. But here are my reasons:

1. There is plenty of great Marvel action.

It’s hard to top the action in some of the Avengers movies, but Black Widow certainly won’t leave action fans unsatisfied. Black Widow can definitely hold her own against all of the male superheroes when it comes to delivering action packed rescue missions, toppling of insanely despicable and hatred-inducing villains, and that “over the top” action feel that only Marvel can deliver.

2. I love the “girl power” feel of the movie.

As a guy, I may not be able to appreciate the girl power message as much as some female fans, but I certainly can appreciate it. Black Widow and her new friends are extremely tough, yet feminine and even “girly” at the same time.

I thought the movie makers did a really great job of portraying strong empowered women. I also felt like the movie focused on the personhood of the major female characters rather than sexualizing them. Maybe we need more female directors?

3. New characters with great character development.

I really loved Yelena Belova and the dynamic of character development between her and Black Widow. Florence Pugh did an amazing job, and I’m excited to see more of Yelena Belova in the future.

4. Plenty of humor.

While Black Widow’s backstory is one that can be very sad and disturbing in some ways, there is plenty of comic relief in the movie. The Red Guardian (a character that won’t be new to comic book readers but is new to the Marvel movie universe) especially had our local audience here roaring with laughter at times. Florence Pugh provided plenty of humor herself. There were plenty of laugh out loud type of moments, and the humor was generally endearing. You just end up liking these characters.

5. The anti-human trafficking message of the film.

I want to commend the filmmakers. They somehow worked a very poignant anti-human trafficking message into the film without it feeling like a forced PSA. There are just so many positives about this movie, and I especially loved that there was so much “greater purpose” in the movie without it coming across preachy, virtue-signally, or condescending. With the girl power and anti-human trafficking messages, it just felt like genuine people delivering a genuine message of good, something we could all use more of in film.

Why all the negative reviews?

It’s very strange to me that I saw and heard so many negative headlines and narratives about the new Black Widow movie. My experience was the complete opposite. I literally could not find anything not to like about this movie.

One thing I really am not big on is curse words in movies. But somehow, Florence Pugh even made all of her “s-word” moments feel charming,  humorous, and not forced or gratuitous. She was really a joy to watch.

The last major reason I loved this movie.

I actually have one more reason I liked the film. There is a mechanism in the movie by which people’s eyes are opened, and they come out of a mental fog that had them held captive. This is an aspect of the film every Christian will love, because we have personally experienced that very thing. When we become Christians, our eyes are opened and it’s like we look back in wonder at how things were before God got through to us.

Walking out of the theater, I was really glad I took my teenage son to watch this movie. Everyone involved—the writers, producers, director, and actors—all did a great job as far as this Marvel fan can tell.

I, for one, hope they make several more Black Widow movies!

Chris McKinney
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