Black Widow is sitting pretty on Rotten Tomatoes with an 81% score and a record-breaking opening in the pandemic era. The action-packed, arguably unnecessary, first film in Marvel's Phase 4 makes for a fun viewing experience, but there are some parts of Natasha Romanoff's solo outing that simply make no sense.
Whether it's a certain creative decision, key plot points, or blatantly missing scenes, there are parts of Black Widow that miss the mark and left us colder than a Soviet winter.
That's not to say this is a bad film, but there are lessons to be learnt here that might explain why it received the same CinemaScore as lower-tier Marvel Studios releases like Ant-Man and The Wasp, The Incredible Hulk, and Thor: The Dark World.
Love or hate the film, we think you'll find some interesting talking points here...
5. Red Room Antidote
When Natasha was a Black Widow, she was brainwashed the old fashioned way. Yelena's generation, however, has been subjected to a chemical mind-control agent that can easily be undone with...some red mist?
This is a very basic way to undo the damage inflicted on these women, and a little too convenient for our liking. For starters, it's pretty daft that Dreykov would leave a weakness like this that's so easy to exploit and this MacGuffin soon becomes increasingly difficult to buy into.
That's never more apparent than in the final act when a bunch of vials are blown up to free the Widows from their programming, while there's thankfully - coincidentally - just enough left for Taskmaster and to create more doses.
It's lazy storytelling, and a tad too convenient.
4. Yelena Belova Breaks Bad?
Yelena broke free from Dreykov's control, teamed up with her Avenger sister, and...went on to become an assassin for hire for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine?!
There's a story to be told there, alright, and perhaps this is a result of Yelena's time in the Red Room coming back to haunt her. Remember, Red Guardian mentions that she became their youngest child assassin, so turning her back on that life probably wasn't easy for her.
Unfortunately, that's all just an assumption on our part, and the post-credits stinger does little to explain why Yelena would be aligned with Val beyond it being a cool idea for her to return in Hawkeye.
It would be such a shame to see this Black Widow become a villain in the MCU. With that in mind, we're optimistic her redemption arc will continue and not be undone with a single scene.
3. Taskmaster Reveal
The mystery surrounding Taskmaster's identity was fun, but would it really have been so bad for it to just be hired assassin Tony Masters beneath the mask?
This isn't a comic book fan having a tantrum that Marvel Studios dared to change a character. After all, the fact that Tony suffers from amnesia means he hasn't got the most storied history without the costume, and the Dreykov's daughter reveal at least adds a little more depth to a villain who might have otherwise been one-dimensional.
Then again, did this reveal really add much to the character? Olga Kurylenko had one line (what a waste) and it just seems strange that Dreykov would take his horribly scarred daughter and turn her into a weapon.
Yes, we get that he's evil and doesn't value the lives of young women, but this felt like it was done for the sake of it and didn't do much for either character.
2. So Much For Budapest
Black Widow is a badass character, hence why so many fans felt she deserved her own film. However, something it seems everyone wanted to see was Natasha's meeting with Hawkeye in Budapest.
We loved the extended opening sequence with Nat as a child, but the flashback might have been better served taking a deeper dive into what led to her turning on the Red Room and killing Dreykov's daughter. That Taskmaster reveal certainly would have landed harder had that been the case, while this would have been the right sort of fan service.
Instead, we got a throwaway conversation and brief voice cameo from Jeremy Renner in a blink-and-you'd-miss it scene.
We expected better, and a Winter Soldier cameo might have also been fun given the tease of their shared history in Captain America: Civil War.
1. Black Widow's Escape
Black Widow director Cate Shortland has said that she chose not to show Natasha's escape from General Ross as she wanted to leave some ambiguity and didn't feel the need to deliver another action scene.
We get it, but cutting from this moment to two weeks later made it feel like there was a scene missing and came across more like bad editing than a clever creative decision meant to leave us wondering how Natasha escaped such a tricky situation.
This felt like it should have been a huge part of the film, not something overlooked for the hell of it.
No, we probably didn't need a five-minute scene of Natasha attempting to make a bargain with Ross or overpowering his men, but this could have been handled much better. As a result, it makes no sense.