“Black Widow” is a standalone film in the Marvel Universe, which builds on the history and story of the character played by Scarlett Johansson. However, as a standalone film focused on expanding on Black Widow’s character, it does not deliver. “Black Widow” is disappointing, and rather mediocre, especially for a Marvel film.

One of Black Widow’s main focal points is a family aspect. It talks about Natasha Romanoff as a child, how she developed into the vigilante/assassin she is now, and how aspects of her fractured family play into this. Although the movie tries to use the family aspect to draw deep reactions from viewers, it fails entirely. Family interactions are forced, do not accurately depict relations between family members, and do not contribute anything important to the story. 

Thankfully, as most Marvel movies do, Black Widow does showcase well-made and well-choreographed action scenes. Marvel’s bread-and-butter CGI is also impressive. While objectively “Black Widow” is a well-made movie, It did not engender any real emotion from me during ‘pivotal’ family scenes. Overall, I’d give the movie two out of five cardinal heads.