мы семья? (BLACK WIDOW)

The failure of the Marvel Avengers franchise to give Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow her own standalone movie until this year was a bit strange, to say the least.

At best, it looked like a missed opportunity. 

At worst, it seemed spineless -as if they didn't have confidence in her ability to carry a movie.

As Robert Downey Jr's 'Iron Man' and Chris Evans' 'Captain America' got to strut their stuff in three standalone movies apiece - albeit one of those 'Captain America films' is an Avengers movie in disguise - many cinemagoers wondered when Johansson would get to do the same.

Spiderman and the Hulk also had standalone films with various actors playing Peter Parker and Bruce Banner.

And with Chadwick Boseman's "Black Panther', Paul Rudd's 'Ant Man', Benedict Cumberbatch's 'Doctor Strange' and Brie Larson's 'Captain Marvel' all getting their own movies, it seemed Johansson's Avenger was getting lapped.

Marvel and their owners Disney eventually buckled, with Australian director Cate Shortland taking up the reins on the 'Black Widow' film.

But is it the vehicle Johansson's character deserves?

Eric Pearson's screenplay begins in 1995 in a scenario straight out of FX's espionage series 'The Americans'.

Rachel Weisz's Melina Vostokoff and David Harbour's Alexei Shostakoff are on the surface a couple in Ohio with two kids, Ever Anderson's Natasha Romanoff and Violet McGraw's Yelena Belova.

Having stolen intelligence from SHIELD and also in the knowledge that their cover as a fake family is about to be blown, Alexei and Melina hastily put their pretend daughters into a station wagon to prepare for their evacuation.

Driving past a high school football game, Yelena insists on them playing her favourite song 'American Pie' and they just about make it to their plane which they will fly to Cuba.

There is a narrow escape from the US authorities but Melina is shot and wounded as the light aircraft scrambles away.

The pretend family go their separate ways on their arrival in Cuba, with Melina in a bad way and Natasha and Yelena sent off for training as female assassins.

Shortland and her scriptwriter take us years later on a mission that Florence Pugh's adult version of Yelena is undertaking to kill a traitor who was on the Black Widow program.

Romanoff has in the interim also defected to SHIELD but is a fugitive from the US authorities for violating the Segovia Accords - placing this tale in the era of 'Captain America: Civil War'.

Natasha now lives in a remote community in Norway in a safe house provided by a former colleague, OT Fagenbele's Rick Mason.

During the operation, Yelena comes across vials of an antidote to treat a chemical mind controlling agent used by Ray Winstone's General Dreykov to subjugate his Black Widow assasins.

The substance is released in a room in his HQ known as the Red Room, enabling him to use mind control.

Hoping Natasha and the Avengers can use the vials to liberate the Black Widows Yelena goes underground, while Romanoff survives an attempt on her life carried out by Olga Kurylenko's Taskmaster and ordered by Dreykov.

Natasha had been under the impression Dreykov and his 12 year old daughter had been killed in a bomb attack that occurred in a SHIELD operation she was involved in years earlier in Budapest - uncomfortably living with the guilt over the death of his child.

Linking up with Yelena, she is told by her fake sister Dreykov is alive and the Red Room program is still operational.

Escaping another assassination bid by Taskmaster and a team of Black Widows, Natasha and Yelena head to a remote Russian high security prison to spring out their pretend dad Shostakoff who can help them locate Dreykov.

Shostakoff helps them locate Melina Vostokoff who is living on a farm outside St Petersburg but how long will it be before Dreykov and his brainwashed Black Widow assassins track them down again?

Can they get to Dreykov first and disable the Red Room and his program of brainwashing?

'Black Widow' has been a long time coming.

It's just a pity now that it has arrived, it is so underwhelming.

None of this is Johansson, Pugh, Harbour or Weisz's fault.

As for Winstone, we'll get to him shortly.

The problem is Pearson's screenplay which lacks the oomph that you would wish to see in a movie of this kind.

It feels so formulaic, as if Shortland and Pearson have slavishly followed a Marvel recipe book.

What you get is what you always get in Marvel films -an early threat to the hero, a haunting back story for Natasha related to the plot, a big compound to be raided (in this case a stern Russian prison), the bringing together of disparate group of heroes, the group under threat, a hammy villain in another big compound and eventual triumph.

Shortland also riffs not just on 'The Americans' but on post Cold War spy movies.

You can detect 'Mission Impossible,' 'Jason Bourne' and 'The Manchurian Candidate' in there.

Of the cast, Johansson generously cedes a lot of time to her co-stars but she continues to be an engaging presence as Romanoff.

Weisz and Harbour turn in satisfactory performances but it is Pugh who steals the show, enthusiastically grabbing her opportunity to beat up villains and trade quips.

The final credit sequence confirms what you suspect from the off that Marvel has other plans for her character Yelena Bolova, with an appearance on the Disney+ 'Hawkeye' series on the cards.

Pugh also does a good job maintaining her Russian accent, unlike Winstone who growls in an ear scrapingly awful half Cockney, half Russian voice.

Winstone has little to do other than engage in Dr Evil style panto villainry and because the role is so thinly written, it only augments how wobbly his accent really is.

Kurylenko fares little better with an equally thin role.

Marvel movies inspire a dedicated fanbase and by slavishly adhering to the recipe, 'Black Widow' probably has enough action and wisecracking to satisfy the diehards.

However, it comes nowhere near the heights of 'Black Panther' and that's a pity because over the years Johansson and her character have deserved so much better.

('Black Widow' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on June 7, 2021)