Black Widow
Florence Pugh carries Black Widow, one of the most confounding MCU movies to come out this side of Endgame. It’s a prequel that would have felt more appropriate in the first phase of films but mostly exists to give Scarlett Johansson flowers after she’d played a supporting role in everybody else’s movies. She deserved it, at least. Natasha was dragged into every female archetype Marvel could conceive of as she played second fiddle to a bunch of men and then died in Endgame. By the time Black Widow came out in 2021, going back to finally fill out the backstory of one of the MCU’s oldest mainstays felt odd, but the end result is still a pretty fun spy film that introduces a new dysfunctional family to the Marvel mix. Again, Pugh’s performance as Natasha’s sister Yelena is worth the price of admission. Otherwise? It’s fine. — Kenneth Shepard
