Black Widow (5 Stars)

What age was Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, supposed to be in this film? The actress Scarlett Johansson was 34 when the film was made, but she looks much younger, thanks to the miracles of Hollywood makeup. In the picture above she looks like she's 22 at the oldest.

Speaking of myself, I went through two phases in my life. In my early years, up to when I was 35, Scarlett's age, people always thought I was younger than my real age. For instance, on my 23rd birthday I was waiting at Stuttgart's main train station in the early morning for a friend to arrive. I got into a conversation with some strangers while I was eating a snack, and they didn't believe I was 23. Their estimates ranged from 16 to 18. When I was 45 I returned to England, and everyone I met thought I was older. Their estimates ranged from 55 to 60.

What made the difference was my hair. At 23 I had long blond hair. I started growing my hair long when I was 18, but it was probably at its longest when I was 23. (I cut it short less than a year later, one of the biggest mistakes of my life, but that's a story for another day). My hair made me look young. In my late 30's I had a slowly advancing bald patch, and by the time I was 45 my remaining hair had turned grey. My hair made me look old.

"Black Widow" wasn't released until 2021. It was delayed by the Coronavirus pandemic. It was a posthumous film, as far as the Natasha Romanoff character was concerned. She'd already died in 2019 in "Avengers: Endgame". The post-credits scene shows her sister Yelena mourning at her grave.

Where does Black Widow (the character) go from here? At first I expected Yelena to adopt the role and become the new Black Widow. Now I don't know. The whole Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is fragmenting. The Marvel comics have a large lore to draw upon, with hundreds, maybe thousands of characters that can be used in films. Just being able to do this doesn't mean the MCU has to do it. Less is more. (I like that quote, but there's no consensus about who said it first). For me the breaking point was "The Eternals", totally unnecessary characters in the MCU.

Just writing about this makes me feel sad. There have been complaints about the Marvelization of Hollywood, complaints made by big directors like Quentin Tarantino. I don't think it's a bad thing in itself. It's all about films. I wouldn't mind if Hollywood were completely Marvelized, as long as the films are good. The word Marvel used to stand for quality. Today it stands for making money. I used to be excited whenever I heard the news about a new Marvel film. Now I just shrug my shoulders and hope it won't be too bad.

"Black Widow" is a good film. But it could be one of the last good Marvel films.

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