Let me put it simply–it was worth the wait.

We just finished watching Black Widow on Disney+. It’s full of story, full of action, full of humor, and full of heart. I have to be honest–I’m stunned.

I honestly didn’t think we needed a Black Widow movie. Obviously, I was wrong.

I promise not to spoil anything here as I review the film.

Though I won’t reveal when Black Widow takes place, I felt it was perfectly positioned in the MCU timeline. It answered a lot of questions about Natasha’s past, but it also revealed a fresh, captivating look at the character as we knew her. The story, in other words, did everything it needed to do and more. It exceeded my expectations.

The action blew me away. The first half of the film felt more like a spy movie such as Bourne or Bond than a super hero film. Tons of fight scenes, tons of car chases, tons of things blowing up–incredible. Truthfully, there were moments when I said to myself, “She’s got to have a concussion by now,” but I didn’t care. I suspended that disbelief and simply had a great time.

Speaking of having fun–it’s a fun movie full of humor. Yes, you read that right. Somehow, amidst all of the action and serious story concepts, there’s a lot of laugh-out-loud moments. It was nice to see Scarlett Johansson get to let Natasha breathe a little. The stakes were always so high for the character in the Avengers movies, other than a few one-liners, we never got to see her like we do in Black Widow. You’ll understand what I mean.

Think about the fact that, other than Scarlett Johansson, virtually everyone else in Black Widow is new to the MCU. Yet these new names include actors such as Florence Pugh, David Harbour, and Rachel Weisz. These are very, VERY good actors who are, more or less, sharing the screen with Johansson in some capacity for the majority of the film. The chemistry between these four actors is a blast to watch, and without them Black Widow would have virtually none of its heart. I knew Harbour could be funny, but I had no idea Pugh had such comedic timing. Plus, Pugh is keeping up step for step with Johansson in terms of action. And Weisz? She’s been showing us how it’s done since The Mummy over twenty years ago.

Finally, I will NOT reveal anything about Taskmaster other than to say it was so cool to see the mimic aspect of the powerset. I loved this character in the comics and, while you simply can’t translate Taskmaster directly to film, I thought they did a great job with the imitation abilities.

Black Widow absolutely holds its own as an MCU movie. If this is indeed Scarlett Johansson’s last performance as Natasha Romanoff, she’s ending with a peak performance!