Lisa Johnson Mandell’s Black Widow review says the film is creatively riveting from the first minute to the end of the credits, a welcome and long overdue addition to the Marvel Universe.

Being interested in, but not an avid follower of, the Marvel Universe, I’d always wondered what the deal was with Black Widow. What are her superpowers exactly, other than adroitly kicking ass. How did she come by them? Until now, those of us who never read the comics were woefully uninformed.

But with the release of Black Widow, all is made clear with breathtaking action. The riveting character of Natasha Romanoff, portrayed by Scarlett Johansson, finally gets her due, finally gets her day, and is it ever gratifying and entertaining!

So many creative risks were taken in the telling of the complicated yet easy to follow story of how Black Widow came to be, starting out with her “family’s” narrow escape from American authorities, under whose noses the Russian spies had been discreetly living for years. David Harbour plays her “father,” Rachel Weisz plays her “mother,” and when they’re all grown up, the radiant Florence Pugh plays her sister.  The casting is sublime.

Following that, there’s an eerily beautiful montage of how girls were groomed, tortured and trained to be super spies in the legendary Red Room, receiving injections of Russia’s own super soldier serum that made them stronger, faster, smarter, harder to hurt, slower to age and quicker to heal, than other mere mortals. All are known as Widows, and all are under the abusive control of one man, the evil Dreykov (Ray Winstone) who sends them out into the world to do Russia’s egomaniacal bidding.

Natasha was able to break free of his control and join the Avengers (the movie’s timeline takes place right after the events of of Captain America: Civil War), and she reluctantly joins with her sister Yelena (Pugh), to break Dreykov’s hold on their sister Widows.

Director Cate Shortland, handles both the action and the relationships between the sisters and their faux parents with elegance, priming us for more details in the form of a sequel, even though we know (or think we know) Black Widow’s eventual fate in Avengers: Endgame.

The genius of Black Widow is that while it satisfies Marvel aficionados, it also accommodates, and even thrills, those who are not experts on the franchise. It’s a spy movie. It’s a family movie. It’s a super hero movie. It’s a sisterhood movie. It’s everything I hoped for and more.

Rated PG-13

2 Hours 13 Minutes

Once this Black Widow review starts you yearning to be caught up in her web, find times and tickets at a theater near you on Fandango.com.

Check out the surprising Black Widow fashion through the years on ReallyRather.com.

Lisa Johnson Mandell’s Black Widow review says the film is creatively riveting from the first minute to the end of the credits, a welcome and long overdue addition to the Marvel Universe.