Finally, a whole 10 years on from her first outing as the character, Scarlett Johansson is getting her own solo movie as Black Widow. Ever since her first appearance in Iron Man 2, she’s had to contend with the other characters within the Marvel Cinematic Universe all getting their time in the spotlight while she’s watched on from afar. Not now, however.
How have all the previous movies involving the character gone down with audiences, however? That’s something we’ll now go over using Rotten Tomatoes’ audience score ratings. But we’re not counting cameos in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Captain Marvel and Thor: Ragnarok because, from Natasha’s perspective, they’re stories that don’t really involve her.
Iron Man 2: 71%
When we first meet Natasha, she’s working undercover as a personal assistant to Tony Stark. However, she ends up having to reveal herself to be a secret angel when Iron Man finds his life under threat from the vengeful Ivan Wanko, who is determined to make amends for the death of his father many years previously.
While the blockbuster has some good parts - such as Natasha’s hallway fight scene and the Monte Carlo Grand Prix showdown - it ranks at just 71 per cent. Fans noted the underwhelming nature of Wanko while others were less impressed by the attempts to juggle multiple storylines at once. Certainly, it’s a sequel that was nowhere near as good as the original.
Avengers: Age of Ultron: 83%
The Avengers find themselves battling to save the planet when Tony Stark’s attempts at creating artificial intelligence backfire and result in the birth of Ultron, a super-intelligent cyborg who enlists the help of Wanda and Pietro Maximoff in order to mold humanity in his image.
Black Widow has some key moments with Bruce Banner but, for the most part, it overshadowed by other characters. It’s a good movie but Ultron was a divisive villain and not everybody was sold on him - particularly given how CGI-heavy he was. It didn’t have the same flow as the previous movie but, nonetheless, Scarlett Johansson impresses in the small screen time she has. Scenes with Bruce and Hawk-Eye are particularly touching and the first signs of the MCU beginning to evolve.
Captain America; Civil War: 89%
The first two Captain America movies had seen Chris Evans’ character go up against both the Red Skull and Bucky Barnes. But, for the third movie, the supersoldier instead found himself battling friends - and Tony Stark in particular.
Black Widow opts to stay impartial for the most part, refusing to get in the way of tensions between Cap and Tony. It’s an adrenaline-fuelled movie full of surprises, with the injury sustained by War Machine and revelation that Bucky killed Tony’s parents among them. At 89 percent, it sits rather high on the list. But not, it seems, high enough to take pole position on the podium.
Avengers: Endgame: 90%
Avengers: Endgame is arguably Scarlett Johansson’s best outing as Black Widow. After the events of Infinity War, the whole world is in a state of flux and mourning, struggling to accept the fact that half of the universe is no longer around. This hits Natasha Romanoff extremely hard and leads to her choosing to sacrifice herself in order to obtain the Soul Stone on Vormir.
The whole movie is fan service galore - which may explain why it doesn’t come higher. Audiences laugh, they cry, they cheer and they exclaim all throughout the blockbuster but the use of time travel, too, may count against it. Regardless, however, it’s a sublime movie and one that sits top of the box office rankings not just for the year, but of all time.
Avengers: 91%
Back in 2012, everybody was excited for the first Avengers movie. And it failed to disappoint with the unification of Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, The Incredible Hulk and HawkEye living up to its billing.
Natasha herself isn’t the most prominent member of the cast but she has her good moments, like tricking Loki and refusing to hurt Hawk-Eye during a tense confrontation. There’s also THAT chair scene, where she manages to get herself out of the stickiest of situations. The movie has been enhanced by Avengers: Endgame’s decision to wind back the clock and, to this day, has the joint-highest rating of any Avengers film.
Avengers: Infinity War: 91%
Avengers: Infinity War released in 2018 promising to ramp up the stakes for the teams’ showdown with Thanos. And it did just that, leaving fans shocked by killing off half of the heroes within the team. Black Widow is one of just a few survivors left at the end with the likes of Spider-Man, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, the Guardians of the Galaxy (except for Rocket and Gamora) all perishing.
Black Widow is involved in the fight, defeating Proxima Midnight with a bit of help from Okoye and Scarlet Witch. But she’s unable to stop the movie from having a dark end, with Thanos emerging victorious. The blockbuster’s dark tone and shock ending may be why it comes so high on the list, even eclipsing its sequel, Avengers: Endgame.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier: 92%
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger and is a bold step in a big direction for the franchise. Black Widow is in the thick of the action, assisting Steve Rogers as he attempts to both defeat the Winter Soldier himself and expose Hydra, the villainous organization plotting to mold the world in their image.
Natasha Romanoff is at her very best in the movie, excelling at the fun stuff (like kissing Steve) and the hard stuff (like sacrificing the secrecy around her past by allowing her backstory to spill out to the world). It’s the movie that also made the Russo Brothers a household name, too, with the directors since heading up Civil War, Infinity War and Endgame.
