Black Widow was worth the wait.

After being delayed three times from an original May 2020 release date due to the pandemic, Black Widow finally opened Thursday, the first time audiences were able to watch a Marvel movie since Spider-Man: Far From Home hit theaters in July of 2019. In that time period three different Marvel TV series have debuted on Disney+, but seeing Black Widow in the theater is a reminder that there is nothing like seeing a true blockbuster in a cinematic environment.

Black Widow, set after the events of Captain America: Civil War (2016), is both a glimpse into Romanoff’s life on the run following the Avenger team fallout, and an origin story as she is forced to confront the darkest part of her past.

The movie opens with an idyllic family scene: Natasha as a pre-teen, her little sister Yelena and her parents enjoy a typical day – the last such day they will ever know. Nothing is as it seems, of course, as Marvel movie fans already know. The “family” are that in name only; Natasha’s “parents” are on an undercover mission that, as it draws to a close, tears them all apart.

Natasha and Yelena are inducted into a secret program that turns them into a team of assassins known as ‘black widows’, losing their childhoods and each other. When they next meet they are adults; Natasha (Scarlett Johansson), now an Avenger, is chased out of her safe house in Norway by an unstoppable, faceless opponent, and runs to Yelena’s (Florence Pugh, Midsommar) hideaway in Budapest.

Yelena is also on the lam; once a mindless hitwoman for the widows, she was given the antidote and recovered her free will and now everyone is out to get her. The reunion between the two pseudo-sisters is rocky and violent, but the women have bigger fish to fry. They team up to shut down the Red Room: the operational headquarters where young girls are made into black widows.

For this they need to get the whole family back together: their putative father, Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour, Stranger Things), who is also known as The Red Guardian, Russia’s super-soldier counterpart to Captain America, and mother Melina Vostakoff (Rachel Weisz, The Favourite) the scientist who developed the mind control technology for Dreykov (Ray Winstone), the evil mastermind behind the project.

Fans of Marvel movie action sequences will not be disappointed in Black Widow; director Cate Shortland (The Berlin Syndrome) included several brutal fight scenes and pulse-pounding high-speed chases, including a thrilling climactic battle that takes place largely mid-air. Both Natasha and Yelena take a beating but never stay down for long – amazing, considering that they aren’t superheroes, just well-trained athletic fighters.

But what gives Black Widow depth and breadth and make it a truly worthy entry into the Marvel movie catalog are the performances. Pugh in particular gives a masterful performance as a young, cynical and world-weary woman, one who has every right to turn her back on doing what’s right and helping others but who refuses to do so. Her matter-of-fact dismissal of the absolute horrors she experienced as a girl are heart-breaking. She also gives the second funniest performance in the movie – Pugh’s dry and witty one-liners scored quite a few laughs.

Johansson too imbues her Black Widow back story with some much-needed emotional weight; Natasha must confront her past sins – she had to do the unthinkable to switch teams and become an Avenger – and her past personal losses all while keeping her focus on taking down the Red Room. The events in this movie go a long way towards explaining the choice she makes at the end of Infinity War.

Weisz is as good as she always is, though her role is probably the least developed of the main characters. Harbour is a riot as The Red Guardian (the scene where he suits up for the first time is a stitch) and he does somehow work as a father figure, although a somewhat annoying one.

Perhaps it’s just the thrill of finally seeing a Marvel movie in the theater, but there wasn’t a lot to complain about with Black Widow – the ending was a little too tidy, but other than that it was a thoroughly enjoyable ride. As always, be sure to stay for a post-credits scene that foreshadows a future Marvel product.