When people say the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is either dead or revived, it tends to puzzle me. Putting aside obvious recency bias and clickbait, in my view, the franchise’s post-Avengers: Endgame track record has been about the same as it was pre-Endgame. Remember Iron Man 2? Remember Thor: The Dark World? Remember Age of Ultron? There were plenty of less-than-perfect films in their catalog before perfection of Endgame. I think Endgame’s stunning satisfaction has given all of us superhero nerds rose-tinted glasses regarding the quality of each individual film.
Now, that’s not to say that Eternals, The Marvels, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania aren’t closer to complete artistic failures than many of their predecessors, but it would be unfair to call every post-Endgame film a dud. Spider-Man: No Way Home and Deadpool & Wolverine are as fun as popcorn entertainment gets, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever dealt with the tragic passing of Chadwick Boseman about as beautifully as a genius like director Ryan Coogler could (please see Sinners if you haven’t yet). Into this storied franchise now walks Thunderbolts*, which stands confidently as one of the most distinctive MCU pictures since the franchise’s inception.
Thunderbolts* mostly eschews the candy-colored aesthetics of many of its peers, instead toning down the brightness, both visually and thematically. It’s basically Marvel’s version of DC’s Suicide Squad pictures. Needless to say, it’s better than David Ayer’s first attempt (not a high bar to clear), but shockingly, it’s more coherent and satisfying than James Gunn’s improved soft reboot. Florence Pugh carries the film as Yelena Belova, a Russian assassin trained to kill her entire life, much like her late adoptive sister, Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow. Still mourning the death of her sister and during a depressive episode, she decides she will stop serving the whims of CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) after one last job. Said job ends up uniting her with a few other MCU misfits, such as “discount Captain America” John Walker (Wyatt Russell) and Ava Starr/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), the latter of whom can turn invisible for limited periods of time.
In Valentina’s plan, they’re meant to kill each other, including Bob (Lewis Pullman), who hilariously arrives as a totally normal, non-skilled, non-superpowered guy in the room they’re all trapped in. He’s much more integral to the story than the film’s marketing suggests, but regardless, the fun of the first act is seeing this bunch realize their misfortune and work together to escape. From there, the film evolves into an unexpectedly potent treatise on mental health, with Pugh delivering some of the best work of her career (and that’s really saying something).
The action doesn’t disappoint either, although like the slightly grungy tone and more subdued humor (by MCU standards), it’s not as flashy as most of its predecessors. An extended take at the very beginning re-acquaints us with Yelena’s fighting skills, and it’s the best introduction to how this film’s fights will play out. A later sequence involves nothing but our anti-heroes losing over and over again, and as a primer for one character’s powers and the stakes of the problem in general, it’s absolutely edge-of-your-seat stuff.
What really wraps all this together so neatly is how Valentina, Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour), and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) are woven into the story. Harbour and Louis-Dreyfus are our comedic anchors, but each of them also get nice dramatic moments (heroic and villainous, respectively) which always seem to guide us to the next chapter. With such a big ensemble, it would be easy for all of this to feel disjointed without their talents as well as Pugh’s. Screenwriters Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo, along with director Jake Schreier (Robot & Frank) deserve credit as well for giving this more down-to-earth corner of political intrigue in the MCU a punky, spunky, empathetic coat of paint. The humor isn’t the MCU’s crutch of verbal slapstick here. It is far more character-driven, in equal measure to the drama in the film. I feel like I saw a human story here rather than what’s in the weaker MCU films, which tend to border on Power Rangers vibes.
There are a few stray bits of Thunderbolts* which don’t work for me. A few plot threads hang as missed opportunities to further mine some of themes of depression, regret, and redemption. However, at just about two hours, the fact that this movie achieved so much and felt so fluid in so little time (compared to a lot of bloated blockbusters today) should count for something. It’s not exactly high-octane, but you may find that it’s just your speed. Oh, and there is a reason for the asterisk in the title. | George Napper
