Thunderbolts*
The last MCU film, Captain America: Brave New World felt like it was made as a direct-to-stream movie for Disney+. It was a servicable film, but it was inconsequential and looked low budget. The MCU needed a solid film to help right the franchise and Brave New World was not that film. Thunderbolts on the other hand does just that and with flair.
Thunderbolts is a surprisingly thoughtful Marvel film that not only has action and some good laughs, but also becomes darker and mature with its exploration of mental health and depression. Writers, Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo plus director Jake Schreier do a wonderful job of balancing the tone of the film.
Thunderbolts pulls characters from different corners and eras of the MCU – though, thankfully it really doesn’t require the audience to remember all of them. We have Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) and Red Guardian (David Harbour) from the 2021 movie Black Widow (which Thunderbolts seems to be a direct sequel to); John Walker (Wyatt Russell) and Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) from the 2018 Disney+ streaming series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier; and digging back in the vault, we have Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) from 2018’s Ant-man and the Wasp which will be quite a reach for casual MCU movie watchers to remember; and to round it off, a somewhat bored looking Sebastian Stan reviving the character Bucky Barnes from many past MCU movies and TV shows.
Valentina Allegra de Fontaine is now the director of the CIA, she is being investigated by congress about her past discretions running the O.X.E. Group which was involved in some shady affairs that employed the services of the lonely rogues Yelena, Taskmaster, John Walker and Ghost.
She has a plan to clean records of these affairs to avoid being impeached. Her plans eventually unite Yelena, Taskmaster, John Walker and Ghost in the basement of a secret facility and puts them in contact with Bob (Lewis Pullman) who seems to be a normal quiet civillian with a mysterious past.
The best thing about Thunderbolts is its entire cast led by Florence Pugh who is a movie star and she lifts this film beyond what it could have been. Pugh is nuanced in her performance and she kills it onscreen. What is with Lewis Pullman being named Bob all the time? I don’t care as he is superb as Bob. David Harbour maybe the funniest of the cast – though Pugh is also really funny with her line delivery. Whereas Pugh’s deivery of humor is quietly understated, Harbour is loud and brash. Together they are a hoot. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is great as the scheming, sometimes vulnerable and always power hungry de Fontaine. I wish Russell and John-Kamen had more to do onscreen, their characters weren’t given enough – especially John-Kamen.
Whereas Captain America: Brave New World looked cheap and made for direct-to-streaming, Thunderbolts looks like a big budget summer tentpole film. The cinematography by Andrew Droz Palermo is a step outside of what normal MCU films look like. It is grittier, darker and doesn’t have that perfect digital look to it. It really is Disney doing an A24 film, as sold by their (somewhat desparate) marketing.
While still adhering to the MCU formula, Thunderbolts makes enough changes to make it feel like a unique film and this helps it revitalize the MCU franchise. Thunderbolts is a return to the goodness of MCU movies of the past. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this ragtag group of anti-heroes and look forward to a second screening of this movie.
I recommend Thunderbolts.
There is a mid-credits scene that’s funny and there’s a post-credits scene that ties Thunderbolts to The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Watched at the Oakridge Century 20 using Cinemark Movie Club in XD.
Spoilers Ahead
The asterisk in the title felt like a bait-and-switch. I didn’t much gasp when the Thunderbolts were revealed as The New Avengers, it just felt a bit rushed to have a new group of Avengers.
I do like that they are pitting the Thunderbolts Avergerz against the Captain America’s Avengers. And the joke about trademarking the name is hilarious considering who the owner of the actual IP is.
If Disney can keep the quality up on the Avengerz, I’d love for them to be the real Avengers and call in the new Captain America and the new Falcon in from time to time. I find Yelena and team much more interesting than the bland Captain America and forgettable Falcon.