'Thunderbolts*' A Review

Thunderbolts* is a superhero team-up movie featuring the misfits of the MCU. Yelena(Florence Pugh) has been working as a black-ops agent for CIA head Valentina(Julia Louis-Dreyfus) but is plagued by an increasing ennui. When Valentina attempts to pit her black-ops agents against each other to kill each other off it back fires and they team up.

Pugh proves her A-list bonafides and is absolutely, incongruously, arresting as the lead. She gives an emotional depth and complexity that you'd usually find in an Oscar bait movie not an MCU installment. The other big surprise is Lewis Pullman as Bob, a damaged but powerful stranger that pops up. Both Yelena and Bob's mental health struggles form the real backbone of the film and as a result Thunderbolts* is probably the best MCU film, as an actual story not some kind of franchise chess, in quite a long time. The supporting cast help to build this out, everyone is committed, having fun, and allowed to be more lived-in than in their previous appearances- Wyatt Russell, David Harbour, Dreyfus, Hannah John-Kamen. Sebastian Stan is almost a supporting-supporting character but he is, as always, totally assured, totally comfortable, and delightful to watch. 

Visually the movie doesn't vary that much from the standard MCU aesthetic but within those confines it's able to be pretty compelling, with a darker color pallet to reflect the theme. Most of the scales are small, there are some cool set pieces, but it appears a fair amount is practically shot. There is, unfortunately, a big NYC is threated sequence at the end but there isn't a huge body count and the heroes are quickly sucked into a psychological space, a series of 'shame rooms', which is one of the big inspirations and triumphs of the script, funneling the MCU typical big-bad face-off from CGI skyscrapers collapsing to a more intimate confrontation.

Why Thunderbolts* succeeds where the past dozen MCU entrees have fallen short is because, although the various characters are tied to other projects, knowledge of those other projects are absolutely not necessary and the actors are given the space and trust by director Jake Schreier to create characters that exist within the story that they are in(not what they were in or will be in) and as a result it feels like a satisfying stand-alone, complete on it's own, no strings attached, movie. The last of which for the MCU was probably 2018's Black Panther, seven years and and 16 movies ago!

Overall, honestly, a pretty good flick.

Currently in theaters.

See It.