Thunderbolts* unites washed-out, morally broken antiheroes like Yelena (Florence Pugh), Bucky (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian (David Harbour), and more into an unlikely team, a rag-tag bunch of heroes who have never been heroes. The results are more interesting than your usual post-Endgame Marvel movie.
Colorful antiheroes and some “relatable” themes help Thunderbolts* battle the usual superhero cliches. Thunderbolts* doesn’t necessarily reinvent the superhero genre or even the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But in an era of post-Endgame chaos when the Marvel multiverse is expanding with more quantity than quality, director Jake Schreier partially succeeds at injecting some real-world themes and some straight-faced comedy in his MCU road movie-cum-dysfunctional family drama. While the third act falls prey to an Avengers encore, Thunderbolts* is well aware of not acting like another superhero team-up film. From Florence Pugh’s self-introspective portrayal of Yelena to David Harbour’s pompous, “dad energy” heavy portrayal of her father, Red Guardian, the characters are all morally broken brooders waiting for a second shot at redemption. Our antiheroes aren’t self-confident blabbermouths like Deadpool. Rather, it’s the moments of silence where the titular Thunderbolts shine the most. Thanks to the ensemble cast’s intentional lack of chemistry, we get a different kind of MCU story. This team never wished to become a team in the first place. Rather, it’s their grim circumstances and the machinations of one manipulative CIA director (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss as Valentina, terrific as usual) that force them to look out for each other. By the third act, Thunderbolts* might feel like a passable one-time watch, but it’s the unlikely alliance between its disparate (yet so similar) characters that offers some memorable moments to look back on.
And then comes a wasted Superman-like villain and some forced MCU-ness. Perhaps the weakest part of Thunderbolts* is its strongest character, a lab experiment called Bob (a so-so Lewis Pullman), who turns out to be Marvel’s own almighty Superman as the gold-and-blue-suited Sentry, who later turns out to have a darker alter ego called Void. Sentry makes for a compelling villain, and Pullman isn’t hammy in his performance. But pitting an all-powerful being like him against a bunch of not-so-super characters doesn’t necessarily ensure a David-vs-Goliath stand-off. Without giving away any spoilers, it must be brought up that Thunderbolts* does eventually pave the path to some formulaic MCU behavior — alas, one that leaves a bad taste in the mouth. In one instant, we are supposed to be scared of Sentry. In another, we’re supposed to empathize with him. But with the Thunderbolts already having so much of their own emotional baggage to deal with, it becomes difficult to truly see Sentry as a multi-layered hero-villain hybrid. For a franchise that only very rarely offers fans a complex bad guy like Thanos or Killmonger, the MCU yet again disappoints by playing too safe with an otherwise overpowered antagonist.
Some winds of change, though, for the MCU cynics. In the end, Thunderbolts* is never perfect. With some natural comic timing (not the forced punchlines and meta-references), impressive practical stunts (lesser green screen and more rigged explosions than your average Marvel joint), and some surprisingly dark subject matter (mental health and inner demons drive the story), Thunderbolts* is still a positive step forward in a big-budget that’s usually delivering lesser than it promises. Now, if only it could stick the landing in the end, Thunderbolts* would have been even more thunderous then.
Thunderbolts* is as imperfect as its antiheroes, but it still works as a more grounded Marvel story.
