Marvel Studios has been trying to convince fans that the good old days of MCU Phase 1 & 2 are back. Audiences haven’t bought it, though, and other than last year’s Deadpool & Wolverine they refuse to show up as they used to. But Thunderbolts* is the first movie in a long time that actually feels like an old school Marvel movie. While watching it, I couldn’t help but recall the risky gamble of the first Guardians of the Galaxy, a lower-budgeted team film full of B-list heroes and misfits that won legions of fans with its emphasis on character, heart, and comedy.
It remains to be seen if Thunderbolts* is received in the same way, but they deserve credit for making a movie that is slightly different than the norm, and a genuine attempt to recapture that old Marvel feeling. Directed by Jake Schreier, an indie filmmaker in his first huge studio film, Thunderbolts* doesn’t really rely on explosive superhero action despite being shot for IMAX. It’s a surprisingly emotional and incisive story, somewhat ironic given that the team’s members, as Black Widow Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) puts it, only punch and shoot things.
It’s Yelena who stands as the movie’s heart and soul, again, ironic because she’s an assassin with so much blood on her hands it’s thrown her into despair. She’s lonely, sick of performing murderous jobs for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) with little to show for it but an empty home and a hollow heart. After a heart-to-heart reunion with her “father” Red Guardian Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour), who is also wallowing in self-pity, Yelena agrees to one last mission before taking on a more public gig that could position her as a hero.
But that mission goes sideways when Yelena is trapped in an underground complex with USAgent John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), Ava Starr/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and the mysterious, incoherent Bob (Lewis Pullman). They were all lured there by Valentina and betrayed, but now they must work together to find out what’s going on and get payback.
It was kind of funny when Marvel and Pugh began pushing Thunderbolts* as an A24-style arthouse superhero movie. That’s going a bit too far, but it’s true that it goes against the typical style. There’s no traditional villain for the team to face, which I found to be a double-edged sword. It makes for a nebulous plot where most of the time is spent watching these antiheroes bicker with one another. While that makes for some hilarious moments, and also some truly heartfelt emotional breakthroughs, you also want someone for them team up against and, well, punch and shoot. So Thunderbolts* might not be all that some audiences want in pure excitement. It does ultimately pay off with a final act in which the team must use their wits and get beyond their traumatic pasts to save the day.
Of course, Thunderbolts* lives and dies by its cast. You can’t go wrong with Florence Pugh, arguably the most popular actress in the world right now. She’s a fanboy favorite and her casting as the depressed Yelena, still processing the death of her sister Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) is one of the best moves Kevin Feige has made. While I think the film leans too heavily on her loneliness, Pugh sells it beautifully and Yelena emerges as more like her noble sister than she ever imagined.
Everyone has a role to play and they are all great. Harbour is just a giant potbelly full of laughs as Red Guardian, who wants so badly to rekindle his days as a hero that he’ll say or do anything. I was skeptical of the inclusion of Bob Reynolds aka The Sentry, a divisive Superman-level character with mental instability up the ying-yang, but Pullman finds the sensitive core to the character and he becomes key to a soulful final arc. I also really enjoyed John-Kamen as the elusive Ghost and Russell as John Walker, the budget Captain America, who always has a chip on his shoulder. Everyone gets a redemption arc, some bigger and more crucial than others, but all are satisfying.
Those expecting a lot from Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes might be disappointed. While he’s in the movie a lot, and it continues his unusual storyline as a member of Congress, he doesn’t enter the action until a bit later on and he feels like a supporting character at best. Still, he gets an insanely cool entrance that’s worth the price of admission.
What’s refreshing about Thunderbolts* is that it doesn’t play out like the cookie-cutter Marvel film, and features less exposition to force it into the larger MCU franchise. It feels like an interloper, and when those wider connections start getting made later in the movie, you genuinely have no idea how any of it is going to work, and that unpredictability is a real blast. This team of misfits might just make it, and I can’t wait to see what they do next.
Thunderbolts* opens in theaters on May 2nd.
