Ahh… so that’s what the asterisk is for. Thunderbolts* is a worthy outing for some of the MCU’s unsung heroes but, just like the film’s sort-of-not-really antagonist, The Sentry, it has both a dark half and a light half. One of them is actually pretty great.
I had a lot of hope for Thunderbolts* going into it. Something’s been in the air this last year, from the Dr. Doom and Fantastic Four of it all, to the sense that we’re through phase 4’s strange aimlessness, and it’s all got me more intrigued. There’s been a sense lately, something Anthony Mackie has even said out loud, that Marvel is set to recapture some of its magic. Thunderbolts*, for the most part, is moving in the right direction, with a solid, fairly unexpected ride for its band of antiheroes.
But first, there’s a lot of exposition and for a not insignificant amount of the runtime, the movie belongs to Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), with Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) hanging on the periphery of her plotting, in his new role as a politician. More than anything, this section of the movie had me wondering at what point it was decided to make The Winter Soldier a congressman, and if it was just because one of the titular Thunderbolts* should be around for all the early shoe-leather.
Once it gets properly moving though, one of the things I liked most about Thunderbolts* is actually one of the things I liked most about Infinity War and Endgame: Combinations of characters who’ve never met, but make for an interesting dynamic. Think a whole movie built around moments like War Machine and Nebula bonding over the fact that they’ve both been put back together with mechanical appendages. The moments where Red Guardian (David Harbour) and Bucky idly chat about super soldier serum are very charming. Yelena (Florence Pugh) and Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) gang up on Agent Walker (Wyatt Russell) to make fun of his “hat” – which is to say his beat-up, valor-stealing Captain America helmet – and not only is it really fun, it’s used at the right spot in the film to the exact right effect. An MCU movie really gets a chance to stand out if it can bolster its more workmanlike components with this kind of endearing material – and the parts of Thunderbolts’ lighter half that work do just that.
But it’s an established relationship in Thunderbolts* that shines the brightest. Florence Pugh and David Harbour were a blast as Yelena Belova and Red Guardian in 2021’s Black Widow, and they’re just as much fun here. The pair’s father-daughter dynamic ranges from a “real emotional need” to “embarrassing me in front of my friends” – they so clearly and so sweetly depend on each other, it’s difficult not to love them. And it doesn’t hurt that Harbour chews every piece of scenery he can get his metal teeth on.
For all these quality interactions between two or three Thunderbolts, the team never quite gels as a whole, though. Director Jake Schreier and screenwriters Eric Pearson and and Joanna Calo are aiming for a non-stop, snappy back-and-forth in the Guardians of the Galaxy mold, but their main characters don’t live in that energy for nearly as long as they’re meant to – or more, importantly, as long as they need to. Because while Yelena and pals are cracking wise, Thunderbolts*’ gloomier half is lurking just out of sight and ready to effectively bum you out.
Lewis Pullman’s Bob, and his journey to becoming The Sentry, is a story about mental health and extreme loneliness. There are days when Bob feels every bit the invincible Sentry, and days when he can’t help but let The Void take over and wreak havoc. He’s the exact right opposition for a character like Yelena, who’s constantly questioning the things she’s done and how she should feel about herself. As Bob forces the members of the Thunderbolts to face the darkest times in their lives, the movie makes its most potent statements about how broken these people really are.
And this is, again, where Thunderbolts* is really at its best. It’s where the craft of the filmmaking team is on full display: Schreier has a bunch of darkly funny stuff on his resume – some of which even leans darker than funny – but my favorite member of the behind-the-scenes team is cinematographer Andrew Droz Palermo. He shot both The Green Knight and A Ghost Story, two movies with very specific visuals speaking to a character’s weaknesses and fears. Just look at how he shoots the one-against-many hallway fight in the film’s opening sequence: This is one of the most basic staples of superhero fight choreography, but this time we see it from overhead, with stark black and white shadows stretched all the way across the frame. Even bearing in mind that Marvel films can only modulate their style of action and never completely reinvent it, this is some gorgeous imagery, and it speaks to the isolation Yelena is dealing with throughout the film.
This is all to say that Thunderbolts* truly excels with its darker, more upsetting subject matter and themes. Because these lows work so well, the highs that don’t quite have the energy they’re aiming for seem that much less high by comparison. And for me, it made the movie overall feel like kind of a bummer. A compelling and moving bummer at times, but I wasn’t really feeling up for a silly round of petty bickering by the time the home stretch rolled around.
Yelena has always been a little anti-Marvel, going back to how she made fun of her sister for being a “poser.” So it’s fitting that at one point in Thunderbolts*, she actually asks “what’s the point?” This is a movie that is low-key wondering “is the MCU too big for a whole two hours dedicated to a collection of side characters like the Thunderbolts?” And the answer is, “actually, yeah.” They are alone. They are the side characters that have to stick up for each other. And they are not The Avengers.
Even though the climax – which we’ve seen in the trailers – takes place in and around Avengers Tower. Even though a lot of the visuals in that action sequence are pretty clearly meant to evoke the Battle of New York. Even though it references The Avengers’ fakeout working title, Group Hug –this team is not The Avengers. Not yet, at least. And even with bigger MCU events on the horizon, I hope we don’t collectively hold that against them.
