'Thunderbolts*' film review: Not the heroes the MCU deserves - but the heroes the MCU needs right now
After string of inconsistent Marvel flicks since 'Endgame,' it's kinda perfect that a team of second-tier non-heroes would refocus the MCU with the gritty and vulnerable action thriller 'Thunderbolts*' (in theaters nationwide May 2).
In short: After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap, a team of antiheroes embark on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts. Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Lewis Pullman and Julia Louis-Dreyfus star.
As always: this will be a spoiler-free review of 'Thunderbolts*' that will not mention any cameos or surprises. But it's a Marvel Studios flick so of course it has post-credits scenes: a mid-credits scene (a sillier one-off gag for one of the characters) and a post-credits scene that teases what's next for the MCU.
The impulse to just write off 'Thunderbolts*' as Marvel's take on a 'Suicide Squad'-type movie is right there - but this broad summation is also as flippant as it is shallow. The similarity between 'Thunderbolts*' and 'Suicide Squad' begins and ends with 'a team of non-heroes does stuff' - wherein if one was to crudely remove any brains or heart from 'Thunderbolts*,' then yeah, that lobotomized soulless heap of scrap would look a lot like the 'Suicide Squad.'
Yes the action sequences are a ton of fun on the biggest screen possible and it's fun to watch this ragtag group of killers and assassins butt heads - but 'Thunderbolts*' is powered by its crew of broken and morally compromised main characters. Each one has been an antagonist in some prior MCU movie or show, be it Bucky Barnes ('Captain America: The Winter Soldier'), US Agent John Walker ('Falcon and the Winter Soldier'), Ghost ('Ant-Man and the Wasp) or Yelena Belova ('Hawkeye'). They've all committed terrible crimes and deeds - and 'Thunderbolts*' revels in these darker corners of the Marvel Universe.
'Thunderbolts*' starts from a place of spiritual bleakness exemplified by Yelena's malaise. She's an elite assassin - but she feels rootless and without purpose, describing her wet work assignments with same enthusiasm one would use in describing clocking in and clocking out of a pointless cubicle job. Yelena wants more meaningful work - but she's also wracked by the guilt of killing so many people for virtually her entire life. This sentiment is shared, in one way or another, by the other antiheroes assembled by amoral CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, herself the subject of a congressional investigation into her own brutal and deadly research projects.
At the end of the day, the so-called Thunderbolts just want to survive. The stakes are hyper personal for each of the Thunderbolts: they just want to not die - and this actually ratchets up the tension for the team dynamics overall. The Suicide Squad was so-named because they were all deemed disposable. But these Thunderbolts are barely a team and their self preservation instincts mean any one of them could just outright betray or abandon each other at any moment.
The fact that 'Thunderbolts*' is co-written by Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo makes perfect sense: Pearson has extensive history helping write MCU scripts going back to 'Spiderman: Homecoming' and 'Avengers: Endgame while Calo's writing CV includes 'BoJack Horseman,' 'Hacks' and 'The Bear.' The plot bears all the familiar MCU story beats - but the script also allows the characters to be messy and broken. This is as close to a character-driven drama as the MCU has come so far. Yes the Thunderbolts are in a pinch and being hunted, but their actions or inactions control the plot rather than the plot taking away their agency.
Then there's Bob - the only new MCU character headlining 'Thunderbolts*.' Lewis Pullman is the heart and soul of this reluctant alliance of antiheroes - seemingly the only non-terrible person thrown into the situation - but a man filled with his own darkness. Pullman's performance as a drug-addicted, listless man struggling with mental illness is endearing, heartbreaking and terrifying. (On a personal note: the MCU now has two moments that make me tear up. The first was Tony Stark's death. The second is a particularly heart wrenching moment anchored by Bob, who has sunk to his deepest despair.)
For all their skills and lethal abilities, the Thunderbolts are essentially a team of fighters who kick and shoot their enemies - so when the film's true threat emerges, it becomes quite clear that there's no universe in all the multiverse were the Thunderbolts defeat this film's final boss with some cool kicks or by emptying a clip of bullets into them. Given the more than 30+ films in the MCU series, some have crossed into other genres - like the spy thriller 'Winter Soldier' or horror flick 'Multiverse of Madness.' And as weird as it sounds, 'Thunderbolts*' has a lot in common with indie psychological drama - especially in the climactic third act.
Marvel's biggest and most famous characters include the X-Men and Spider-Man ... but since the very beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, underdog characters have saved the MCU time and again. Iron Man was a second-tier character that no studio dared make a movie about - now Tony Stark is the face of the MCU. Only hardcore comic book fans knew who the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' were - before that band of space misfits headlined their own MCU trilogy. And 'Thunderbolts*' - a team of covert ops contract killers - brings remarkable heart and empathy back to the MCU.
Just a few elements keep ‘Thunderbolts'*’ from reaching true brilliance. Despite being a story involving several characters on a team, this is mainly Yelena and Bob’s movie - everyone else has their own moments, but Florence Pugh and Lewis Pullman carry the film’s strongest moments. Sadly, this does mean Sebastian Stan isn’t as vital or core to the film as he could have been - while every other member of the Thunderbolts still actively lives in their darkness, Bucky Barnes is an example of a man who has grown beyond his crimes as the Winter Soldier - and he could have been better used to show that seemingly irredeemable villains can be accepted as heroes.
Final verdict: On paper, 'Thunderbolts' takes the MCU's most morally flexible characters and tosses them together - ala 'Guardians of the Galaxy' or 'Avengers' - but in execution, this unconventional flick spotlights broken people, accepting them as they are and embracing what makes them heroic in their own ways.
Score: 4/5
'Thunderbolts*' opens in theaters nationwide May 2. The comic book action adventure has a runtime of 126 minutes and is rated PG-13 for strong violence, language, thematic elements, and some suggestive and drug references.
