Some are saying that THUNDERBOLTS* is a return to form for the troubled MCU (Marvel Comics UnendingMoviesandTVshows). That might be overstating things. I wouldn’t say it feels as exciting as the best Marvel movies have, it is not a drastically new twist on the series, it only really introduces one major new character to share the screen with a bunch of old ones, it’s clearly following a GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY underdog-found-family template without nearly the same level of visual imagination, it does not rank high in the standings of blockbuster action or comic book movies. It does, however, lean less than some of the recent ones on riffy bullshit and rushed green screen visuals, while scoring high in the constant Marvel strength of well-cast characters that are fun to hang out with, in particular the central one. And though I don’t think it excels as a story I do think it has a consistent theme behind it that’s moving in ways most MCU movies are not. So I liked it.

The Thunderbolts are former villains now doing black-ops for hire – I’d been led to believe it was the same premise as SUICIDE SQUAD, but that’s not the case. There is a sinister government character bossing them around – new CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Luis-Dreyfus, TROLL), whose hair makes it seem like Marvel predicted Tulsi Gabbard’s appointment to DNI – but she doesn’t force them to work together on a dangerous mission for the greater good. To the contrary, she specifically believes they could never work together successfully, and tricks them all into going into a bunker to be destroyed along with all the other evidence of her dirty deeds now that she’s facing an impeachment probe. (I imagine this will have to be the last ever movie to treat impeachment as a deterrent for bad actors and possibility of recourse for the people. Seems hopelessly out of touch here.) So they escape and accidentally become a team trying to figure out how to survive.

This is actually the first time I’ve seen an MCU movie out of order, because I haven’t seen CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD yet. I was never lost, just thrown for a loop by a few developments (Bucky [Sebastian Stan, THE APPRENTICE] is a congressman now?). I don’t like this idea of depicting the U.S. government in a Marvel movie, or at least not this version of it. In THE AVENGERS Nicky Fury as director of S.H.I.E.L.D. has people all around him to give orders to, he seems important and busy. Here the fucking director of the Central Intelligence Agency’s entire team consists of one twenty-something assistant named Mel (Geraldine Viswanathan, DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS) who frequently steps away to another part of the same room to make whistleblower calls to Bucky. Doesn’t even have to find a pay phone or make up a code name, but it doesn’t matter, there are no repercussions. Those sorts of things are very half-assed in this movie.

But it’s mostly a sequel to BLACK WIDOW, and like BLACK WIDOW it is primarily fueled by Florence Pugh (THE COMMUTER) as Yelena Belova, with help from David Harbour (HELLBOY 2019) as her comic relief quasi-dad Alexei “Red Guardian” Shostakov. Both begin this chapter feeling bored and depressed, though only Yelena admits it. I love the touch that in the opening mission to destroy a laboratory in Malaysia she doesn’t bother with the usual leather catsuit, she just wears baggy black sweats.

I’m definitely a Pugh fan, including in this role – I still imitate the way she says “Kate Bee-shup” every time I think of Hawkeye (my favorite of the Marvel shows, largely because of her). This is the character’s first time as the lead and it takes her a little further, her opening narration wryly discussing her unhappiness while going through the motions of kicking all kinds of ass captures a very precise tone – funny but sincere, turning the joke into a relatable metaphor. And then when her sardonic demeanor breaks and she sobs to Alexie about her feelings – the Rambo and Trautman scene – you remember oh shit, they got Florence Pugh to be in this. And they pulled the trigger. The MCU has obviously had sad scenes before (BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER especially), but have they had precisely this kind of emotional vulnerability before? Not enough that another example jumps to mind.

The next most successful character is John Walker (Wyatt Russell, INGRID GOES WEST), who on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was the new Captain America but he was basically a cop and killed a civilian. Now he’s a gruff, sarcastic asshole who has to accept that he’s not better than these other people. Ava “Ghost” Starr (Hannah John-Kamen, RESIDENT EVIL: WELCOME TO RACCOON CITY) I vaguely remember as a pretty cool character in ANT-MAN & THE WASP but they really do not find much for her to do here, I’m afraid. And I was kind of excited that they were using Antonia “Taskmaster” Dreykov since she was a secret identity in BLACK WIDOW and only at the end revealed as Olga Kurylenko (QUANTUM OF SOLACE, OBLIVION, SENTINELLE, THE PRINCESS, EXTRACTION II, BOUDICA: QUEEN OF WAR). Here was an opportunity to take better advantage of that great casting. An opportunity that was not taken. (SPOILER: She gets literally one line and I suspect they might’ve CGI’d her face onto someone else’s body for it.)

As far as action goes it’s pretty basic stuff, but well executed (stunt coordinator: Heidi Moneymaker, a.k.a. Athena in WOLF WARRIOR 2). Clear fights, super powers integrated pretty well, by super hero standards pretty down-to-earth, for those who are into that sort of thing. A couple good car flips.

But I think it benefits greatly from getting most of the action stuff over with in the middle and having a third act that’s a little more psychologically-based. Bob (Lewis Pullman, THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT) is an amnesiac victim of medical experiments who becomes a rampaging evil-Superman called The Void, turning New Yorkers into shadows. Yelena walks into his void in one of two moments that provocatively imply she’s given up on life. Actually she’s not giving in to him, nor is she fighting him, she’s walking into his nightmares to try to get through to him. That’s what ultimately overcomes the various weaknesses of this movie – in the end, it’s all characters who have done bad things who want to be better, and they find their better selves by sharing their worst with each other and still being accepted. Also this is a super hero team that (SPOILER) literally saves the world with a group hug. And I can’t even believe I’m saying this but I’m pretty sure they don’t stop to make a joke about it. In a Marvel movie! They just do it and trust that it’s cool, and I gotta respect that.

Jake Schreier is one of those Marvel directors who seem kinda mysterious at first because he had only done two indie movies, ROBOT & FRANK and PAPER TOWNS, but those were 18 and 10 years ago, respectively. So how’d they choose that guy? I guess the answer is that he’s been directing television (including respectable shows I’m Dying Up Here, Lodge 49, Kidding, Brand New Cherry Flavor and Beef) which we can speculate might be closer to the type of directing expected in the MCU: do a good job within someone else’s larger vision. The script is credited to Eric Pearson (TRANSFORMERS ONE) and Joanna Calo (Bojack Horseman, The Bear). The former has worked mostly on Marvel movies and shorts, the latter only in television, but good television.

I do kind of think of most of the MCU movies as being like a TV show. Most of them I haven’t rewatched and wouldn’t expect to stand alone because as soon as they’re over I’m thinking about the next one. That’s not my favorite type of movie, but I mean, I enjoyed watching this one. A very special episode.

THUNDERBOLTS WILL RETURN
UNDER A DIFFERENT NAME AND WAY LESS COOL CIRCUMSTANCES

*Yes, as you may know, the asterisk is officially part of the title. They were clever about it – for the advertising they added a running gag thankfully not in the movie where some of them keep wanting to rename the Thunderbolts, so it seems like a joke about that. Then in the actual movie SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER THIS PART OF THE REVIEW IS ALL SPOILERS ABOUT THE WAY IT ENDS Valentina tricks them into becoming an official government team called “The New Avengers,” so that’s what the asterisk denotes. Well played.

I got some misgivings, though. I’m not usually this guy, but I confess, this is one of the problems with the shared universe serialized nature of the MCU. This is a twist that gives you a brief jolt of what-happens-next excitement but at the expense, in my opinion, of the integrity of the story. First of all, the scene is so ridiculous – it just does not seem sensible in the moment and even less so in retrospect that these characters would go along with this bamboozlement. They’re about to bust this evil and corrupt woman who 1 (one) day ago attempted to burn all of them alive (and did cause them to murder Taskmaster)… but then she calls them the New Avengers in front of a press conference so, whoops, can’t say anything. Gotta take the job. It makes them all look like absolute chumps. Not just because of the lack of integrity, but also because it was so much cooler from a narrative perspective to be a scrappy team of ex-villain outlaws than to, as depicted in the end credits, just be cliche super heroes who sit in a headquarters waiting for their orders from their evil government boss. Why would you be such a loser that getting called an “Avenger” makes you debase yourself like this? What the fuck. I guess I was wrong about you guys. I thought you were Thunderbolts.

I think the only explanation offered as to why they would settle for this humiliating bullshit is that Alexie always talked about his dreams of glory (the Wheaties box mid-credits scene is funny) and Yelena had decided she could be “public-facing” like her late sister. But… that’s what they thought they wanted. The point of the movie, before having to set up the next one, was that those are superficial dreams, and they found something better. Which they immediately gave up. It sucks. Oh well.