Thunderbolts* Strikes With Smarts And Heart
There are a number of people online complaining about how Thunderbolts*, the latest movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, bears almost no resemblance to any comic story from either version of the teams that bore that name. That is true, but if anyone decides to not see the movie for that reason, they are doing themselves a massive disservice. Thunderbolts* is the best MCU movie since Avengers: Endgame, and in some ways even better. It is to the MCU what Rogue One is to the Star Wars franchise — a tightly written and directed, deeply character-driven story about flawed people finding heroism in themselves.
Below is my spoiler-free review of the movie, with nothing revealed that hasn’t been in a trailer or commercial.
Thunderbolts* tells the story of how a handful of anti-heroes became a team — Yelena Belova (Florence Puch), Red Guardian (David Harbour), US Agent/John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan). It introduces The Sentry/Bob Reynolds (Lewis Pullman) and expands greatly on the scheming of Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss). To describe how any of that happens would be to ruin some excellent plotting and storytelling The story by Eric Pearson, who co-wrote the script with Joanna Calo is both tight, clever and funny, and heartbreakingly brutally honest and poignant. Pearson is an MCU veteran, and Calo clearly brought in everything she used when writing for BoJack Horseman and The Bear. The depiction of mental illness in Thunderbolts* is among the clearest and easy to grasp I’ve seen, without downplaying any of the pain associated with it. You both know what the characters are going through, and you feel it.
The directing by Beef’s Jake Schreier is excellent. The movie just barely stretches over the two-hour mark, but it never drags. Part of that snappy movement comes from smart decisions, such as having a voice-over of a phone discussion about why and how something is about to happen, while the camera shows us the lead-up to that happening. No scene of two talking heads doing an exposition dump. But Schreier’s greatest decision is to let the actors really, well, act.
Florence Pugh, the heart of the movie, is as good as she was in the massive Oscar-bait movie Oppenheimer. Everyone else brings their A game, with a special note for Wyatt Russell, bringing even more humanity to John Walker, while never letting up on the fact that he is a massive asshole. But the real key to making this character-focused action superhero movie work is Pullman as Bob/The Sentry. I wasn’t sure about that casting when I first heard it, but seeing the direction they took the story of The Sentry for the movie, it turned out to be the perfect choice. Pullman’s face seems like someone sculpted it specifically to portray that pained smile that shows a struggle but also hints at a much more powerful one still kept hidden. He is another David Dastmalchian — a wonderful addition that humanizes any movie about superhumans.
I give Thunderbolts* (Marvel Studios; PG-13; 2 hrs 6 mins) an 8 out of 10.
