PREMISE
After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap, an unconventional team of antiheroes must embark on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts.
THE GOOD STUFF
JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS- I can already sense that there will be a lot of complaining about Valentina de Fontaine’s heavy involvement in this movie. I will counter every single complaint about how involved she is by saying that if the goal of CAPTAIN AMERICA: brave New World and Thunderbolts* is to “reset the path” of the MCU storyline, and not give us yet another a movie that has a definitive beginning middle and end with no tie-ins, then something like this has to start with a character that is not a superhero, but a slimy powerful person with a plan. That’s how it was with Nick Fury in the first Iron Man movie, and that’s how it is with this one. Her storyline is almost as essential as the superheroes on the poster.
With that said, Julia Louis-Dreyfus holds it down here. Yes, there are many commonalities between her character in this movie and Selena Kyle, the character she played on the HBO show Veep… But that’s not a bad thing. In the sold-out audience that I saw this with, she garnered many laughs and really held down the first act of this movie.
THE THUNDERBOLTS* – This is the first movie in the MCU to come along in quite some time that does reward you for previous viewings of all of the television shows and films that came before. Those who have not done that might think that these characters are underdeveloped as they go along because of how little backstory this movie itself gives them, but that is incorrect. It is quite admirable that these characters tie together so well, given the previous material dedicated to them. The MCU has been missing this kind of multifaceted connection between characters for a long time now, and it really added to the experience.
Also worth mentioning is this cast’s INCREDIBLE chemistry. A lot of the bickering is familiar stuff we’ve seen with MCU characters before, but a lot of the heartfelt stuff feels earned and not manufactured.
SENTRY (THE GOOD STUFF)- I remember when I saw the trailers to Thor: love and thunder, and I saw the aesthetics of the villain of that piece, Gorr the Butcher. Like that character, Sentry is a villain whose aesthetic seems inspired by horror movies. When he shows up in full form, the movie’s tone changes substantially. It was a really good idea of the marketing team to hide this aesthetic throughout the trailers, because when he does show up and starts doing villainous things, he seems absolutely indomitable. Very few MCU villains have this kind of presence.
THE BAD STUFF
THE 1ST ACT- This is a 2-hour and 10-minute movie, and it didn’t need to be that way. This first act occurs mainly in one location, and it feels like it stays there for about an hour. Some scenes during this stretch don’t need to be there, or could have been supplemented with action sequences. The bickering is laid on really thick in this section, and although a lot of the lines do land, there’s a lot of stuff that feels repetitive as they continue on and on to trying to escape this location. There are necessary flashback scenes added as a nice touch, but this could have moved a lot faster.
SENTRY (THE BAD STUFF)- So, you remember that scene in Justice League where Superman wakes up out of his coma and he is temporarily in berserker mode for some reason. The Justice League is trying to physically subdue him as a team until he gets his mind right?
Well, in that scene, he effortlessly beats the absolute f*** out of that team so effortlessly that I was wondering why I should even be rooting for this team of weak-ass Justice League scrubs when they can’t take down one character. Yes, that is accurate to what the comics would be and all that, but it substantially diminishes the protagonists’ value to a substantial degree. That is very much the case with Thunderbolts*.
Sentry is the most naturally powerful villain (outside of Dormammu in Doctor strange and Thanos with The Infinity Gauntlet) that has been seen in the MCU. And that’s not really a good thing ultimately.
THE UGLY STUFF
CHARACTER USAGE- When you look at the poster for Thunderbolts*, please understand there are at least two characters on that poster that are criminally misused. To say who would go into spoiler territory but I will say this: one of those characters has so little screen time as opposed to what the trailer and the advertisements are promising, and the other character is only there for one scene, and I’m still wondering as to why this character was in the movie in the first place.
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I know we’ve heard a couple of times now about the movies that are supposed to reset the thematic structure of the MCU. Deadpool and wolverine was supposed to do that and it didn’t, the Loki television show was supposed to do that and did not. eternals was supposed to do that and also failed. Acknowledging that the multiverse timeline has been sloppy and needed a reset was the first step. Making a movie like Thunderbolts* that sets the intertwining story structure of the MCU is a giant step forward. No, this isn’t the Avengers: infinity War level spectacle that a lot of you casual MCU haters think that literally every MCU movie should be on, but it is a massive step in the right direction.
THUNDERBOLTS* is in theaters now.
