Maybe the best-looking Marvel movie since Iron Man (2010)?
Andrew Droz Palermo‘s cinematography evokes the richness of the filmed-on-actual-celluloid look of vintage MCU. Crushed blacks aren’t just VFX inThunderbolts* – they’re thematically fitting. It’s a slight departure from the standard Marvel quippy deflection from actually sitting with darker emotions, and the message about empathy and mutual support is worthwhile enough, even if the refreshingly introspective final battle aims for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) but lands nearer to The Matrix Resurrections (2021), and the film’s look at mental health and suicidal ideation is superficially neat.
Refreshingly “Well, that just happened”-lite.
Lewis Pullman is endearing as Bob (if slightly less convincing as Sentry), not so much grappling with as defeated by depression. The always amazing Florence Pugh‘s damaged Yelena Belova / Black Widow is compelling enough as the film’s lead, but less so than in her supporting (Black Widow, 2021) or drop-in guest roles (Hawkeye, 2021). David Harbour‘s likeable if OTT Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian is the scene-stealer in this film (even if it still makes zero sense that these two former Russian spies only ever speak to eachother in English with heavy Russian accents). They helpfully draw focus from Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) who, even as someone who loved Captain America: Winter Soldier (2014), I still find to be a ‘void’ of a character himself, and John Walker (Wyatt Russell): after the ridiculous ending of the 2021 series The Falcon And The Winter Soldier, what even is their relationship anymore? Thunderbolts* doesn’t seem to care, which is fine because neither do I.
Thunderbolts* is better than a lot of post-Avengers: Endgame (2019) Marvel media – but that isn’t saying much, it hardly makes this essential viewing, and the film hanging multiple lampshades on the fact that the studio has completely mismanaged any sort of buildup to push this team onto us doesn’t change that.
Further Viewing
Now that I’ve seen the movie, I understand even less the online response hailing Thunderbolts* as somehow breaking from a very established Marvel tradition…?
You aren’t imagining things. ScreenCrush confirms that there was originally much more (read: actual character arcs) for Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), which was cut from the final film:
Speaking of post-Endgame instalments being ok: