Thunderbolts* Review

“So, none of us can fly? We all just punch and shoot?” – Yelena Belova

(Sigh) As I try and be as honest, and upfront as I can possibly be on these reviews, I guess it’s shameful quote time. Here goes; “We have one film left in Phase V – The Thunderbolts, which from the trailer I’ve seen seems to be the Marvel version of DC’s Suicide Squad. I could be wrong. But my next really big hope for the resurrection of Marvel takes place in July with the long-awaited release of Fantastic 4: First Steps, which ushers in Phase VI. I’m praying to Stan Lee that phase will salvage the sluggish mess this once unmissable franchise is becoming.”

That was me, on this site, a handful of weeks ago, stinging from Captain America: Brave New World. The full review is here. Thinking back, man, I was fed up with the direction Marvel had taken in their Phase V of the Cinematic Universe. I was disappointed at the direction the whole of Phase V had taken with letdown following letdown with the exception of Deadpool & Wolverine which was Marvel’s highest spot since Spider-Man: No Way Home in Phase IV. That’s two REALLY good films out of the last twelve, the rest – average or just “meh”. Never has a studio been in more dire need of a boost, especially considering that seventeen years ago, this whole Cinematic Universe began with Iron Man and has, to date spanned 36 movies.

I stand by what I wrote and have quoted up above, because it came from the heart. And it was honest. However, I’m ridiculously happy to admit that I jumped the gun. We don’t have to wait until Phase VI, Marvel movie #36 is the shot in the arm that has given the studio the burst of gamma ray radiation it needed to become a titanic force of nature once again. (Guys, what took you so long?)

Finally, returning to the Marvel Movie Universe are what’s been missing. Humour, well rounded characters, immense action scenes, and the sense that upon leaving the screening, you’ve seen something epic, and the credit crawl stings leave you eagerly anticipating what comes next, because we’re on a journey again.

So, who are the Thunderbolts* and why is there an asterisk in the title?

They’re a team of anti-hero misfits. Not exactly a copy of, but similar in concept to DC’s Suicide Squad. They’re not exactly good guys, they may not be exactly trustworthy or stable, but in these dark times – they may be what we need. We’ve met all of them before (and yes, there are differences between the film version and its comic book origins, but as I haven’t read much of the source material, I’m not going to wander down that road). But in case there’s anybody out there who hasn’t kept up with the movies or the Disney Plus spinoff series, here we go.

We have Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) the sister of Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow. John Walker (Wyatt Russell) the U.S. government’s hand-picked replacement for Steve Rogers as Captain America, until he murdered someone with the shield in Falcon & Winter Soldier and was dishonourably discharged. Ghost (Hanna John-Kamen) can phase through objects and was introduced in Ant-Man & The Wasp, Red Guardian/Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour) the Russian equivalent of Captain America, also father figure to Yelena and Natasha. Additionally, there’s Taskmaster/Antonia Dreykov (Olga Kurylenko) an assassin with the power to mimic anybody’s fighting style introduced in Black Widow (2021). Trying to bring some order to all this chaos is Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), now a newly elected congressman, former Soviet assassin, and before that former partner to Captain America. And there’s Bob (Lewis Pullman), a mystery man who seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

As the film starts, we see the previously established director of the CIA, Valentina Allegra De Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) introduced in the Black Widow continuity busily trying to cover her tracks, as I imagine all CIA directors do. So, what’s she been up to? We know she’s sketchy to say the least, as indeed are all government officials in Marvel movies. As the Avengers are long gone, De Fontaine has been conducting human experiments to create kind of a replacement superhero called Sentinel to take their place. But the replacement succumbs, literally, to his own Dark Side. This now leaves up with the problem of a supervillain whose train has long left the tracks with the added problem that he might actually be more powerful than the super team he’s supposed to replace. All we have left is a team of misfits who aren’t even a team.

And there we have all the ingredients for a breath of fresh Marvel air, and a way to continue the Movie Universe in a way that should please the long-time fans and attract new ones. It also ties in the Disney Plus series which have seemed to be little more than a cash grab for the last couple of years. Add more characters by all means, flesh out previously secondary or peripheral characters certainly – but (as this movie demonstrates) give us a payoff. I’ve been under the impression that one of the reasons that the franchise has strayed lately was that they were concentrating on secondary, underdeveloped characters in half-hearted films that audiences really didn’t engage with, while keeping us waiting for better known, higher tier names like fantastic Four and X-Men. Thunderbolts* shows us that they CAN deliver a fast paced, grand scale movie without featuring the established heavy hitters like Spider-Man, Hulk & Thor.

Welcome back, Marvel – I can’t wait for the next few weeks to pass so I can see Fantastic Four.

Rob Rating = 9

That concludes the review, but for those of you who’ve seen the movie and don’t mind a bit of speculation, I’m heading for potentially spoilery content here, so here’s a thing I haven’t done in a while – The Spoiler Zone.

The way this works is this is where I’ll discuss something that might spoil the film for those who have yet to see it. So, if that’s you, and you want to go in to your screening “clean” so to speak, look away now, come back after your screening. Okay?

Fair warning given.

Last warning.

Welcome to The Spoiler Zone!

I was happy to see not only the trailer for Superman shown before Thunderbolts* but also Fantastic Four: First Steps. I’ve always been fond of the FF. But it intrigued me that I keep reading that the film is set in the swinging sixties. I mean, that’s a great idea – I’ve read a lot of those comics from that era and yes, bring it to life on the screen – but how come none of the Marvel characters we’ve seen already have ever heard of them? They’d heard of Captain America and he’s ever older.

The answer is in the Thunderbolts* sting.

We see the team relaxing in Tony Stark’s old penthouse, overlooking the Chrysler Building. Apparently, Sam Wilson the ex-Falcon and new Captain America is threatening to sue the Thunderbolts for copyright infringement for referring to themselves as The New Avengers. (Since the film’s release a few days ago, it has been re-titled on posters as The New Avengers in a unique publicity stunt. This is also the reason, I’m told, for the asterisk in the title.)

They’re reacting to this when they get an alert – a spacecraft is approaching the Earth. Satellite imagery shows it has a “4” symbol on the side. End of film.

Now, we saw that ship in the trailer to Fantastic Four, and it all makes sense. The Fantastic Four movie is set in the sixties of an alternate reality in the Multiverse. They’re now coming here to the reality inhabited by the regular Marvel characters. Boy, that makes me happy. It could also explain Robert Downey Jr’s casting as Doctor Doom. Think about it – the Stark from the other reality could still create a suit of armour, but he could be an evil genius who becomes Doctor Doom, instead of a cool genius who becomes Iron Man, and somehow the evil version ends up here. I might be off track, but it makes sense to me.

All I know for certain is I’ll be seeing Fantastic Four: First Steps in a few short weeks and I’ll be seeing Avengers: Doomsday around this time next year. Better yet, I’ll be seeing them with a sense of excitement, wonder and enthusiasm.