Review: Thunderbolts* is a refreshing return to peak Marvel form
Review: Thunderbolts* is a refreshing return to peak Marvel form
That weird asterisk in the title makes sense once the credits roll, but we’re not gonna spoil it for you.
Nah. First peak was iron man and capt america. Peaked again at endgame. After that it's been all riding past success.
Was actually dragged into watching this with friends. It’s popcorn fodder with a perceptible slop content but it wasn’t as bad as I prepared myself for. For context I followed the Marvel movies on and off until Endgame and just lost interest after that.
I have thoughts on it but I haven’t sat down to formulate all of them. I think one thing that really stuck with me was this point that I’ve heard about the show Severance (which the same friends keep asking me to watch), where it’s kind of taking common sentiments about the lifelessness of corporate (or of life in general in the case of this movie), and turning it into a piece of media - but like the same corporations that brought us here are the ones making said media. Basically trying to jump the gun on being “the good/empathetic company.”
Oh the kids keep whining about mental health? How about a depressed cynical group of misfits for our next heroes?
I did like that the stakes are being brought down though. I think the biggest problem with these movies is that everyone is saving the world four times a year in a neat 130 minute story which really kills any stakes. You know, besides being finite, momentum-fueled movies that categorically will never end on a bad note.
And I don’t know if it’s just me getting more and more cynical or if the writing is just extra lazy compared to the older movies. It’s very likely the writing was always bad but I wasn’t really paying attention back then.
This was a "let's wrap things up" movie before Doom flips the table.
These were all 2nd and 3rd string characters from other properties that were still hanging loose... just like in the film. Bring them all together and tie a knot in it.
Taskmaster/Red Guardian from Black Widow.
Yelena from Black Widow and Hawkeye.
Ghost from Ant Man and the Wasp.
Bucky, and John Walker from Falcon and Winter Soldier.
Val from Black Widow, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Wakanda Forever.
Same thing with Captain America: New World Order wrapping up loose threads from The Incredible Hulk in 2008(!) and Eternals.
I have a friend who still watches this stuff. He said a lot of the same things.
As someone who has seen it all—especially the infinity saga several times over, but generally not impressed by what has come since—this was pretty fun.
It felt like lower stakes, even though technically the threat was essentially world-ending, and in a nightmarish way. And there’s something to be said for a movie that makes you empathize with the least-liked character in the bunch.
You can be cynical about the acknowledgement of mental health concerns in modern life, or you can maybe see it as a progressive move that might open the MCU up to more kinds of stories. The kind of stuff we get a bit of in the TV shows, actually.
I will say, however, that the campaign billing this as the “A24 of MCU movies” was a bit of an over-sell.
I had a great time, easily the best phase 4 / 5 so far other than maybe Guardians 3
Really enjoyed this movie and it’s the first one in a long time where I wanted to watch it more than once in the theater. It’s not perfect but it felt like it’s moving in the right direction.