REEL | Marvel Redeems the 'Thunderbolts*' – Our Saddest Avengers

"Righteousness without power is just an opinion!"

Marvel Studios

Marvel reforms and redeems their own lesser misfit roster of anti-heroes (or past villains) in their off-brand Avengers-style team-up, Thunderbolts* (note the asterisk). Beef producer/director Jake Schreier helms the latest refreshingly straightforward adventure that tries hard and mostly succeeds in recapturing the MCU's original flavour of unlikely superhero fun, not too dissimilar from Guardians of the Galaxy or Suicide Squad.

It's the winning duo of Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan, returning as Yelena (as a Black Widow) and Bucky (as The Winter Solider), who anchor the film's emotional core of a team comprised of ragtag cast-offs all battling depression. Alongside them, David Harbour (as Red Guardian) as the comic relief with Wyatt Russell (as U.S. Agent) and Hannah John-Kamen (as Ghost) as expendable vigilantes for hire both manipulated by Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Valentina, must set out to protect New York from the all-powerful, experimental, amnesiac, and invincible Sentry (and later, "The Void," played by Lewis Pullman) from a shadowy path of destruction.

Scripted by Eric Pearson and The Bear co-showrunner Joanna Calo, Thunderbolts firmly invests and pays off its central characters that had never previously been particularly fleshed out on screen or television before. Harbour, Russell, and John-Kamen get more personality to shine. While there's so much backstory, nothing feels particularly confusing or continuity-bending apart from the Sentry's quick mood shifts and allegiance switches, which felt like a result of a key scene or exposition being cut.

Marvel wisely grounds Thunderbolts in the otherwise unseen emotional baggage that comes with a life of sacrifice, trauma, and violence. It's surprising how the film redeems its main characters, known for killing and causing collateral damage in their superhero universe. In the absence of our missing Avengers team, Schreier ably reassembles a motley crew of suitable replacements. Putting Marvel's recent string of misfires and missteps aside, this film definitely feels like a real movie with actual characters shot on location with manageable stakes and a story that makes sense.

* aka The New Avengers (title change)


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