“Thunderbolts*” Review – A New Beginning for Marvel

Please note that this review will contain significant spoilers. Please click off if you don’t want the movie to be spoiled. The first few paragraphs will be spoiler-free.

Now that the formalities are out of the way, Marvel Studios has dropped its latest film into the MCU. Thunderbolts follows the events of different heroes, mostly in their pursuit to become heroes or wanting more.

Thunderbolts* is a movie that has a lot built on it. We’ve seen Black Widow in 2020, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the first Ant-Man movie, and more. For those not familiar with the movie, it’s definitely recommended to watch at least those 3 projects in order to understand exactly who we have on the table here.

As of writing, according to Box Office Mojo is sitting on $162,100,000 at the box office, which is seemingly a decent start. I do want to see this movie do well.

Overview

As previously stated, I had high hopes for this movie, and oh boy, did they deliver. I had so much fun throughout the entire movie, as it was structured extremely well. It was clear from the off where the story was heading, and I’m more than happy to see all of these characters return.

I’m happy to see how much the MCU is coming together in preparation for Doomsday next year. Thunderbolts is no exception as we move forward into this next phase. Marvel has had a tough run since Endgame, but I feel like we’re on the right track now.

That’s what Thunderbolts brings to the table. It connects things together, it’s one hell of a ride, it answers some questions, and moves us forward, which is all we can hope for. I think this movie was a blast, I honestly loved it, and I can’t wait to see it again.

Story

The story centres around Valentina setting up her rogue agents within a vault that’s an inferno. She intends to make all of her problems disappear as she’s on trial for possible impeachment. Of course, it never pans out like that. She had built a Sentry programme. A medical trial designed to basically create Superman on steroids. She unknowingly succeeds with Bob.

Bob, though in his infinite wisdom, struggles to adapt until Valentina overhypes him. He quickly overcomes his self-doubt and becomes an unstoppable machine. This all leads to Valentina trying to stop her impeachment trial, with Bucky also investigating her.

The story is straightforward. It’s designed to be that way. It’s not difficult to get lost or not know what’s going on. Everything has a purpose and they made every single second they had with the story count. That’s what is so enjoyable with this, it’s impactful from start to finish with a lot of meaningful moments as it progresses.

None of the characters were wasted. Yelena’s moment at the end was fantastic as they all led into the next phase of the MCU. That’s one of the great aspects of it, it mentioned Brave New World, it mentioned key things that have happened prior. It needed this.

There are 2 post-credit scenes. A very light-hearted moment with Alexei asking, essentially forcing his cereal box on her, then the big post-credits scene. It first explains that Bucky has spoken to Sam about the Thunderbolts being the New Avengers. Sam is not onboard, but they’re checking as they’re warned of a spaceship heading to Earth. At first, I believed this to be Dr. Doo,m but instead, it showed the Fantastic Four logo. We’ll have to wait until July to find out why they’re heading there,e but it’s building up incredibly well.

The story section is an easy 10/10.

Characters

There were 5 main Thunderbolts characters;

1. Alexei Shostakov (Red Guardian) portrayed by David Harbour
2. Yelena Belova (Black Widow) portrayed by Florence Pugh
3. Bucky Barnes (The Winter Soldier) portrayed by Sebastian Stan
4. Ava Starr (Ghost) portrayed by Hannah John-Kamen
5. John Walker (U.S. Agent) portrayed by Wyatt Russell

You could theoretically include Tom Holland’s lookalike, Lewis Pullman, who played Sentry in there as well, but for me, that’s a grey area considering what happened during the events of the movie. It remains to be seen what will happen with him moving forward, considering he can’t use his powers, but in all fairness, he is cast for Avengers: Doomsday.

All of our Thunderbolts were incredible. It wasn’t long before they started working together and were hyped further to do so by Alexe, who was just so happy to be there. I could be here writing all day about the characters, but all 5 stood out in their own ways. The way they’ve gone with John Walker has been exceptional. Ghost finally got the moments she deserved. Yelena and Bucky are always a delight.

Sentry was an interesting character from the outset. It felt like an overpowered split personality disorder, but I did enjoy Bob from the moment he appeared in the vault. It’s going to be interesting moving forward, though, as we’ve seen how powerful he is.

Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, was as cunning as ever. Her complete switch-up at the end is cleverly done. I enjoyed her throughout this, seeing what her goal is, but doing it in an extremely dodgy way. I’m excited to see her again.

I can’t fault the cast or the characters. It was perfect. Literally perfect.

For the full cast list, you can visit IMDb by clicking here.

Hype

I saw a lot of praise for the movie before heading in. I saw Rotten Tomatoes with a solid score and other critics praising the life out of it. I was even hearing it’s one of Marvel’s best films since Endgame. Of course, I usually don’t listen to critics and like to form my own opinion, but when something is being highly praised, it’s difficult not to get excited.

Going into the theatres today, I was hyped. I’ve been looking forward to this since it was announced way back. Marvel’s answer to DC’s Suicide Squad is often what it’s been tipped to be. It’s difficult as a fan of Suicide Squad not to get excited for Marvel’s answer to that.

Favorite Moments

1. At least we know how Bucky cleans his metal arm. He uses the dishwasher. I think my wife and I were the only ones in the room laughing at that. Brilliant.

2. Instead of Red Guardian and Bucky coming up with a plan to infiltrate the former Avengers Tower in New York, Bucky crashes the lorry into the building, and all of the Thunderbolts jump out and begin fighting. No dialogue, just start throwing punches. They didn’t even need to, which makes the moment even funnier.

3. Sentry vs the Thunderbolts was one hell of a moment. It does sometimes feel like this is how the majority of Superman’s fights should go. They didn’t even stand a chance, and Sentry barely even broke a sweat. It was an action-packed sequence that deserves all of the praise in the world.

4. Yelena at the end was brilliant. Seeing her throughout the movie explain how lonely she is was incredibly emotional. She’s lost Natasha, and Alexei doesn’t call either. Naturally, she instantly cares for Bob. After Sentry and Bob fight, Bob loses control, and it’s Yelena who manages to get to him first to make him stop. It’s her words with him as she cuddles into him before the rest of the group does the same. It’s a great moment.

5. The post-credit scene showing the F4 ship got me unbelievably excited. We’re finally seeing the MCU once again build around each other. Brave New World started it, Thunderbolts directly after and then The Fantastic Four. That’s why I’ve put this here because it has me beyond curious.

Dislikes

1. Taskmaster felt like a waste of time. As we were walking out of the cinema after the movie ended, we noticed a poster promoting the movie. Taskmaster was on here alongside the rest of the Thunderbolts, and it felt like a waste. I was genuinely excited to see what Taskmaster could do properly, but again, she’s been criminally underused in live-action. She was killed off within a few minutes of her showing up in the vault, it’s such a shame.

2. This isn’t something that truly threw me off; it was more of something I was kind of hoping for. That’s Baron Zemo. After the events of Falcon & The Winter Soldier, he hasn’t been seen. I was hoping that at one point he’d show up or at least be mentioned, but he wasn’t. That’s the only cameo I thought would be realistic. It didn’t change my views on the film by any means, but I wish he had shown up.

Recommend?

100%. I think if you’re a fan of the MCU in any capacity and you’re up to date with everything, then this is definitely a movie you should go and see. I could possibly even go as far as saying that this may be a top 10 MCU film. It has everything you could want.

Verdict

A different take on what we usually get from Marvel, but done extremely well. I thoroughly enjoyed this experience, and it’s one of the better projects from Marvel Studios post-Endgame. The film also steers the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the right direction, something it’s struggled with since the last Avengers movie, so I’m beyond satisfied this is the second film now to do that behind Brave New World. A great movie that I honestly cannot wait to see again.

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Rating 9.8/10

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Thunderbolts* is available in cinemas worldwide. You can visit here for more information on IMDb.