The consensus these days seems to be that Marvel Films just ain’t what it used to be. I think that’s somewhat unfair. It would be really hard to maintain fan interest after Avengers Endgame, but as much fun as that movie was for fans, it is somewhat easy to forget that most of the movies that preceded it were mostly just fun popcorn flicks. Yeah, maybe some of the post-Endgame movies weren’t great, but how many of the pre-Endgame movies were great? Much of what the MCU has produced is just fun at worst. But there are some genuine gems out there that try something new or different.
Buzz was the new Thunderbolts* was one of those, and yes, the asterisk actually makes sense in the end.
Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) is in something of a deep funk, running jobs for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) that often end in violence and death, but she’d like more. Valentina is having her own problems: as head of the CIA, she’s under an impeachment inquiry that includes newly elected Congressman Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). Figuring she can take out all kinds of problems at the same time, Valentina arranges for Yelena, John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) to all go to an underground silo with instructions to kill each other. And for some reason, some hapless guy named Bob (Lewis Pullman) is also down there.
It turns out that the group, though they don’t seem to like or trust each other very much, soon come to an agreement to help each other out of this mess, with the enthusiastic help of Yelena’s sometime “father” the Red Guardian (David Harbour). It seems that Valentina was looking to create her own superheroes with the absence of the Avengers, seeing a need to create her own. She just used some questionable means to get the job done, and Bob has a lot more going for him than meets the eye. Even with Bucky and the Red Guardian’s help, can these misfits pull themselves together to stop a major threat when there’s no one else that can?
So, here’s the thing: this was probably one of the most clever and smart Marvel movies that have come out in a long time, and much of that is due to the fact that the real bad guy here isn’t something that can be punched into submission. Yeah, it’s still a Marvel movie, and there will still be plenty of punching, but for the most part, this movie is about a group of oddballs that need to prove to themselves as much as anything else that they’re people who deserve love, respect, forgiveness, or even companionship. With the possible exception of Bucky, the entire team seems to be made up of people who have cause to hate themselves, and it manifests in different ways, whether it’s the dickish behavior of Russell’s one-time Captain America or Pugh’s deeply cynical misery. Even the buoyant Red Guardian is desperate for attention and respect underneath the clownish behavior.
It helps that the script, smart as it is, works well with solid performances from the entire cast. Stan is the old pro here by now, Louis-Dreyfus is doing something like a sinister version of her Veep character, Pullman has what might be a star-making turn as a nebbish who doesn’t know all kinds of things about himself, and Harbour pretty much steals every scene he’s in. But this one is Pugh’s movie, and she carries this one from start to finish. As much as it is a team-focused film, it really is more about her than anyone else. She’s a high-caliber actress that Marvel was wise to sign to their universe, and seeing her character arc here basically is the movie. About the one downside is the Ghost character who, despite getting similar amounts of screentime as the rest of the team, doesn’t get nearly as much character development. But really, this was the most fun Marvel movie in a while, and also one of the deepest. If nothing else came out of this “phase” in the MCU, they gave us this rather unique movie.
Grade: A-
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