Watched: 05/01/2025
Format: Alamo
Viewing: First
Director: Jake Schrierer
SPOILERS for a new movie
I won't belabor Marvel's trials and travails, real and imagined, over the past few years. We all know the narrative. It's not one I necessarily agree with, but it's out there.
Does Thunderbolts feel different from other recent Marvel stuff? Yes. In some ways. Mostly the ways in which you don't feel like this movie fell out of a Marvel continuity Mad Lib generator that requires you remember what happened in a movie in 2009. It does the continuity thing correctly - we've seen almost everyone in this movie before - if you watched all the Marvel stuff (and I have, minus the What If? shows). They don't break that continuity and may refer to it - but I think the story itself makes sense without all that, as long as you listen to what the characters say about themselves.
Our characters are from the Black Widow film (White Widow, Red Guardian), Ant-Man and The Wasp (Ghost), Captain America (Bucky) and Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Valentina, John Walker). It's a good mix. Plus, Bob.
In their own ways, we know each of these characters is deeply flawed, and is a bit at the end of their rope. Assassins and cleaners for the shadier parts of the Marvel U's bureaucracies, pawns of those in power, they know what they are - even if they lie about it. And it helps to have things this grounded. When they were around, all of the characters felt like they had a lot going on off-screen, and seeing these character get the limelight is kind of a thrill.
The characters feel like characters and not just placeholders in costumes, mostly, and have arcs and roles to play in the narrative. When things get very 21st Century comic-booky in the third reel, it helps pull everything together in a way that feels coherent with a minimum of stating the obvious how everyone is connected, etc...
The script gets back to remembering how to make the conflict in the finale not just two weirdos tearing up a city block or fighting a space laser, but folding in the characters and themes and what we learned and saw along the way to fight a great big analogy. A long time ago, a friend with no investment in superhero movies opined that he was tried of the movies because they so often ended with just a huge fight - and I agree. It can be thrilling if done correctly. It's far more thrilling when they find an ending that defies expectations a bit.
It is decent Marvel action - but in limited quantities. This is a chatty movie. Fights don't drag on for twenty minutes. They aren't constantly looking for ways to punch things. There is no Evil Opposite for our Thunderbolts. I don't think we've moved past that, but it's nice to see it happen.
It's interesting to see who the writers were on this - a Marvel veteran who did some character-centric films and someone who writes and produces for The Bear? That's... interesting to say the least. But it gives a fresh sensibility to what you can do with super-folks. The soccer-team stuff was pretty darn solid.
At the end of the day, I enjoyed spending time with these characters. Florence Pugh is such a movie star, it's amazing Marvel locked her up how they did - and by making her the focal point, it really helps carry the ideas the movie is trying to convey, whether you've seen Black Widow a couple of times or not. David Harbour is charismatic as hell or the whole Red Guardian concept would be annoying as hell. Sebastian Stan has been playing Bucky so long, it's mind-boggling how much more Bucky there is in MCU media than there is Captain America (when I was a kid, Bucky was just a guy who died in 1945). Sign me up as a bonafide fan of Wyatt Russell - he is his father's son. Hannah John-Kamen's Ghost is still surly and foxy appropriately maladjusted. And Lewis Pullman, also a nepobaby, is going to be everyone's favorite new Marvel. Team him up with Wong and Madisynn.
And, of course, Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a delight as Valentina.
Anyway, I generally liked the movie. I have quibbles about the James Gunn of it all, but I also would rather have character driven movies than all-plot movies like CA: BNW. And I think someone needs to talk to Marvel about cinematography, which has felt oddly uninspired of late. You're filming superheroes, not a TV show 15 years ago. Let's see some dutch angles and whatnot. Get creative. (I think Fantastic Four may fix this problem if the trailers are any indication). And, I hate to say it, it could have used another 15 minutes to really flesh out the character bonding and interactions and to give Ghost a bit more to say and do.
But in comparison to where I thought we were going with the MCU after Secret Invasion, this may be a sign we're headed on an upward trajectory again.
Rant below
It is now, of course, cool to be a young adult on social media and say facts about Marvel like you're exposing some secret Marvel is trying to keep. "Oh, they're just doing that because they want people to buy tickets" is not exactly Warren Commission-level investigation and reporting. And so it was that folks noticed the ad for Thunderbolts* (2025) that made light of the fact that Marvel had scooped up a bunch of A24 talent and cut them loose on one of their properties.
Which - first, yes, Marvel released that ad, so... they know, and so do we. They told us. Second, it's clear this movie is trying to mix action, heart and comedy - with maybe an emphasis on comedy - which is a high Marvel has been chasing since Guardians of the Galaxy made a billion dollars. So maybe they were winking at what they'd done? Maybe?
But I think more importantly, since Marvel hired Jon Favreau, a guy who knew studios but who had one foot in the indie scene, to direct Iron Man, they've been scooping up whatever passes for indie-movie talent. How do you think we got the Nomadland director making Eternals?
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