Watched: 05/25/2025
Format: Drafthouse
Viewing: Second
Director: Jake Schreier
We had already seen Thunderbolts (2025) in the theater when the movie opened, but Jamie in particular wanted to see it again, and I'm a fun guy, so why not?
I enjoyed it on a second viewing maybe more than I initially liked it. It really is a tight script, and I kind of reveled in the fact that the big set piece at the conclusion of the movie takes place without a shot fired. This is near Doom Patrol territory in how we're approaching super-stuff.
I've seen complaints about the palette of the movie, a gripe which seems to be missing the way movies work, and instead of saying "the aesthetic looks ugly. They did it wrong" failing to ask "why does it look the way it does? We know this was intentional." Because the conclusion there is pretty @#$%ing obvious, and you're so close.
But we know all this. So I want to talk about where we are with Marvel in 2025.
Box office for the movie is not amazing. It's made something like $330 million, which I would happily take, but which is a pretty far cry from billions of dollars Marvel hopes to make with every movie. But...