Thunderbolts*

Florence Pugh was the best thing in Black Widow, and she's easily the best thing in Thunderbolts. Every moment that she's onscreen (and luckily she's onscreen a lot), she shines up the place.

And Thunderbolts really does need some sunshine. From the opening Marvel logo it's a dark affair, both in visual style (the ugly saturated look makes its entrance in the MCU) as in subject matter. Don't let the funny oneliners and random banter fool you, there's a lot of pain in this new rag tag team.

Thunderbolts does have a lot of fun with its underdog position. It's easy to see that Feige and co hope this team will be a new GOTG phenomenon. Unfortunately the movie feels a bit too tired to be able to do that. Despite all the reviews and ads proclaiming this will be the renaissance of the MCU: It's really just the Marvel PG 13 version of Suicide Squad.

The acting is very good, the visual effects look less rushed then they did in the previous films and I really had a good time. But there remained that nagging feeling that I was watching a movie that knew all the right notes but somehow just wasn't able to sing.

I walked into the theater with rock-bottom expectations. Let's be real, the last few MCU movies haven't exactly been blowing anyone away. I figured this one would be another forgettable installment, and honestly, the only reason I was there was Florence Pugh. If anyone could salvage whatever mess they'd thrown together, it was her.

But to my surprise, I really liked it. Like, really liked it. It even hit me emotionally, which I did NOT see coming. The film tackled mental health in a way I wasn't expecting, reminding us that bottling everything up isn't the answer. Instead, it encouraged facing your struggles, surrounding yourself with people who truly care, and letting them lift you up when you need it most.

Of course, it wasn't all serious. David Harbour brought the humor with his signature one liners, making sure things stayed fun. What I thought would be just another MCU letdown turned into something that actually stuck with me. Maybe, just maybe, the franchise still has some surprises left.

I wasn't going in to this film with much expectation which I think was a good thing because it really knocked it out of the park. The story didn't have to be anything complicated and luckily wasn't held down by any of the Multiversal storylines too. And its execution was really great. The whole film was well paced and its overall message was the highlight of the whole thing. The cast was topnotch, especially Florence Pugh (because when isn't she). I was relieved that the comedy in this film didn't overdo itself (I'm forever scarred by Thor: Love and Thunder) and that the writing never got corny or eye-roll inducing.

Overall a very good and enjoyable Marvel movie.

It's no secret that the MCU hasn't had a good movie (excepting Guardians 3) since Endgame, and even Endgame was more of a resolution than a great movie unto itself. The new phase has varied from mediocre to bad to Quantumania (a movie so bad, that I believe it should be it's own adjective). The one exception (G3) is more a remnant of the old era than part of the new.

This is why I think alot of people are overpraising Thunderbolts, which is a nice solid movie...but is hardly amazing. If this had come out during the MCU's glory days, it would have felt like a solidly average movie by MCU standards. It would stand alongside Thor 1 or Cap 1 or Black Panther as "yup, that's another MCU movie". But surround it with the recent Falcon movie, Dr. Strange 2, Eternals, and so on and Thunderbolts stands tall and proud by comparison.

IMHO, the best things about this movie are the actors/characters. Especially Florence Pugh, David Harbour, and Julie Louis-Dreyfus. I'd like to give Sebastian Stan a shoutout, but did Bucky really do anything but flex and look like the adult in a group of bickering children?

But that is what used to make the MCU great. The MCU movies were never elite scripts/plots. They were basic fun action/comedy/spectacle movies with fun, bright characters played by actors with charisma and charm. And despite Ghost and US Agent being pretty bland, the movie mostly delivers. JLD does well as the scenery chewing villainess, Pugh and Harbour are priceless in this, as they were in Black Widow. It's still an absolute crime that Disney sat on it's thumbs and wasted it's shot at a good Black Widow movie, only producing one far too late.

I also want to give the movie credit for doing a very cliche thing with the respect to Sentry, but doing it in a way that felt earned and believable, when it very easily could have been eye-rollingly stupid. If you've seen the movie, I suspect you can guess what I mean, but I don't want to spoil anything.

There definitely are some moments where characters know things they shouldn't know, or where power levels seem inconsistent. I'm not going to claim it's a 'clean' movie in that respect. Some things occurred that were a bit too 'just so'. But there weren't any that took me out of the movie...except one. I really didn't like how omnipotent Sentry was from a 'super soldier program'. Every other super soldier program produced low tier super-people. Sentry was Superman+. This seems orders of magnitude beyond others, and makes it hard to swallow that there won't be a billion such programs going forward.

I think the humor was okay, but not excellent. The action setpieces were fine...but seldom as impressive as some of the MCU's past offerings.

I think the only person in this that really inspires 'hero' is Yelena...the others kind of all feel like joke characters. Even Bucky, despite being portrayed consistently seriously and competent doesn't really feel like a part of a headliner group...which is part of the point of course. But I feel like that lack of a standout hurts going forward. Heck, Yelena's best showcase really comes in a weak movie alot of people skipped (Black Widow) and a streaming series that even more people skipped (Hawkeye).

So basically, good movie, I enjoyed it, but let's keep the praise reasonable.

For a long time I've wanted marvel to allow the characters to truly feel the weight of their actions and come to grips with everything they do without some joke undercutting any and every emotional moment becuase they believe we can't handle seeing pain. This movie rectified that. Depression, suicidal ideation, apathy, loneliness and all of it was kept there without trying to make you turn away or think it funny.

They make you sit with the agony on yelenas face seeing how much her past affects her as well as everyone else. This gave me the emotional sincerity that's always been missing in the majority of mcu projects. The most human marvel has felt in a long time. Solid 8/10.