Thunderbolts* - Review 

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

MARVEL return to something approaching peak form with Thunderbolts* - and it has taken their most broken, dysfunctional and disparate group of anti-heroes to do so.

Ever since trailers started appearing for this movie around a year ago, there was the feeling (and hope) that the MCU was plotting something different and special - a feeling that only heightened when a more recent promo was shot playing up the film’s indie credentials and its links to A24 (from leading lady Florence Pugh to Beef/Robot & Frank director Jake Schreier).

The ensuing film proves that hope was not misplaced. Thunderbolts* doesn’t rewrite the book on this kind of thing but it does have a lot of fun tinkering with formats, embracing its characters’ outsider status, as well as their inherent darkness, while still delivering crowd pleasing moments in the process.

It even has gonzo elements - ones that nod more towards the likes of Breaking Bad, The Bear and Mission: Impossible than anything superhero related (Meth chicken anyone?).

A lot of the praise for this has to go to Schreier, who sticks to his indie credentials while pulling from the experience of past Marvel luminaries such as Spider-Man: Homecoming’s Jon Watts (with whom he was once a college roommate).

Thunderbolts* locks you in from the start - a depressed voice announcing that “there’s something wrong with me”, before its owner, Yelena (Pugh), leaps off the second tallest building in the world to complete another random mission, aimed at destroying evidence.

Yelena (aka Black Widow’s sister) is in the employment of scheming CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who is furiously seeking to avoid becoming impeached by officials looking into her questionable tactics.

But it isn’t long before Yelena is also a target of the cover-up, along with fellow assassin misfits John Walker (Wyatt Russell), the disgraced former Captain America from Falcon & The Winter Soldier; Ant-Man and The Wasp’s villain Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen); Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko); Red Guardian (David Harbour), Yelena’s father (now slumming it as a limo driver), and an apparently amnesia-ridden stranger named Bob (Lewis Pullman).

Rather than killing each other, as Fontaine had planned, these anti-heroes team up as the Thunderbolts of the title, along with Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), who has evolved from The Winter Soldier into a Congressman. But as they bond over their combined traumas, Bob begins to recall the full extent of his powers and transforms into Sentry, a super-human being (created by Fontaine’s experimental programme) with God-like powers.

Thunderbolts* may be Marvel’s equivalent of DC’s Suicide Squad but they are a much more likeable bunch in the way that they openly display their vulnerability and insecurity - something that Schreier was keen not to trivialise or pepper with too much humour.

Hence, while they can bicker as incessantly as Marvel’s own Guardians of the Galaxy, they also possess that group’s emotional bond. The film gives each character (and performer playing them) plenty to chew on.

Pugh gets the lion’s share of the story and duly sinks her teeth into every opportunity (her scenes with both Harbour and Pullman carry quite a kick), but Stan’s Bucky is also able to balance subtle comedy with nods to a darker, trauma informed past and a coolness that has been steadily growing with every appearance (his motorcycle takedown of a military convoy is a crowd-pleasing action high point).

But Pullman’s ‘villain’ is suitably enigmatic, in parts a genuinely chilling and remorseless Demi-God who controls a darkness known as the void - to which he casts all and sundry. But there’s a flip side; a humanity, governed by abuse, self-doubt and addiction. He is as broken as those he is now fighting. Pullman gets the contrasts just right - never overplaying the villainy but appearing menacing, while also being able to flit back into ‘nice guy’ mode - the kid who was never able to escape his abusers.

Again, Schreier also deserves credit for allowing his film to pause long enough to explore these issues, and to feel the collective pain. It’s a bold move - but something the best MCU had consistently managed to do, whether it’s TV’s WandaVision, Iron Man 3 (which allowed Tony Stark to explore his trauma) or the weightier, more intimate moments afforded to the likes of Thor in Endgame or Captain America whenever he reconnects with Peggy.

And yet there’s also a tremendous amount of fun here, too, as well as spectacle. The Thunderbolts share a terrific chemistry. They work well together - whether it’s the self-deprecation afforded to Bucky’s newfound political status or the endless optimism of Harbour’s larger than life Red Guardian.

And the action is terrific too - an early fight between the heroes is supremely well choreographed, Bucky’s aforementioned motorbike heroics are suitably cool and spectacular and several of the encounters between the Thunderbolts and Sentry are inventive and engaging.

That the final confrontation ultimately comes down to confronting one’s inner demons is also to be applauded, with Schreier eschewing the need for a huge smack down (as is the tiresome norm) in favour of something more psychological and affecting.

The end result is a superhero adventure that succeeds on many levels, echoing the best values of the MCU to date, while ushering in a set of characters that should endear themselves massively to this ongoing juggernaut of a franchise.