The most recent addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Thunderbolts*” was released in theaters May 2. Amid a rough patch in the MCU, many people saw this movie as a potential comeback for the studio. So far, audience and critic reviews seem to agree with this sentiment, claiming that this is the best Marvel movie in recent years. While I agree, I still don’t think it’s the comeback a lot of Marvel fans are building it up to be.
“Thunderbolts*” follows a group of five antiheroes, Yelena Belova (portrayed by Florence Pugh), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and John Walker (Wyatt Russell), who must learn to trust each other and work together to fight a powerful threat.
While this film was pretty good compared to other recent Marvel movies, it is also important to note that the bar is literally on the ground. This movie was able to capture the essence of original Marvel movies through the strong comedic elements.
There were also some strong action sequences, most of which were done with practical effects, that were impressive and made the film more engaging. However, many of these scenes were put in the trailer and I felt like I saw most of the most action-packed moments of the film from the preview.
This film has a really strong cast of characters, and I really enjoyed that the story was primarily focused on Yelena, because I think she is one of the best characters in the MCU at the moment. I’m not just saying this because I love Florence Pugh, but she is funny, skilled, has a great sense of fashion and she feels like the character that has the greatest emotional depth, which is not something we always see with Marvel characters.
While I enjoyed the other characters in this film, I wish we had more time with them so we could have seen greater character development. It really felt like this movie barely scratched the surface of these characters. I especially wish that Bucky had been in the film more because he’s another one of my favorite MCU characters, so I was very excited for him to come back in this film. However, I honestly found his character to be a bit bland, and it felt like he didn’t fully fit in with the other Thunderbolts, maybe because he joined the team a bit later.
Additionally, I enjoyed one of the new characters in the film, Bob, especially at the beginning of the movie when he’s first introduced. However, I didn’t love where they took his character near the middle of the film. I won’t spoil anything, but I feel like they used such an overdone trope on what could have been an interesting and distinct character and overall, his arc just felt very rushed. I liked the twist with his character near the end of the film, but his development still felt too quick and underdeveloped by this point.
However, I do think that this is probably the Marvel movie with the most emotional depth I’ve seen. I was very surprised by the deep subject matter within the film as I thought it was going to stay more on the comedic and lighthearted side. Yet, I thought that the way mental health, depression, and loneliness were explored throughout the film was really beautiful and not something I ever really expected to see from a Marvel movie.
While I think the villain might not be the strongest or most threatening in the MCU because the film was more focused on the emotional storytelling, I really liked the subjects the movie addressed, which was probably the strongest part of the film.
Unfortunately, I think one of the weakest parts of this film was the Thunderbolts themselves. All of the characters that make up this new team are characters I love from the MCU so I was really excited to see them all interact together, but something about their dynamic just doesn’t work as well as it should.
I think the problem with this team is that each character is too similar to each other. They’re all broody, sarcastic, tortured, wear dark and grungy clothing and basically all have the same “superpowers.” The exception here is Ghost but she doesn’t even use her powers that much. This makes the fight sequences boring because all of the superheroes on the team basically have the same abilities and fight in the same way. They don’t feel individualistic or memorable because they don’t set themselves apart from each other in any way.
If you look at the original Avengers, you can see how different they all are. You can tell their distinctive abilities just by looking at them and when they are fighting a villain together, they lean on each other’s special abilities to collectively conquer evil. But when everyone on a superhero team has the same abilities, they just don’t feel like they’re getting anywhere or like there’s really a point to them being a team.
I hope that in future movies the Thunderbolts appear in, Marvel tries to fix this phenomenon in some way or maybe just makes their dynamic more interesting because I really do love seeing these characters again, I just feel like they don’t work as well as a team as they could have.
This slightly lackluster dynamic, mixed with a somewhat messy plot, doesn't have me thinking “we’re so back” like a lot of people are. Yes, it’s a pretty good movie, but it doesn’t hold up to the original Marvel movies like “The Avengers” or “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” and honestly, I don’t think this film is going to mark the beginning of a comeback era for the MCU.
While this movie managed to be pretty good, the rest of the MCU is still a big mess. I hope that Marvel will be able to figure itself out and get back on track, and while movies like “Thunderbolts*” may be a good beginning for this comeback, it will require much more work needs to return the MCU to its former glory.
