Thunderbolts* review

 

Thunderbolts* is a joy. Despite the subject matter touching on some serious issues it’s actually a lot of fun to watch with performances pitched just right and a healthy sense of perspective. Though it does broadly follow the Marvel template the film is also adept enough to find some different angles to tell that story making it feel fresh. Best of all Thunderbolts* manages to take the ever- lengthening lore to new places without getting too weighted down by that backstory finding enough new ground to suggest that there’s still legs in this big screen superhero lark yet.

 Spoilers past this point

 

It feels like this is going to be a different sort of Marvel film from the start with the traditional company logo darkening to become monochrome opening into a shot of Yelena Belova. With her perpetual scowl and dry Russian tones she is not feeling any satisfaction from her ongoing worldwide undercover missions and their death counts. They no longer engage her as they once did she explains in a sombre opening voiceover as she stands on top of a towering Malaysian skyscraper. Then she adds “Or maybe I’m just bored” and leaps into the air. As a teaser for what is to come it is a perfect opening scene- seriousness underplayed by dark humour and some great action moments.

In Florence Pugh, Marvel have surely found their new USP. Just like Robert Downey Jr brought something extra to the table in these movies’ early years, she provides a difference that shoves aside the oft stated notion that we’ve seen all this stuff before. Yelena’s deadpan demeanour actually contain a lot of emotion and humanises the film somewhat. She’s a brooding character who could be tedious in less skilled hands but remains constantly interesting and, remarkably perhaps, the audience’s main identification point for this movie. Plus, she actually did the stunt herself in a crazy manner only Tom Cruise would attempt. You know, if they need someone new to do those impossible missions...

Yelena ends up agreeing to one more assignment that takes her deep into the vaults of a wonderfully Bondian covert lair inside a mountain wherein sundry items that duplicitous CIA director Valentia Allegra de Fontaine (we’d better get her name right as it seems a big thing with her!) wants to hide are stashed. Only Yelena is soon embroiled in a fight with several other enigmatic though low rent superhero characters each of whom have been sent for the same reason. It becomes apparent (actually to the audience before the characters in a rare sluggish narrative moment) that Valentia seeks to incinerate them along with all her kit to dispose of any evidence a current Congressional investigation is looking for. 

Thrown together as they attempt to escape and then survive once they do, the group are a ragtag bunch with difficult pasts- there’s the `dime store` Captain America, John Walker (played by Wyatt Russell) whose story is told excellently in the Falcon and Winter Soldier tv series that I’m increasingly convinced should have been a big screen movie. There’s Ava Starr aka Ghost (Hannah John Kamen) who can disappear and transport herself through solid objects; if you’ve forgotten her I wouldn’t be surprised as she hasn’t been seen since The Antman and the Wasp seven years ago. There’s also Bob, who appears to be a non plussed civilian with memory loss though whenever he touches one of the others they are briefly hurled back into painful memories. Lewis Pullman pulls off the task of portraying this enigmatic character who goes through quite a few changes as the film progresses.    

So the group evolve from literally trying to kill each other to bonding uneasily - the banter between the group is top notch and in a way this part of the movie is the most entertaining especially the bizarre method they choose to climb a very tall silo. Eventually events link them up with both Alexi Shostakov, the former Red Guardian played with brio by David Harbour and the unlikeliest Congressman Bucky Barnes who is the veteran of the ensemble though destined to be the straight man to every one else’s sarcasm and wit. As Valentina, Julia Louis -Dreyfus resists the temptation to go too over the top choosing a tart, commanding approach which makes her infinitely more interesting than a regular villain might be. The character is penned with meticulous detail from the off and her final scene at the end where she turns potential defeat into something significant is especially welcome and unexpected. Her assistant Mel is one of the surprises of the film, played by Geraldine Viswanathan with a quirky likeability her loyalties waver interestingly yet her journey is not as expected. Valentina treats her like a child and the dynamic between them is in keeping with the more irreverent interplay between the heroes. It all adds to a bustling movie with confident direction from Jake Schreier.

Marvel movies follow a sort of set pattern which ensures the first half is always more interesting than the second which is where the big confrontation takes place. While Thunderbolts* does follow that pattern to some extent, with some inventive showpieces early on, it makes a better go of that second half than many keeping its themes rather than simply resorting to superpowered slug outs. It may be late to the table as far as drama goes but the focus here on mental health issues, loneliness, guilt and needing other people is written with care and proves more moving than you expect from a superhero story. The genre is stuffed with big symbolic moments yet the trauma the team are forced to re-live here is identifiable however bizarre the circumstances. 

One scene we cut back to several times show a young Yelena as a child effectively on her first mission leading another girl to a place to be killed. Framed in a snowy, wintry woodland it is one of a number of effective nightmare moments. As for the ultimate villain; while their identity may not be a surprise the manner in which their darker powers are shown is startling. Some may find the visual representation of mental illness as an advancing black cloud that snuffs people out simplistic but its randomness is what shocks because mental health problems can affect anyone. The film never suggests such issues are easily cured and definitely says that people need help and that they need each other. Whether you like it the plot’s denouement or not you can’t deny it is an attempt by Marvel to break away from their standard movie climax. 

In the wider Marvel context it manages to do in two hours what the studio seem to have been trying to do for several years in separate films and brings together a new team whose morally ambiguous backgrounds do not preclude co-operation and comradeship. For those who don’t know beforehand who all these characters are Thunderbolts* still works because there is enough here that you need to know. If you do want to find out more the best sources are the Black Widow movie plus the tv shows The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Hawkeye.

The self deprecating tone helps enormously because it comes from the character’s deep seated flaws rather than simply being a quip fest.  In some ways this bunch are more resourceful than previous team ups because they triumph despite their own problems and without all of the resources Stark and co had. Its almost disappointing to see them at the end residing in the former Stark Tower with tech and tailor made costumes. Alexei’s chosen wardrobe is a hoot though! If the overall purpose of Thunderbolts* is to build toward a new era then they have surely succeeded. After some false starts and dead ends, it defiantly feels as if this is happening and justifies the actual real name of this film which is revealed at the very end.