Star Cast: Florence Pugh, Lewis Pullman, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Hannah John-Kamen, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus
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Director: Jack Schreir
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What’s Bad: The action feels lackluster and the ending unsatisfying, and in general, the film just serves as a promise of things to come instead of delivering right there at the moment.
Loo Break: Thunderbolts is leaner and meaner than most Marvel films, so there’s little time to take a break.
Watch or Not?: If you have been disappointed with Marvel releases as of late, this might be what you need, but there’s still a lot of work to do.
Language: English (with subtitles).
Available On: Theaters
Runtime: 127 Minutes.
User Rating:
Opening:
How the mighty has fallen, as not too long ago, Marvel was at the peak of cinema and entertainment engagement, a franchise that managed to rise to the top and tell an amazing, if somewhat flawed, telling of superheroes in a way that audiences had never seen before. However, after the ending that signified Endgame, the Marvel franchise entered a sort of limbo, aimless and visionless, which has hurt the franchise greatly. Thunderbolts represents a big course correction into old values, but it might not be enough to restore the franchise to its former glory.
Thunderbolts*, which is the real title of the film, is a solid adventure film made by Marvel Studios. That is really the best description I can give to the film because at this stage, everyone knows exactly what a Marvel film is, what it entails, and even how it looks, with the entire franchise having a very homogenous look to itself. This level of expectations brings a lot of baggage for every new entry, but thankfully, Thunderbolts manages to be solid enough to come out unscathed.
But how? Well, the first thing is that the film has been made by a very solid team of creatives, from director Jake Schreir who has directed a couple of indie darlings here and there, and the fantastic “Beef” for Netflix, to cinematographer Andrew Droz Palermo, and composer Ryan Lott, who have worked in several A24 films, as the marketing campaign has pointed out, the team is solid, and film looks good, which is not something that can be said for recent Marvel releases.
However, among the many elements, the script might be the best thing as it allows each character to have their moment in the spotlight both on the dramatic and comedic sides of the film, and it just feels great, and from there is where we are remained of the first Avengers film, a film that made people laugh out loud but also made them cry, cheer, and scream at the screen. Thunderbolts doesn’t reach the levels of hype created from that first Avengers film, but the writing is pointing towards it, and you can almost touch it.
In terms of plot, the film goes the simple route and some of the twists and turns can be seen a mile away, actually it can be said that there are no twists and turns, just a journey through the city and several compounds as the team discovers who is their enemy and how to combat it. The resolution to the film feels quite cliché, but thankfully, all the characters are interesting enough to keep things moving forward. The two post-credit scenes are actually quite good and should have been part of the film instead of just add-ons.
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The entire cast of actors does a fantastic job of having great chemistry with each other and actually pulling off their characters in a fleshed-out manner. Of course, it is Florence Pugh who shines the brightest as this is her movie, she is the main protagonist and as such, she is the one gets the most development, although Wyatt Russell also shines in a role that uses his most comedic side, unlike the version of Walker that we saw in Falcon and the Winter Soldier miniseries.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus is always a welcome presence anywhere she appears, and Thunderbolts is no exceptio,n with the actress finally having the chance to develop Angelina as a proper character, a sort of Marvel version of Amanda Waller over at DC, and she does very well, remaining funny but also menacing when she has to. Lewis Pullman fares the worst just because the script doesn’t give him enough material, but what is there is solid enough to make Sentry a character worth following.
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The characters are the highlight of the film for sure, but on a technical level, the film is also quite solid. Cinematography and framing are nice, visual effects are a bit wonky here and there, but nothing too noticeable, we are not dealing with a Quantumania-level catastrophe here. Directing-wise and action-wise is where the film feels the weakest, though, as Schreir’s experience has been mostly in indie film and on television, and it seems he couldn’t leave that aesthetic vein behind, not completely, so there is a cheapness to some of the scenes.
The action is what hurts the most. While there is action throughout the film, there is no major set piece that points to something that could make the film identifiable for action fans. It feels quite unsatisfying, as action should be one of the strongest elements of any superhero film, but here we are, and it doesn’t feel good. Let’s hope Fantastic Four and the following films can fix this before the next Avengers film arrives.
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Thunderbolts feels like a nice attempt at course correction on Marvel’s side after having stumbled so hard with all the films post Endgame. Yes, the structure remains the same with the post-credit scene tease doing most of the heavy-lifting, but at least there is a direction, the key element that made the franchise shine in the first place. Thunderbolts is not the best effort by Marvel, but let’s hope the company can keep things on this route long enough to, at least, be a fun experience again.
Thunderbolts released on 01st May, 2025.
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