Thunderbolts*
Review: We’re so back. I kid I kid, but really this film was one of Marvel’s best outings post-Endgame (I feel like I say that a lot, but this time it’s true!). This film balanced some cool action & absolute hilarity, while also being one of the MCU’s heaviest projects to date. It put some light on serious mental health struggles (e.g. depression, loneliness, addiction, disassociation, etc.) in a way that is rare for major studio films, but is refreshingly becoming more common place. I will leave some thoughts down at the very bottom that contain spoilers for the film, but there are a few other non-spoiler items I can mention here. I’m so glad to finally know what the asterisk* means and they way they went about executing that was awesome. The setup for the future of the MCU was also incredibly well executed & got me truly excited for upcoming projects! So many of the jokes landed and my incredibly packed out theater was cracking up throughout the film. David Harbour & Lewis Pullman were responsible for a majority of those laughs, and I think I personally chuckled pretty much every time they said ‘Bob.’ Florence Pugh was awesome, she totally deserved to be the lead for this film, and didn’t waste that. She also had insane chemistry with literally every person she shared a scene with. Sebastian Stan was cool as always and it was cool to see Bucky get some respect. Hannah John-Kamen got to do quite a bit more as Ghost than she did in her only other MCU appearance. Julia Louis-Dreyfus finally got to actually do something as Val so that was cool & Geraldine Viswanthan was very solid as her assistant, Mel. And the best part is we actually got to spend a good amount of time with each of these characters. Also a final random note, the artwork & whatnot that played during the credits was sick.
High: The return to form for Marvel was incredibly refreshing at this truly feels like a Marvel film from when the MCU was at its peak. The post credits scene felt like one you would see in a Marvel movie a decade ago. My theater was packed out, people were excited, everyone sat through the credits, and I saw loads of people excitedly talking about the film afterwards.
Low: Slight spoilers here, but I would’ve loved to see the Void more from some of the other character’s perspectives. And I’ll leave it at that.
Rating: 9/10
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- SPOILERS BELOW!!!!!!!
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SPOILERS:
I genuinely though it was hilarious how quickly they just killed off Taskmaster.
Lewis Pullman was AWESOME as Sentry and the character design was also sick. Pullman was even more AWESOME as the Void, which they nailed from a design perspective as well.
The New Avengers was a good move & I was personally questioning ‘what about whatever Captain America was going to be doing?’ so I’m glad that was addressed. The new character designs in the post credits scene were fun & I’m assuming that’s how the characters will look in Doomsday, which I’m not even more excited for!
