ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
It’s no secret the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s big screen efforts have been somewhat lacking lately, but the most recent entry, “Thunderbolts*” is looking to help reverse that trend.
The movie, released last weekend, follows follows new MCU Black Widow Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), who finds herself in a rut, and ends up crossing paths with John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ava Starr/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Alexei/Red Guardian (David Harbour), and the mysterious Bob (Lewis Pullman) to become the titular team during a mission for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Having been not entirely enthused by “Captain America: Brave New World” a couple months ago, I was somewhat unsure what to anticipate from “Thunderbolts,*” but I ended up being pretty blown away by the final effort.
To start off, the casting was VERY well done. Florence Pugh gives another great performance as Yelena, and she’s still an absolute firecracker and full of sarcasm while also having gained some maturity from witnessing past MCU happenings (i.e. The Snap in “Avengers: Infinity War” and the death of her sister, Natasha, in “Avengers: Endgame”). I absolutely loved how she becomes the group’s reluctant de facto leader, and I thought her best scene happens near the end of the movie when she breaks down and confesses to her adopted father, Alexei (David Harbour) how lonely she is and how haunted she is by her past. It’s just such a raw and real moment, and it’s a great insight into the PTSD she has to be dealing with.
Another casting standout for me was Lewis Pullman, who pulls triple duty (kind of) as Bob (who the team discovers when they all initially come together), Sentry (an experiment who turns out to be more trouble than expected) and Void, who ends up being the team’s main big bad at the end. Pullman is able to convey Bob’s confusion and naïveté about who he is, Sentry’s power and delusions of grandeur and Void’s straight-up desire for pure darkness. He’s able to do all three characters (and at one point, all at once) so, SO well, and even more impressively, they’re all completely distinct in terms of personality/characterization.
The final major casting standout for me was Julia Louis-Dreyfus as villain Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, who was introduced in the Disney+ series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” back in 2021, and she does SO good making Valentina as a villain who would straight up stab you in the back while smiling in your face. She also does a great job making Valentina wanting everyone to see her as this high-class aristocrat but who’s really just someone obsessed with having power for the sake of power (gee, wonder which modern figure she drew inspiration from in THAT regard?). Overall, the casting is super solid, and there wasn’t a single performance I was disappointed in as the movie went on.
The overall production values of the movie are also very high quality. “Thunderbolts*” is less CGI-heavy than some past MCU efforts, which ended up being rather refreshing, and I ended up being somewhat reminded of “Daredevil: Born Again” in terns of that. The choreography for the fight scenes was also really well done, particularly with Yelena, who’s practically a gymnast at a few points. The music was also great throughout, and the music especially during the sadder scenes near the end really tugged on my heartstrings.
The movie also had an unexpected amount of heart when it came to the overall story and themes, one of which is redemption. Everyone on the team is kind of at a low point when we meet them all together, and they’re all seeking some type of redemption or a hand up from what they’re dealing with. I know the whole “antihero team-up” story has been done before, but I absolutely love how none of the team members are the squeaky clean “truth, justice and the American way” heroes like most people want, and for the most part, they remain that way at the end of the movie. Not necessarily in the sense that no one learns anything, but more so in the sense that they’ve accepted they need to deal with their baggage, which is a great step in the right direction. That realism is truly a huge benefit to the movie, and I loved it.
Another theme the movie touched on that hit somewhat unexpectedly hard is dealing with depression, and there are so many metaphors for that throughout the movie, especially with Yelena and Bob. With Bob, his backstory as a former addict who grew up in an abusive home who sought a way to feel better through a shady medical study is beyond sad, and there’s a scene about three-fourths into the movie where he says “There are days when I feel invincible and can do anything, but then there are a lot of days that have a lot of darkness.” The way he said that hit me SO HARD, and a later scene of him battling Void was SUCH a great way to convey how it can feel for some people struggling with depression and/or other mental health issues. With Yelena, she’s still grieving losing Natasha and instead of dealing with that grief properly, she’s throwing herself into work and just rather existing through life, and there are also a couple scenes that dive deeper into her childhood in the Red Room Black Widow program that are absolutely heartbreaking. It’s not until she joins up with the rest of the Thunderbolts that the light starts coming back into her eyes, and it’s great to see that evolution.
Overall, I very much enjoyed “Thunderbolts*” and not only would I give it a solid “A” grade, I’ll say it’s the MCU’s best big screen effort in a while. The casting is absolutely on point, particularly with Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Lewis Pullman in his triple role and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the film’s villain. While they were the particular standouts for me, the other Thunderbolts also got a chance to shine, and everyone had a fantastic performance. The movie does an absolutely amazing job tackling the themes of redemption and battling depression, and I’m not ashamed to say there were a few moments that almost brought me to tears and made me feel SO seen. Overall, if the Thunderbolts happened to get another adventure greenlit, I would not hesitate to go check it out.
