The Thunderbolts* is about a group of individual characters, led by Yelena, a former Black Widow, who is sent on a mission that brings not only her, but a group of troubled individuals, all riddled with their own personal issues, who find themselves working together to ultimately tackle the big bad.
It is a simple premise, but the subject matter is great and something that can feel a little bit like a bit of a downer. Usually with these movies, we are dealing with 'smack', 'pow', 'crash', 'explosions' that we are too busy having fun watching our heroes beat the brakes off of a bad guy, but when you are dealing with life troubles and personal things that way you down, life is not as fun anymore and this movie touches on personal trauma and dealing with it, somewhat similar to how the TV show Hawkeye dealt with Clint Barton being a normal human being.
Florence Pugh is incredible in this as she tries to navigate her past and her current life. If you have seen Black Widow, you will understand her character a bit more, especially with the angle of The Red Guardian being involved in that movie and their relationship. It is the conversation between these two people that had me a little emotional. When one person feels lost with no one to reach out to, and another person feels lost and does not know how to reach out, you are at a stalemate of two people who could communicate only if one of them did something, you know. Check on your friend. It is beautiful, but real storytelling, and it helps to make our characters feel like normal people. If you take notice in that scene also, these two are out in the open having a conversation, and people are naturally walking by, some people looking, but people are minding their own business whilst two people are having a meaningful conversation. That is real life. I am pretty sure I saw some people looking over at them, talking, but the decision for that allowed me to connect more with these characters. For the most part, they are "normal" people going through normal day-to-day things, kinda. As for Wyatt Russell and Hannah John-Kamen, they are great as the supporting cast, along with David Harbour, but the banter between Yelena, Ghost and John Walker is comedy gold. Throw in Red Guardian for more laughs and Bucky (Sebastian Stan) being ultimately, the serious granddad of them all, all worked well. A team that should not work, does not work, but they make it work. As for Lewis Pullman, I am not sure if I would have preferred Steven Yeun more because of his voice acting, and the emotion he puts into his characters is incredible, but Lewis did a great job. Lewis plays a character who is ultimately the same as the others; he has his own issues and/or demons that he wrestles with on a day-to-day basis, like the rest of them, so he fits into the team of "troubled" heroes just fine. What he brings to his character, Bob, has many different layers. His facial acting in some places seemed a little off for me, but I know it was the vulnerability he was portraying, but when he shifts from the sheepish and vulnerable to the more stern, decisive and vulnerable is where he sold it for me. I understood and recognised him as me at times in my life that I could honestly relate to, and THIS is why this movie hits. This is why the movie is relatable, because whether these are people with fantastic skills and abilities or people with enhanced strength and stamina, for the most part, they are still human.
The visuals and the music is great! There is a character design I was not fully sold on in this movie, but with that said, the other design was also a little bit of a turn-off, but I understand why they did it, especially as that design is what is always used to depict the idea of what it is (no spoilers here). There are some great shots and cinematography that are pretty much "comic book accurate". For example, there is a "drone" shot (a shot from high up) where there is a building, and you see one lone person walking towards it. In the comics, you'd see the exact same thing and the footsteps behind them. Also, the mood of this movie, although dark in places, has splashes of colour that spill into the scenes that help bring the joy and positivity that also work hand-in-hand with the score.
So not only is the storyline great and cohesive, the acting is spot-on, fun, funny and dramatic, the visuals are great, the music is great, the action is superb, like The Winter Soldier level of choreography, with two after credits scenes, one mid-credit and one post-credit, both that are really good and the second one even better as it does the old traditional, "does this play into the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?", I would say that this is a great watch and Marvel are on the right track to becoming great again. We just need more quality storylines and risks taken because they have not missed in their casting, just in their execution and of late, it does not seem as though Marvel has taken many risks when taking risks is what they were built on.
