Despite recent misfires, some of Marvel’s successful films have reworked traditional film genres like political thrillers (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) and horror (Dr.Strange and the Multiverse of Madness). While past trauma has been previously featured in subplots, Thunderbolts* is the first Marvel film to deal exclusively with painful pasts in a meaningful way and informs the film with heart and soul. It also features a standout performance by Florence Pugh.
CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) has attracted unwanted attention from Congress and plots to hide some incriminating secrets that involve her group of mercenaries including Yelena (Pugh), The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), and The Red Guardian (David Harbour). These antiheroes are tormented by their dark pasts and begin to tentatively work together to find the truth about their employer even as a mysterious figure named Bob (Lewis Pullman) emerges who may represent an extraordinarily powerful being (shades of Brightburn) threatening all in his path. Can the newly formed Thunderbolts unite to save the day?
This well-paced film has more than a passing kinship with The Suicide Squad and Guardians of the Galaxy as it shows these misfits learning to trust one another and become something greater than themselves, and as such, transforms this story into something special. Whatever inner demons and past regrets each possesses, these pale when compared to Bob, which forms the core theme that coalesces in a heartfelt climax.
With
this film, Pugh’s Yelena has emerged as a
force to help lead the new generation of Marvel heroes in future phases. Imagine a well-acted, psychological drama
weaved into an action thriller resulting in a film with character, depth and
substance. Marvel is growing up. (Stay for the final post credit.)
****
of ***** stars (add ½* for Pugh fans)
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