Thunderbolts*
Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh, "Black Widow") is in a bad place emotionally after losing her sister and herself in work ordered by U.S. C.I.A. Director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, TV's 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier') that she finds increasingly disturbing. After a visit to
her 'father' Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour, "Black Widow") finds him just as miserable if not helpful, Yelena takes that 'one last job' which she will realize is Valentina's effort to dispose of not only her, but others facing dark pasts like John Walker (Wyatt Russell, TV's 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier'), a former incarnation of Captain America; Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko, "Black Widow"); Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen, "Ant-Man and the Wasp") and Bob (Lewis Pullman, "Top Gun: Maverick"), a guy who has no idea how he ended up there. Their efforts to escape form a team building exercise of sorts and after helping to rescue them, Alexei will call the new group after Yelena's losing Pee Wee soccer team, the "Thunderbolts*."
Laura's Review: B-
Superhero fatigue at the multiplex exists for two reasons, over saturation and plot repetition, but even though Marvel's latest doesn't really have anything new to offer (written by Eric Pearson ("Black Widow") and Joanna Calo (TV's 'The Bear')), characters can make all the difference and "Thunderbolts*" has the stellar, empathetic Florence Pugh, likable veteran Sebastian Stan and the comic stylings of both Harbour and Marvel freshman Geraldine Viswanathan as Valentina's dubious assistant Mel. And while all superhero movies have anti-Fascist themes, this one features a C.I.A. director with the same Cruella da Ville hairstyle as current Director of Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on the cusp of unchecked power while facing impeachment proceedings led by Congressman Gary (Wendell Pierce, TV's 'Elsbeth') with Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan, "Captain America: The Winter Soldier") investigating as a U.S. Representative. Threats coming from 'inside the house' are nothing new in this genre, but this one seems particularly relevant to today's political landscape.
What we have seen before is Marvel superheroes grappling with feelings of despair and depression, the development of a super soldier, an invincible villain, villains who can float in the air and villains whose destruction of a city consists of a black void, the latter, at least, rendered creepily as Bob, having ditched his golden Valentina designed exterior for a pitch black 3D silhouette with two white spots for eyes, casts an inky shadow, people disappearing into ash. There are also some inconsistencies here, Yelena and Walker both catapulted back into painful flashbacks while Ghost is not and frankly, I can't even remember what happened to Taskmaster, who is present in early goings and then simply not. Director Jake Schreier, jumping from indies like "Robot & Frank" and "Paper Towns," stages some decent action sequences, but again, nothing we really haven't seen before except that four-way back to back crawl up a silo which, while original, is too slow moving to be considered action.
Pugh and her character Yelena is the heart of the film, reaching out to the powerless, whether a guinea pig in a laboratory or the troubled, damaged Bob, whose touch appears to yank others into their darkest memories. In Yelena's case, it is her youthful training as an assassin in the Russian Red Room, where, portrayed by Violet McGraw, she endures the rest of her group's palms being whipped after she is first to assemble a gun and, worse, witness the shooting of a friend as part of her 'initiation' as a Black Widow. Eventually the tables will turn, Yelena potentially sacrificing herself in order to pull Bob back from the brink of his own mental anguish in order to save a city. Pugh's humanity here recalls that of Yelena's 'sister' in "Avengers: Endgame," but others don't register as strongly, Bob's description of Walker as an 'asshole' accurate, Russell struggling to add roguish charm to the persona, while John-Kamen simply fills a suit. As Bob, Pullman embodies pathetic neediness, his Valentina rendition as Sentry a nerd newly relishing his own power.
"Thunderbolts*," which cannily uses a Wheaties style cereal box to parody itself, is a mid-level Marvel with a top tier star. While it's punchline of an ending doesn't really wash, stick around for that final zinger at the end of the credits for an introduction to the next Marvel hopeful.
Disney/Marvel releases "Thunderbolts*" in theaters on 5/2/25.
