A ragtag assortment of side characters from previous Marvel Cinematic Universe feature films and Disney+ series team up to battle the physical embodiment of post-traumatic depression in Thunderbolts*, opening in Prague and cinemas worldwide this weekend. If this is Marvel’s answer to The Suicide Squad, it feels a lot closer to the much-derided 2016 version than James Gunn‘s 2021 revision.
That’s despite some generally quality filmmaking that bucks recent MCU trends. Directed by Jake Schreier (Paper Towns), Thunderbolts* boasts solid performances from a likable cast, impressive location photography in Utah and Kuala Lumpur (and studio sets in Atlanta, standing in for New York City) from cinematographer Andrew Droz Palermo (A Ghost Story) and—outside of one climactic fight—a lot less of the kind of sloppy visual effects seen most recently in Captain America: Brave New World.
Thunderbolts* is a good-looking film; better than most MCU features to date. And it’s refreshingly grounded in real-world locations. But that’s all for naught when the screenplay (credited to Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo) just isn’t there. There’s an incredibly sparse plot here and next to zero character development; it’s shocking that what has been such a well-oiled franchise put material this thin into production.
Florence Pugh leads Thunderbolts* as Yelena Belova, sister of former Black Widow Natasha Romanoff, currently going through a bit of a rough patch. She’s sick of being a behind-the-scenes assassin for CIA Director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and looking for a front-facing superhero promotion—which Valentina is happy to provide, if she’ll only do this one last job.
Unfortunately, that one last job involves cleaning up Valentina’s latest mess, which involves her standing before an impeachment committee led by Congressman Gary (Wendell Pierce) and Junior Congressman Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), who apparently won an election since we last saw him in Brave New World.
At the bottom of a mountaintop base in rural Utah, Yelena happens to run into MCU villains Antonia Dreykov (Olga Kurylenko), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), and Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen), who seem to have been sent on the same cleanup mission, and tasked with eliminating each other. And Bob (Lewis Pullman), who just seems to be there.
Fifteen minutes into Thunderbolts*, these anti-heroes work out that Valentina is up to no good. Following an hour of bickering and exposition, the details of exactly what she’s been up to become apparent, and after rescue by Yelena’s adoptive father Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour) and an assist from Bucky, they set out to stop her.
What’s the real threat in Thunderbolts*? Nothing less than the pure embodiment of depression, visualized as the Ghost Monkey from Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, who enwraps Manhattan in a creeping shadow that disappears anyone it touches. To defeat depression, our anti-heroes must enter the shadow realm, confront their own past trauma, and, uh, hug it out?
This can be interesting thematic material, but the ham-fisted way the movie shoehorns it to the forefront of its climactic action scenes is cringeworthy. What makes matters worse is that we don’t care about any of these characters—allegedly murderous villains, they’re all suddenly working together and out to do good just minutes after the initial scene where they’re at each other’s throats (and the movie does one of them real dirty early on).
None of these superheroes were interesting enough to begin with, and none of them change throughout the entire story, even if we’re told they solve their pesky depression issues. Harbour is fun, but he’s essentially playing a parody; the lone character of any interest in Thunderbolts* is Valentina’s assistant, played by Geraldine Viswanathan, who has the only moral crisis here.
Like some early superhero films, Thunderbolts* almost feels ashamed to be a comic book movie. The characters are exclusively referred to under their real names; MCU fans can assume Yelena is the new Black Widow, but she’s never called that on screen. Only Harbour’s Alexei, who also provides the movie with its only sense of comic levity, proudly proclaims himself the Red Guardian.
Despite a neat twist at the finale—a reveal intended as a wow moment for fans that will confuse and/or underwhelm anyone else—and a post-credits scene that sets up this summer’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Thunderbolts* has worn out its welcome long before the credits roll. A final note promises that these characters will return, but that almost feels like a threat; for the sake of the franchise, let these guys go the way of the Eternals.
