Thunderbolts* (2 ½ stars out of 4)
“Thunderbolts*” is Marvel’s version of “Suicide Squad,” which was DC’s version (versions?) of “The Dirty Dozen.” So if this story about a rag-tag bunch of outlaws banding together against a common foe sounds familiar, now you know why.
In this case, the outlaws are at least a little more familiar, having popped up in half a dozen Marvel outings over the last five to ten years. Yelena (Florence Pugh), Black Widow’s sister assassin from the 2020 movie of the same name, is the closest thing to a main protagonist. As the film opens, she’s getting bored running black ops missions from CIA honcho Valentina (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), but agrees to the traditional “one last job” before making some career changes.
The job in question takes her to a secret vault, where she encounters a few other not-ready-for-prime-time heroes. John Walker (Wyatt Russell) is still reeling from the failure of his five-minute stint as Captain America, Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) is still in action after playing the misunderstood heavy in the second Ant Man movie, and speaking of five minutes, brainwashed Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) gets her first screen time since the Black Widow movie.
When Yelena and co. figure out that Valentina sent them all to the vault to have them killed, they team up with assassin-turned-congressman Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian (David Harbour) and a mysterious character named Bob (Lewis Pullman) to take their down their former employer.
The result is good enough to feel like Marvel is firing on most of its cylinders again, but a film that feels like less than the sum of its parts, especially once the third act starts to play setup for future installments. There are plenty of good elements—a first-act stunt from Pugh that is apparently 100% real, and Harbour’s performance as Red Guardian injects an energetic comic vibe that pushes against the movie’s bleak color palette. “Thunderbolts*” ultimately ranks above many of the post-“Endgame” Marvel movies, but that’s like saying taking a football to the groin is one of the better gridiron injuries.
Like many recent Marvel outings, “Thunderbolts*’” strength doubles as its weakness. Coming to theaters 17 years after 2008’s “Iron Man” kicked off the MCU, director Jake Schreier’s film is built into an existing universe, drawing on existing pre-established characters in a familiar and comfortable world. But that also means the movie can’t entirely stand on its own, and inevitably must be compared to everything that came before. It also means that the film must grapple with a tone that initially feels grounded and real, but later has to accommodate more supernatural content and characters.
Weirdly, Yelena’s early movie malaise feels like an apt reflection of many non-superhero movie diehards—at least the one writing this review—who need more than hints about peripheral movie team-ups to get excited about spending another two hours with characters they don’t really know and don’t care about yet. “Thunderbolts*” is far from bad; it just doesn’t bring anything all that new or worthwhile to the table. It’s routine. It’s content.
Is “Thunderbolts*” a decent way to kill a couple of hours in the theater? Sure. Does it restore some of Marvel’s pre-2020 glory? Kind of. Will it land on anyone’s Top 10 MCU offerings? Not mine, though I suppose it doesn’t really have to. Are you wondering why I’ve been putting an asterisk at the end of the title through this whole review? I’ll let you either see the movie or turn to Google for that one.
“Thunderbolts*” is rated PG-13 for standard CGI mayhem and violence, as well as some profanity and frightening moments.