Phase Five of the MCU films is best described as an erratic cinematic journey, beginning with the mixed result of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. While I enjoyed James Gunn‘s swan song of his MCU tenure with the trilogy-capping Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Shawn Levy‘s gleefully violent, nostalgia-heavy Deadpool & Wolverine, The Marvels marked among the all-time low of this long-running franchise. Earlier this year, the long-delayed Captain America: Brave New World is nothing more than a run-of-the-mill, Winter Soldier-lite sequel.
Now, it’s Thunderbolts*, which finally gives the secondary characters their respective limelight to lead a major superhero team-up movie. They aren’t The Avengers, though, especially given their superpowers are mainly “punch and shoot” and none of them can fly either. Written by Eric Pearson, who also co-wrote the upcoming Fantastic Fours: First Steps along with Joanna Calo, a TV scribe for series like The Bear and Beef, the story focuses on a group of misfits reluctantly working together. It all happens when Yelena (Florence Pugh) is assigned on a mission by her shady handler and CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus).
However, the mission turns out to be a trap and it also involves others such as John Walker (Wyatt Russell) and Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen). As expected, they don’t get along well but circumstances force them to set aside their differences, marking the beginning of their mismatched dynamic as they start to bicker and hurl insults reminiscent of a buddy movie. It sure is fun watching Florence Pugh’s Yelena and others trying to put up with each other while subsequently battling with the enemies.
The movie also has Bucky (Sebastian Stan), previously seen in Captain America: Brave New World serving as a congressman. He’s a different man now from the last time we saw him but old habits die hard. This is especially true when he eventually joins forces with Yelena, Walker and Ava to fight as a team. Besides, once Bucky is back in his Winter Soldier mode and making use of his super strength during the thrilling vehicular convoy chase sequence across the desert, this is where Thunderbolts* pick up the pace.
As with the tradition of MCU movies, the studio continues to take risks in enlisting untested directors to helm a big-budget studio production. Directors who are previously coming from indie backgrounds or prominently involved in small-scale movies and here, we have Jake Schreier. His prior feature-length directorial efforts include the sci-fi Robot & Frank and the romantic dramedy Paper Towns and now, seeing him taking the big steps into a high-profile blockbuster like Thunderbolts* makes me curious whether he’s the right person for the job. One thing is for sure, Schreier looks comfortable in managing the character-driven side of navigating the path of Yelena and her team. The story may have been erratic and sometimes meanders around with a stop-start momentum that disrupts the pace.
But at least Schreier prioritizes the character arc and does not just put them as placeholders to service the next action set piece or reduce them to comic relief. You know, the aftermath of a peril which often ends with the character or more cracking a joke in the typical MCU house-style. While the usual formula is still present in this movie, I’m glad Schreier doesn’t overwhelm them to the point the whole thing becomes a jokey affair.
For a team-up movie revolving around secondary characters, one of the biggest challenges is making us care or root for their ordeals. The Thunderbolts may have been antiheroes but their flawed nature is what makes them interesting to watch. For instance, looking from the perspective of Florence Pugh’s Yelena alone, her job as a trained mercenary and assassin working for someone as slippery as Valentina subsequently makes her question her own path. As if her situation isn’t conflicted enough, she is thrown deep into hot water and has to find a way to come up with a strategy to cooperate with the rest of her unlikely, so-called team members.
The story also delves heavily into the past, resulting in recurring flashbacks but they do serve a purpose as an important storytelling tool later in the movie. Themes like loneliness and abandonment are even slipped into the movie both literally and metaphorically, where the latter can be seen during the unconventionally trippy third act.
A team-up movie wouldn’t be complete without a prominent villain and Thunderbolts* has one in the form of Sentry/Void played by Lewis Pullman. The Sentry/Void turns out to be a formidable antagonist who possesses ultimate superpowers that prove to be a significant setback for the Thunderbolts team. This, in turn, poses a fascinating question: How is a team like Thunderbolts, whose biggest superpowers are only superhuman strength going to beat a god-like Sentry/Void? This brings us back to the aforementioned third act and when I mentioned “unconventionally trippy”, it was something that had to do with Schreier employing visual tactics that are different from what we see from the rest of the movie earlier.
As for the action scenes, Schreier insists on using practical ways as much as possible. The hand-to-hand combats have a sense of tactility when the characters throw punches, kicks and somersaults and I appreciate the dynamic camerawork with none of the jittery nonsense. The only gripe I have in the action scene is the movie’s most spectacular stunt, which sees Yelena diving off the rooftop of the 118-story second-tallest-skyscraper-in-the-world of Kuala Lumpur’s Merdeka 118 in Malaysia. It sure sounds ambitious but upon watching the scene unfold on IMAX, it feels surprisingly like an afterthought. The problem lies in Schreier’s ill-fated decision for feeling the need to throw in one of the otherwise familiar storytelling techniques. Let’s just say it breaks the illusion of having me fully immersed in the daring jump sequence.
Despite some of the shortcomings, Thunderbolts* remains a reasonable step-up over the clunky Captain America: Brave New World. Do remember to stick around for the mid-credits and post-credits stingers, particularly the latter part which will get the MCU fans excited.
