Here’s my Thunderbolts* review which is now playing in cinemas. The film is directed by Jake Schreier and stars Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lewis Pullman, Wyatt Russell, Hannah John-Kamen, Olga Kurylenko, Geraldine Viswanathan and more!

The film follows some of Marvel’s miscreants and scamps whom we’ve already met in other Marvel films and projects including Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Ant-Man and the Wasp and Black Widow as they are sucked into this big conspiracy orchestrated by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. To complicate things, a mysterious guy named Bob also stumbles into the scene and strikes a friendship with this fledgling. This project is based on the Marvel superteam of the same name who first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #449 and started their own book in April 1997 by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley.

The Thunderbolts biggest surprise

The film puts Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova aka the new Black Widow in the spotlight introducing us to her personal thoughts and her mental state which neatly aligns with the new character they introduced in this film, Bob. The film takes a dip into mental health and is in fact a shadow ad for mental health awareness particularly depression and anxiety. Throughout the film we see bits and pieces of different traumas and past experiences that broke these men and women and turned them into the not-so-nice people they are that are looking for redemption. Through the film we see them learn to open up, trust their peers and slowly rebuild themselves and it’s not just for the protagonists and MCs of the film but also for two characters in the opposing side.

The latest Marvel Studios film was surprisingly good because it found the right balance between action, drama and comedy. Yes, there were a lot of fun moments brought to us by the big lug himself, Red Guardian played by David Harbour. Most of the characters were also given a good amount of time to grow and dish out some exposition to some extent. John Walker (Wyatt Russell) as US Agent was still a fun character which was so different from what we saw in The Falcon and Winter Soldier on Disney+. The same goes for Ghost aka Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen), in Ant-Man and the Wasp, she was a generic character with very little moments to shine, here in Thunderbolts she was given more moments to show her skill set, kick ass and even quip once or twice. They all have good chemistry together too not just in delivering comedic lines or serious zingers even during fights, they look really good fighting together which gives off this Avengers (2012) vibe to it.

Bob here (who are we kidding, we all know that Bob is The Sentry) is both the victim and the villain and he falls under the “villains” that have sense and are thus spared the gruesome fate of dying before the end of the film. Lewis Pullman did a signficantly good role as Robert Reynolds and as the Void. He does look great as the blonde superhero and at the same time worked extremely well as the fragile and broken yet charming Bob. I liked the way he was written here as there’s just so many bad stuff that happened to him that he really needs help and he finds it during that fateful encounter with Yelena, Walker, Ava and even Olga Kurylenko’s Taskmaster.

If there’s any real quip for me its got to be the amount of action in this; without spoiling the film, the climax ends with the classic “talk-no-jutsu” but even that is what I can consider a small gripe because we got a feel good ending instead and one that’s very relevant in today’s social climate. Not only that it’s such an emotional scene that even when there’s barely any dialogue during those crucial moments, you feel that moment and you can’t help but be with this weird superteam. Speaking of emotional, you’ll know its really Yelena’s show because she got the biggest catharsis in the film. I swear I teared up a bit in one scene where she confronts her “father” the Red Guardian for not being there for her when she needed the most.

There are also a post-credit scene and a mid-credits here so PLEASE do not leave the cinema until that’s done you’ll find that it loops us back in to something bigger in the coming months and even year. It’s also a nice way of showing how the team grows after the events of the movie.

The different Thunderbolts teams through the years

After a surprising reveal in February’s Captain America: Brave New World was that Bucky has become a Congressman and that trend continues here although weirdly enough by the time we reach the third act, we’ve completely brushed that aside. But that’s OK because we really don’t want politician Bucky. We want the good Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes and that’s what we got. Sebastian Stan’s cool, calm demeanor works well to provide a stable anchor for the team and that’s what we get around Act 2 of the movie. He’s still great at action scenes but really his moment was that desert chase scene that’s been promoted a lot on trailers.

Thunderbolts* Review – Verdict

9.5/10

Overall, Thunderbolts was a fun movie for me and right now I am looking to catch it once again in cinemas particularly SM Cinemas (IMAX mo na if possible) and special thanks also to Marvel PH and Walt Disney Studios.

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