The MCU returns with its latest group of ragtag “super” people. Yelena (Florence Pugh), Ghost (Ava Starr), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), The Red Guardian (David Harbour), Bucky (Sebastian Stan), and the mysterious Bob (Lewis Pullman), have to learn to deal with each other, and more importantly themselves in order to survive in “Thunderbolts*.” But is it enough to save the MCU?

Editor’s note: This review will contain major spoilers for “Thunderbolts*.”

Summary

The movie mainly follows Yelena as she struggles to go from job to job, still working for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Yelena begins to wonder if maybe her job in the shadows is what’s keeping her unhappy and alone, and if she should start doing more in the open work like the Avengers used to. Or, more to the point, like her sister Natasha used to. After a visit to her father, the Red Guardian, she decides that she wants that change and asks Valentina about it.

(p.s., here’s your first spoiler — the above promotional photo released by Marvel is fake.)

Valentina gives her a final shadow-y job to complete before the change, sending her to a facility secretly owned by Oxcorp, the company with which Valentina is hiding her own involvement, as she is currently undergoing a very public impeachment trial that would certainly go badly should the information hidden in this facility get out. (You’ll never guess what happens!)

Valentina sends Yelena to stop a “thief” from breaking in and stealing something.

When Yelena follows Ghost, her target, into the facility, she is confronted by John Walker, who is then confronted by Taskmaster, who is then confronted by Ghost. After a confusing tussle between them leads to the quick and unceremonious elimination of Taskmaster, they start to realize (some earlier than others) that this mission was meant to trap them all in this facility to get rid of them as it begins preparations to incinerate everything inside it. 

(The aforementioned fake promotional photo shows Taskmaster present in a scene that occurs much later into the movie. Marvel was apparently deadset on pretending that she was a part of the team. However, they didn’t bother to continue this subterfuge by editing her into most of the trailers, leading fans to accurately deduce her fate before the movie’s release.)

During the confusing fight, someone accidentally opens a container, releasing the mysterious Bob. Yelena, Ghost, John, and Bob then stressfully begin making their escape, narrowly avoiding a fiery end, before making it back to the entrance of the facility, where they are now surrounded by Valentina’s personal squad of militants. During all of this, Yelena tries her best to protect and comfort Bob as he is reluctant to leave.

Ghost uses her abilities to leave the facility undetected to find a ride out, and John, Yelena, and Bob don stolen uniforms and helmets to sneak out. However, before they can get away with grand theft auto, they are stopped at a checkpoint. John does an absolutely atrocious job at smooth-talking their way out, so Bob makes a break for it, firing a gun in the air, trying to sacrifice himself so his new acquaintances can escape.

By this time, Valentina has discovered that Bob is a successful version of her personal pet project — yet another attempt at a supersoldier serum. We watch in disbelief as Bob, despite his determination not to survive the encounter, stands up unharmed and begins to uncontrollably fly into the air, only to succumb to his panic, pass out, and fall back to Earth with a very large explosion. 

Valentina collects an unconscious Bob, taking him to the old Avengers tower that she has purchased, while Yelena, John, and Ghost flee, running into The Red Guardian in one of the film’s funniest moments. Alexei (David Harbour) has been working as a limousine driver, and comes to pick up Yelena and her “friends,” proving you’re never too old and estranged to be embarrassed by your father. In their disastrous chase scene, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) arrives to save the day in a parallel of his showstopping motorcycle stunts and car destruction methods from “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.”

Bob reawakens in a bed, and Valentina is there to talk (down) to him, revealing that he was part of the Sentry Program. Now, despite several warnings from her assistant Mel about Bob’s unstable condition, she is ready to help him become the world’s protector. She capitalizes on his established mental illnesses to make him feel abandoned by the others and convinces him that she’s the only one who believes he’s worth anything.

Bucky has been trying to find evidence to help impeach Valentina, and when Mel secretly contacts him to let her know what she is doing, he has what he needs. With the help of our unlikely cohorts, they all set off to confront Valentina and save Bob. When they arrive at the old Avengers tower (now dubbed “The Watchtower”), Valentina welcomes them in and reveals to them the results of her secret Sentry project, Bob, now in full costume as his new hero personality, Sentry. Valentina orders Sentry to take care of the loosely named Thunderbolts, and an impossible fight ensues that has our antiheroes scrabbling for escape.

The Thunderbolts retreat, struggling to find any reason to stay together after the Sentry’s introduction, and begin to part ways. Valentina praises Bob and begins to give new directions, but Bob begins to question why he should even take orders from her now that he is unstoppable. After taking Valentina by the throat, her assistant helps activate a kill switch that, seemingly, instantly kills him. However, as Valentina flees to begin scheming again, a mysterious darkness begins to overtake Bob’s body. Valentina gets a call from her “cleanup” crew that there is no body, and then looks up to see a completely black figure floating in the sky. 

Bob’s inner darkness, coined “The Void,” has somehow manifested, taking over his body and beginning to spread its shadow around him. Anyone who touches this shadow is instantly turned into shadow themselves, and this continues to spread throughout the city. The Thunderbolts individually begin to start saving people, eventually coming together to help even more. After helping the people in the immediate vicinity, they begin to retreat to regroup and figure out a plan.

Yelena sees The Void, realising what it is after having had a scary but small glimpse at it back in the secret facility. She shocks the team by willingly walking into the shadow. They first assume she has died, but she wakes up in a labyrinth of “rooms,” each filled with different dark and tragic memories of her past. She gets glimpses of the normal Bob and pushes through her regrets and fears until she finds him. Here she consoles Bob, helping him understand what’s happening, and talking to him to help him confront his personal darkness. 

This causes the Void to attack them, but then the rest of the Thunderbolts also break in, having clearly been through their own haunting rooms to get there. They then go traversing through rooms to dive deeper into Bob’s darkness to escape, ultimately coming upon the room where Bob was subjected to the experiments that created The Void. After The Void pushes the Thunderbolts away from Bob and restrains them, Bob himself begins to apprehend The Void and begins relentlessly attacking it and succumbing to his rage. Yelena breaks free to come to Bob’s aid to stop him, and the rest of the crew follows suit. Bob stops, truly breaking him free from its influence. 

The shadow over the city begins to retreat, and everyone returns to where they once were. The Thunderbolts find themselves together, and Bob reveals he has no memory of what transpired. They see Valentina, and begin to chase her to apprehend her, and she tricks them into appearing behind her at a press conference where she says she has gotten them together to become The New Avengers.

A Team Worth Fighting For

With the last MCU entry being the poorly received “Captain America: Brave New World”, on top of a string of failures, the bar for the next MCU movie was pretty low. “Thunderbolts” successfully clears that bar with incredible ease. Florence Pugh and Lewis Pullman give incredible, scene-stealing performances.

Though this was a film about a group of heroes, Yelena is clearly the main character, who absolutely steals the show and drives the narrative. Her struggles with loneliness are the driving force behind the movie, as it gives her a connection with Bob, ultimately playing a part in his inability to hold back The Void from coming out. It’s also Yelena’s arc to overcome her issues with this that lead her to enter The Void to save Bob, and the others to follow in her footsteps to do the same.

This is the compelling motion behind the more serious part of the movie, and is gripping to watch unfold, especially with Lewis Pullman’s performance. He portrays the sort of dopey, aloof Bob while also giving glimpses into the underlying struggle happening within Bob before everything even comes to light. It’s the kind of gallows humor easily recognizable to those who have struggled with depression and mental illness before.

Bob’s condition is never named, though he describes it himself as periods of highs that are very high and lows that are very low. He displays suicidal ideations as well as memory loss, and his scenes in The Void establish a heavy history of childhood abuse and neglect. He turned to meth when he was younger to self-medicate, and though he’s beaten the addiction, his past decisions continue to haunt him.

The chemistry between the characters was also compelling. The serious moments between them all felt intense, while all the various one-on-one interactions were also greatly entertaining. Moments where Bucky and The Red Guardian are connecting over their super soldier serum connection, when Yelena and the Red Guardian are struggling to connect but also other times he is yelling intensely about Yelena’s past and embarrassing her in front of the others, when John is failing to be the charismatic hero he so desperately is trying to be are all examples of the little moments that make these characters and their bonds meaningful and entertaining. 

The biggest themes of the movie are the effects of depression, isolation, failure, and more on the self-worth and outlooks for individuals, and how by recognizing those in others, they can get the support they need to move forward. Each character’s struggles are given weight and dimension. We see John as a neglectful father and husband, but we also see his consuming self-hatred that drives him to push his family away. We see Yelena looking for purpose, for a reason to live, and we see her find it by her father’s support. Alexei helps Yelena see her worth beyond her job.

Bob’s journey isn’t over, and he has a lot of healing to do, but with the unconditional acceptance from his team, he sees a future that has him in it.

Ultimately, this movie is what fans were clamoring for after “The Avengers” (2012). While the OG team never quite reached “found family” levels (instead becoming more of reluctant, squabbling coworkers), the Thunderbolts have a bond that feels stronger. Which is good because they’re going to need to work together flawlessly to face the next incoming threat.

The MCU always works best when the stories are character driven. It’s what made “Iron Man,” “Captain America: The First Avenger,” and “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” stand out. The vastness of the multiverse offers a lot of opportunities but it’s also become a burden on its own existence. So much gets bogged down “setting up” the next phase that many films and television series have begun to feel like filler, like plot fodder. Characters are reduced to devices to get from point A to point B. And it’s so boring.

The Less-Than-Super

The biggest negative for this movie is the ending. (Not the post-credits scene, but the film’s conclusion.) Valentina is continually portrayed as someone who needs to be stopped. Although her plans are ultimately foiled in the end, the resolution felt like she actually got off scot-free, and there wasn’t a real sense of fulfillment there. Now, perhaps she’ll get her comeuppance in the future, but seeing as the next time she could appear is “Avengers: Doomsday,” we doubt there will be a satisfying conclusion to her story.

Another weak point is Ava. Ghost got a backstory in “Ant-Man and The Wasp,” but that’s no excuse for the neglect of her character among the team. She is the most reluctant and does come around, but we don’t really see anything personal from her. Having a previous movie is no excuse, because arguably, Yelena had “Black Widow” and “Hawkeye.”

Overall

Despite this, the Thunderbolts are a return to form. You can’t help but care about these characters, and their growth and arcs have meaning. There’s substance here, which has been hard to find in the sad, dry bread and meat they’ve been trying to pass off as storytelling. For the first time in a long time, I’m excited to see where this will go. I’m even (as reluctant as I am to admit this, as Reed Richards’ #3 Top Hater) excited to see if “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” can continue this momentum.

I give “Thunderbolts*” 6 asterisks out of 7.

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Katie Francis