So ya Thunderbolts aka New Avengers, the movie that honestly everyone just raised an eyebrow at including yours truly but I gotta say after watching it in the theatres I can honestly say this is definitely a movie that was undersold by its marketing

How the Characters were Each Given Their Moment

So one thing I picked up on immediately about this movie is how Thunderbolts in itself felt like a bit of a redemption run for a lot of characters who lets just be honest we’re done a bit of disservice or just straight up not given the proper time to shine in Phase 4, for better or worse Thunderbolts does give these characters not only more time to shine but does flesh them out a bit more as characters beyond the surface level of what we saw in their introductions through either movie or tv show, John Walker and Ghost especially I feel benefitted from this the most

Now I guess there is one elephant in the room to talk about and that is Taskmaster and honestly there’s not much I have to say here other than aside from the obvious of we knew this version of Taskmaster wasn’t long for this world but the way they killed her off just felt like one of those things of Marvel Studios trying to clean house, telling us the audience “ya we know we screwed up with Taskmaster, sorry about that we’ll try again later” that’s what that whole scene felt like and it was kinda unintentionally hilarious.

And on that note obviously the big thing about this movie is it’s focus on mental health now I’m not an expert on this kind of thing so I’m not pretend to know wether the movie represents it right or wrong in the film itself but in saying that Thunderbolts doesn’t mess around in dealing with that rather heavy subject matter, by not just talking about it but showing it as well, More specifically for me I do like how this film zeroed in on the concepts of not just something like depression but also the concept of loneliness, how there are moments where we just shut ourselves off from the world because we we struggle to find purpose in it and how the only way we can block out those negative emotions to find our own personal peace from those parts of ourselves and our personal lives we’re afraid of yet still driving home that’s not healthy, that shutting yourself down is not the way to move forward, you need to open up in order to truly move on

And ya of course while this in itself takes many different forms with how it develops the main cast of characters throughout the film obviously the two who do take center stage here are Bob aka Sentry and Yelena and not only do I like how the film ties their stories together but focusing on Yelena for a second I do like how this film does tie a lot of threads from movies like Black Widow and Endgame together, showing just how much Natasha’s death had effected Yelena and how much she had personally shut herself off from the world, trying to just keep herself occupied from anything that would make her think about Natasha’s death right up until the climax where she just explodes on Alexei and lets everything out

The method by which they handled this character arc for Yelena is not all that complex but it is in its simplicity where it works cause for the little screen time we got between Yelena and Natasha, there’s still enough to understand just how much that relationship meant to her, how much it kept her grounded but also to some extent that relationship suppressed her darker regrets about the things she did growing up in the Red Room so with Natasha dead those deeper and darker thought broke free from their chains and Yelena was then forced to come to with her past and Florence Pugh just delivered it all spectacularly

Love How Dysfunctional the Dynamics Between the Team Are

So ya honestly given Marvel’s track record as of late in of balancing serious subject matter with comedy this should be a knock against the film and while there are a couple moments that still fall a little flat one thing I can say that worked really well for me is how the film captures just dysfunctional this team is, from frame one they’re shown as just a bunch of people who were set up by Valentina in order to take Eachother out as they were all a liability and a collective loose end that needed to be taken care of so just to see these people being brought together by sheer circumstance and trying to survive

And it’s through that lense of being forced into that situation as well where the dynamics between the characters shine, in a way this is the part of the movie that’s the least incentive as this is a trope that’s not all that new but in a way it is a trope that still works as a vehicle to get the most amount of Milage from showing the dynamics between your characters and how show that dysfunction is also allows us to connect with them in ways of wondering how they’re going to get out of a situation

And as a whole it was just fun to see these characters bicker and argue yet still find ways to work together and how they come together by the end to show their ability to be more than they are which in self I think is the biggest reason why despite being a little bloated I really did love the climax of this movie because while on the surface there is a lot about it that is your typical marvel movie fare the biggest thing I loved about it is how they’re emphasized the Thunderbolts trying to save as many people as possible all while things are erupting into absolute chaos

It’s a very small thing but it’s something that I think a lot of MCU movies and tv shows have missed the mark on as of late which is showing the importance of how anyone can be a hero if they have the will to try and something that this film is a bet subtle master at doing

Sentry is Amazing

So ya no two ways about it I really loved Sentry in this movie, now there is a slight irony in my saying that considering that Sentry is the one part of the Marvel universe I ittedly no very little about, the only thing I do know is that he is Marvel’s equivalent to Superman and that he has a friendship with Hulk so outside of those two things I can’t really say with certainty whether they did him justice or not

In saying that one thing I will say though is that the film in my opinion perfectly captured the power and weight of what it’s like to be a true super human in the marvel universe, up to this point it’s really only ever been about the heroes who rely on some kind of suit, tech or natural skill and ability with the only one real glimpse of superhuman capability has been with Spider-Man or Thor but here we are getting our first real look at what a superhuman is capable of in this universe and honestly doing anything akin to Superman or a Superman type character is difficult to portray on screen but to me this movie found the perfect balance of showing just how powerful a character like that is while showing the dangers of a power like that wielded by an unstable mind and what it truly means to control one’s own power from getting out of control and how easy it is in order to lose control as well

Bob/Sentry himself though is a rather an intriguing character study of someone who genuinely wants to to do good but also showing how that genuine desire to do good can be so easily manipulated into something dark which in itself bleeds over into him becoming the Void and in my opinion while that does make him an antagonist of the film, it doesn’t necessarily make him the villain, that honour goes to the person I’m going to talk about in my next point

Valentina is a Manipulative Sociopath

So for me while Bob/Sentry is an antagonist of the film, Valentina is the true villain of this film in the sense where throughout the film she proves to be a manipulative, scheming sociopath who at every turn shows herself to be someone with little to no regard or care for anyone’s life but her own, ittedly sometimes to an almost cartoonish which will definitely cause your mileage to vary on how you view Valentina in the film but for me personally I really liked her as the villain because as cartoonishly evil as she could be in places, what make her stand out in this regard is that we are living in a reality where that kind of person is much more of a reflection of modern times than actual fiction, people like Valentina are much more present in society today than they ever were before

And for better or worse that is to me what made her stand out for me as a villain; her total lack of care and empathy and just how far she was willing to go in order to manipulate the situation at every turn in order to suit her needs, its an aspect to her character that does feel like a Saturday morning cartoon villain but unfortunately still grounded in some truth that people like this do exist now which also makes her the most uncomfortable depiction of how art mimics reality

Cons

Now in saying all that I don’t have a whole lot of problems with the film but there is one that did stick out and it’s a problem that had been a recurring one with marvel movies but this one comes with a bit of a twist

I Feel the Climax Could’ve Given a Little More Closure to the Other of the Team

So ya as per usual my big problem is the climax but in other times where I and many others have complained about the climax being too bloated, this is an odd reversal where I actually needed the climax to be a touch longer and not even by much just like 5 or 10 minutes more and while I have kept this review decently spoiler free this is one time where I do have to go into full blown spoiler territory

As I said previously the ones who got the most screen time in regards to the films themes of mental health are Bob/Sentry and Yelena and that is something that does carry over to the climax but is also kind of at the detriment to the other of the team because while the film does use the void’s powers to great effect at showing the Thunderbolt’s mental trauma where it does drop the ball is in that climax because the film focuses on so much on Bob and Yelena that it feels like the others don’t really get the proper resolution they needed with their own personal stories in the film

I guess them saving people in the climax was supposed to be that with them overcoming their fears by saving people but I feel it needed a little more than that, we needed to see them actually face down their fears and traumas like with Yelena and Bob but everyone else kinda got hung out to dry and I feel just an a extra 5-10 minutes would’ve helped with that, and ya I know the climax was already bloated as is, trust me I was in the theatre, I felt how long it was but even knowing that, this is one of those times where I would’ve been willing to sit through that extra couple of minutes

Conclusion

But ya as a whole I…really liked Thunderbolts, for a movie no one had any faith or high hopes for like at all, the movie surprised me way more than I thought it would, I don’t think it’s entirely on par with some of what I consider to be the top tier of MCU films like some others do but it is better than I thought it would be and that’s gets to a very interesting trend I have noticed which is although slow, this is another film right alongside others like Deadpool and Wolverine or even shows like Daredevil Born Again that does showcase there still life left in the MCU and that although slow it is getting back on its feet which I do appreciate that headed into movies like Fantastic 4 and Doomsday/Secret Wars