Rent Thunderbolts* on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo (screenplay by), Eric Pearson (story by), Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley (Thunderbolts created by), Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (Avengers created by), Joe Simon and Jack Kirby (Captain America created by), Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee (The Sentry created by)
Directed by: Jake Schreier
Starring: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lewis Pullman, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Wndell Pierce
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer
Plot
After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap, an unconventional team of antiheroes must go on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts.
Verdict
While I haven't watched all the related properties that may provide character depth, it shouldn't matter. This movie doesn't even have a plot until well into the runtime. It's a disappointment, a bunch of super heroes teaming up and fighting faceless soldiers. We've seen it before and certainly executed better. What should have been a fun adventure is mired in filler. The movie hopes that one meaningful sequence at the end can erase the lack of development and story that leads up to it.
Skip it.
Review
CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) faces impeachment for trying to create a super soldier. She's simultaneously trying to clean up all evidence of her wrong doing, sending Yelena (Florence Pugh), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen), and Antonia Dreykov (Olga Kurylenko) to destroy a facility and each other to complete the coverup. Facing a trap, the four of them team up to get out but not before meeting amnesiac Bob (Lewis Pullman). Bob provides comic relief. While the others think he's just a lost civilian, it's clear from the start he's some kind of super human.
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| Hannah John-Kamen, Wyatt Russell, Sebatian Stan, Florence Pugh play Ava Starr, John Walker, Winter Solider, Yelena |
Half way in there's no plot other than the Thunderbolts trying to escape. It's flat, with action scenes substituted for story. Valentina wants a super soldier for no real reason other than to give this a semblance of a plot. Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) and Red Guardian (David Harbour) show up to help them escape their pursuers.
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| Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lewis Pullman play Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Bob/ Sentry |
Valentina's goal is a super soldier and that's Bob. He will be Sentry. She has him fight the Thunderbolts who he defeats easily. Bob is so overpowered I wondered where this movie would even go. I heard this was better than recent Marvel movies but that speaks more about recent Marvel movies.
Introducing Sentry earlier would have at least given the Thunderbolts a goal. How will they defeat this invincible super human? Instead we get these characters the movie actively makes unlikable. They're all bad guys, and this is so mindless. They aren't any fun scenes. The best this can manage is awkward scenes between Yelena and her father Red Guardian. It's not funny.
Sentry takes a new form as darkness, a void. The movie had to do something. The void should and could be cool, but I've had to sit through nearly two hours of nothingness, movie filler. We're well into the movie before this even has a point. Bob fighting against his inner demons would mean more if this had a better set up. The movie expects us to embrace this concept without building a movie around the sequence. It's a great idea that isn't developed.
The movie makes light that the Thunderbolts aren't the real Avengers. They're some kind of knockoff, and this movie feels like a knockoff. Maybe I'd feel more invested if I had followed the television series and the most recent movies, but I've grown tired of Marvel and the Avengers. This movie only reinforces why.
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