Hey everyone, my name is Anthony and welcome back to my Movie Review.
Last year, I reviewed Deadpool and Wolverine, which while its not perfect, but its fun to see Deadpool coming back for his first journey in MCU and the return of Wolverine, which I had fun with. However, the rest with other MCU contents before or after Deadpool and Wolverine, it was either okay or mediocre, or a dumb luck of good one, and I was pretty much moving away from MCU, because, while I’ve seen some from my curiosity, but I was burnt out from it and I was pretty much waiting to see a new DC contents, including the sort of reboot universe as DCU, but its a long story. While I skipped over Captain America: Brave New World (which I knew its gonna be a forgettable one), I had a doubt and kind of curious with this one in today’s review.
“Thunderbolt*” is a 2025 MCU Superhero film that was directed by Jake Schreier, produced by Kevin Fiege and written by Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo.
The idea of this movie came from last decade during the making of “Guardians of the Galaxy”, our familiar filmmaker James Gunn was also planned to making his own take of Thunderbolt, since he was interested to making his movie involving anti-heroes and villains, leaving Kevin Fiege was surely appreciated to open this plan up once GotG is a hit, and it did with success at the box-office and well-received reception (I saw it and I liked it). However, when James Gunn was fired based on his… Questionable post on Twitter and had to apologize of his poor joke on social media, he was moved away to working on “The Suicide Squad” with DC Studios, though he came back to working with GotG3 for the last time he worked on Marvel and his interest with Thunderbolt no more, along with currently being a Co-Chairman and Co-CEO of DC Studios, so the project Thunderbolt went back in the drawing board, especially they don’t wanna get threatened by DC for similar concept in same direction. Not to mention, in the development they had a numerous plans of what the story is about such as the team are facing against the Sokovian terrorist Helmut Zemo to even Kang the Conqueror, which sounds like a promising plans, but again, the plan was constantly changing until eventually brought it back under new development with Eric Pearson returned since the disappointment of Black Widow as screenplay writer and Jake Schreier took the role as the director, along with bringing back some character that we’ve seen and/or nearly forgot about some.
So, with all that said, with the unlikely anti-hero groups can solve the problems, or is this movie being covered into darkness by The Void?
Well, lets find out.
The Story
For a movie about the group of anti-heroes, it kinda reminded me with David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, but at least its a lot better than the DCEU’s first Suicide Squad, even if there might be some flaws.
The movie begins with the return of Black Widow 2.0, Yelena Belova, who starts out on her own mission to save an abducted guinea pig (odd start, but okay), that is until she received an assignment from boss, who’s the CIA director named Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, who orders Yelena to go at the secret facility of O.X.E., only to revealing she’s not the only one, she met and had a comotion with John Walker (aka U.S. Agent), Ava Starr (aka Ghost) and Taskmaster, but the latter was killed off, cause, lets be honest nobody gives a flying crap about MCU’s terrible version of Taskmaster (aka “Oh no! Anyway...”). But after meet a released suspended animation named… Bob (Subtle…), it was all setup from de Fontaine to trapping them that she wants to wiping out both our three anti-heroes/villains, but also all the evidence about Sentry Project, especially she wants to stay in her power, instead of being impeached, especially she potentially wants Bob as her secret weapon, its up to Yelena, Ghost, U.S. Agent, along with Yelena’s father figure Red Guardian and Winter Soldier to stop de Fontaine before she’ll unleashed her secret weapon “Sentry”.
I find this one is rather nice, but sure a movie about anti-heroes and villains working together feels like its been done before like the aforementioned “Suicide Squad”, but at least this one is actually fun that while it may sounds like finding an evidence, only to be a sabotage plan that Valentina wants to removing any evidence about her in a desperate attempt to clear her name from impeachment, pretty much means Yelena and her unlikely fellas worked with the wrong boss, especially they have their own escort mission to protecting bob before gotten worse. But one part that I will give a credit, is this movie’s plot element that dealing with real issues, mainly on Yelena that when she had a contact with Bob, it somehow showing us Yelena has a traumatic past what she was forced to be in Black Widow experiment (as we found out in her debut on Black Widow movie, despite this movie was a disappointment), her loss of her sister figure OG Black Widow to leaving herself alone in depression with substance abuse like the amount of drinks. Its quite nicely addition for what happened to her after her time in Black Widow movie, but the execution that, while it has a heart moment, but, without giving SPOILERS, its ruined from the most cliché that it felt like something out of anime, its good from the start to see her struggling in her chemistry, but execution wise, not so much from cliché. Of course, in MCU fashion, the movie also has humors, and I gotta say, I find some are chuckle, whether be the team’s chemistry with Bob to even fun insult each others, which we can tell the team up with anti-heroes/villains isn’t as easy from their start when they were dispatched.
While its ruined from cliché, but il give a credit for the writing for good story, some fun moment and even some good heart for chemistry and tragic pasts.
The Presentation
The movie’s budget costs $180M, which happens to be the same budget as the aforementioned Captain America: Brave New World, but unlike the new Cap movie, at least this movie looks pretty nice, despite I have my own nitpick.
For starter, its no stranger that they filmed the studio, but its not one, but two studios in Atlanta, Georgia, Trilith Studio and Atlanta Metro Studio, which I understand they want to imitating either some locations in the consciousness dreams from the past or even in New York, which im easily believe that if they wanna cut their budgets, they gotta make some sets that takes place in New York or even post-production effects. But in fairness, they look pretty nice for the set designs from either the abandoned facility, an abandoned gas station or even in Watchtower (which happens to be the former Avengers Tower when the late Tony Stark used to own before the team relocated to a new building in Spider-Man: Homecoming), of course, some sets are meant to be similar to indie movies like “Being John Malkovich or even some of A24 movies, which il give a credit for their inspiration from indie movies, but then again, their purpose of budget cap, that is until the upcoming Fantastic Four: First Steps are the focus of big budget one (not yet to show their budget as im writing this).
But it wasn’t just filming in the studios, they’re still filmed outside, they filmed in Emery County and Grand County, Utah for the outdoors's facility, some flashback scene and even a car chase with Red Guardian’s limo and three CIA’s Humvees with turrets. Of course, but biggest highlight for outdoor filming is the opening scene where Yelena jump off from the building and opened her parachute, which the craziest part about it, it wasn’t just bring back the practical stunt, but it was a REAL with Florence Pugh, no stunt double in this scene, though the studio was reluctant for insurance reasons, but she eventually did it, Tom Cruise style. The building in question is Merdeka 118, with the name suggest, its an 118-story megatall skyscraper located in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city on Malaysia, and this one is brand new that its already opened on January 10th 2024, and this building stands 678.9 m, making it the 2nd tallest building in the world, its behind from Burj Khalifa in Dubai. (Sounds like Pugh is having a rivalry with Tom Cruise for the stunt with tall building, like remember with Tom Cruise climbed Burj Khalifa in Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol? It was insane that its REAL to see).
As for the designs like the costumes, I find some are pretty good, while some that I find them to be iffy. One of which for the latter is Yelena’s costume. I get she’s the new Black Widow, but this costume just comes off as too cheap and baggy, like why didn’t they give her a tight bodysuit like OG Black Widow had, I know some of you may like it, but for me, im not a fan. While the others are pretty nice like U.S. Agent who’s pretty much the darker version of Captain America, Red Guardian looks good too with changing layer compared when he first introduced in Black Widow, Ghost’s new costume looks okay, like I get she’s turning into anti-hero, but I miss her first costume that she used to be full white in “Ant-Man and The Wasp”, Winter Soldier is sadly didn’t have that, he’s more into vigilante appearance when he used to look pretty look cool when he used to work with Sam Wilson. Taskmaster has an alright new costume, but again, nobody gives a crap about her, F(bleep) this sorry version of Taskmaster in MCU. Though one exceptional of SPOILER I like to give is Sentry’s costume, which I find this costume looks fairly descent, complete with his symbol but on his waist and blue cape, which I know its Marvel’s answer to Superman, more on that later.
As for the effects, like I said they wanted to going back to the old route with practical stunts, which I find some stunt scenes are pretty cool for what they pulled from car chase to even climbing the elevator shaft, which it may look silly, but I can’t help but remind me of Disney’s “The Emperor's New Groove”. But sure, they also gotta use the visual effects, and lot of them are like Top 5 list of visual or animation effects, including Industrial Light and Magic, Digital Domain and couple others, which the effects are pretty nice too, however, one problem I have is some filming shots or even effects are going darkness, I get this is the build up for The Void and the anti-heroes mean add a bit dark tone, but I hate movies going somber or going 80% blackness.
As for the action scenes, since Thunderbolts is a group with no powers (minus Ghost), its more focus on melee combat and shoot’em up, which its also the highlight of the movie, but then again, they’re fun to watch for their choreograph to some creative blocking and obstacles.
While I have a nitpick on one of costumes and dark cinematography, but at least it looks pretty good for the actions, the designs and the stunts.
The Characters
While we have the returns since we saw from whichever movies or series in MCU, we’d expecting to giving us the upgrade of the characters? Absolutely, even if some that I forgot whether I’ve seen some since almost a decade ago or some that I skipped over like “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier” or others. However, the new is pretty minimal, but it doesn’t mean its bad, it has a fairly descent one too.
Lets start with the main protagonist in the team, Yelena Belova (reprised by the aforementioned Florence Pugh), she’s the new Black Widow ever since the original one (Natasha Romanoff) one was tragically died in Endgame, she’s gotta take the new role and working with unlikely villains or anti-heroes based on the setup from her CIA Director. When I first seen her in Black Widow, I find her to be an average one, being a curious and unapologetic sister figure of the group, but here, due to the death of OG Black Widow and being backstabbed by de Fontaine, she’s pretty much going downhill based on her traumatic past is coming back to bite in her butt. She tries to get back up to be bigger and better much like her late sister figure since Black Widow experiment in Russia. I know she’s changed into edgelord like we’ve seen some, but in case for Yelena, its gonna be a tough task to take her sister figure’s torch as the new Black Widow, let along with traumatic past is coming back to haunting her, which makes her rather understand and we maybe relate to her that we’re also feel ill-prepared to take a new leadership or keep moving forward when we lost a friend or a family figure, again, pretty understandable, but I think its a nice update of her and hopefully she’ll be improvement and cleaned in “Avengers: Doomsday”, and Florence did a good work of her performance, especially with the stunt she pulled in Malaysia.
Next up we have Bucky Barnes, aka Winter Soldier (reprised by Sebastian Stan) as a super soldier with mechanical prosthetic arm since his presumed dead in WWII, he’s now a member of US House of Representatives after working with Sam Wilson to focusing on politic, but when hearing about de Fontaine involvement with O.X.E., he finds her fishy about her setup for putting villains turned heroes out of misery. I find him a fairly descent change, though he’s still into Avengers, but then again, politic was his path before the suspicious about Valentina to put himself coming back as anti-hero duty and working with Thunderbolts, even if he’s kind of forgotten until the 3rd act. Despite he’s kind of no show, but Stan still did a nice work of his role.
After that, we have Alexei Shostakov, aka Red Guardian (reprised by David Harbour), the father figure to Yelena and the Russian super soldier version of Captain America based on similar presentation he has. Much like before, he’s a broken down father figure after been in a journey with two Black Widow, but after heard about Natasha’s death, it wasn’t as easy for him too. While he’s still loud mouth and cocky for his humor role, but he eventually has a good heart to Yelena to admitting its not easy to push forward about on tragic event, which is a nice update to Alexei to helping her when something isn’t on the way, especially Harbour did a nice work for his humor and heart to heart moment.
Next, we have Ava Starr, aka Ghost (reprised by Hannah John-Kamen), a former villain in Ant-Man and The Wasp who’s now into anti-hero with her phasing ability like a “ghost” (no pun attended). Yeah, ever since we saw her in Ant-Man’s sequel, I feel like she’s completely forgotten until she came back out of gloom to revealing she used to work with O.X.E., but like Yelena, she found out it was all setup. While its nice to see coming back as a ghostly mercenary, but again, I feel like she’s completely forgotten between Infinite saga to the current Multiverse saga until here. While il give a credit for her new change and Hannah did a nice and welcoming return for being both calm decisive and getting use with her phasing from what happened in Ant-Man’s sequel, but jeez, I feel like she’s been collecting dust after been absent.
And lastly in Thunderbolts is John Walker, aka U.S. Agent (played by Wyatt Russell, who’s the son of Kurt Russell), an honorable discharged super soldier who’s meant to be the new Captain America, but didn’t go that well that the original Falcon is now the new Captain America, while Walker is named “U.S. Agent”, I find him to be a fairly descent, like Red Guardian, he’s pretty much the opposite version of Captain America, but being a Dick than respectful and helpful for the name of America, and Wyatt is quite surprising to me, considering he’s the son of Kurt Russell that he likes to following his father’s footstep much like my favorite actor Jack Quaid, but il give a credit for Wyatt, he did a nice and fun work of his role.
Outside of Thunderbolts, we have Bob Reynolds (played by Lewis Pullman), who’s an amnesiac person who’s been discovered in secret facility, only to probably realizing that he’s a test subject for Project Sentry for being the greater and powerful than any other Avengers, otherwise, he warns about “The Void” if its gotten worse. I find him to be surprisingly good, he’s a test subject that he’s picked up by Thunderbolts as a form of evidence, even if he had some humor moments that he made me chuckled. While I never read the comics, but when I did do a research about Sentry (which I won’t give you spoilers in the movie, im talking about the comic and its brief history), he’s basically Marvel’s answer to Superman, mainly for being a powerful hero with every abilities under his sleeves, I get they’re trying to make something new ever since Superman is the most influenced superhero for almost a century, sure most people want to make similar to Superman, but ended up in a mixed result, but in case for Marvel’s take on Superman as Sentry, I find Sentry to be unique, it may sounds like a potential concept as a bigger and promising power compared to either Iron Man or Spider-Man, but as far as im concerned, despite he has potential, he’s like one of those superheroes being left on the shelf before collect in the dust, left in a shadow from Marvel’s bigger names. I mean, it would’ve been good if its gonna be a movie about him instead of Thunderbolts. Aw well, at least in the movie he’s not bad that I think he has potential and Lewis did a fun work of his role.
And finally, we have Valentine Allegra de Fontaine (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus), the contessa and the CIA director and an ex-wife of Everett K. Ross (you know, the CIA operative that we saw him in Black Panther?), while she may seems to be lady in control on CIA when we saw her in “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier”, only we found out that she’s a corrupting manipulative facade she just wants to rule her control as well as trying to sabotaging heroes to remove everything about her past in a desperate attempt to clear her name from impeachment in her directive role of CIA. Yeah, she’s definitely the villain for being corrupt, paranoid and desperate “innocent” woman beyond belief in attempt to save the world, she’s always like for being a backstabber for her setup for removing her misconduct past in order to keeping herself as “innocent”, but much like Winter Soldier, we’re pretty fishy for the way she handled her business, hence the exposure on Valentina in plan of impeachment. She’s easily the villain that you love to hate her for her burying her corruption in the sand like nothing happened, but not before we found about her curve-ball. But of course, Julia did a nice work of her performance.
As for the rest, there aren’t much else to say, there’s Mel (played by Geraldine Viswanathan) who’s de Fontaine’s assistant before she shares the secret about her boss, and Taskmaster (reprised by Olga Kurylenko) is the villain that we don’t give a crap about her before she died pretty quickly.
While im not familiar with some that I’ve never seen or been a while I’ve seen past movies, but I find some of return characters are pretty nice for their update, even the new ones are fascinating, except for some that I have a nitpick for being forgotten, and some is a well-deserved short-lived that we don’t even care.
And now for my final opinion of this film
Overall, Thunderbolts is a pretty nice film for being their take of group of villains/anti-heroes working together like Suicide Squad.
Its nicely written for the story, some good humors, fun action (along with some impressive stunts), a nice message that we can relate, the presentation looks good and has some nice and well-written characters.
However, its nowhere perfect that I was expecting for due to the message of solving issues is ruined with the one most obvious cliché, the cinematography may look good, without the freakin’ darkness that I just can’t take (I know its for the build up for The Void or a tragic flashback, but still) and some character that we completely forgot since almost a decade ago.
Sure, its nowhere perfect that I would call a “must-watch” film, but this is definitely a recommended film for the fans of MCU or even some who’re curious to see, myself included. But like I said, MCU is pretty much turning into a rollercoaster ride with pattern of giving us a good movie, bad movie, good, bad and the list goes on and on. So after the forgettable recent Captain America film, this one is more likely film that you should check it out. Or save your money to see MCU’s Fantastic Four.
For my rating, im gonna give this one an 8/10.
So this ends of my movie review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.
Thanks for reading, and im Anthony, signing out.
No comments:
Post a Comment