'Thunderbolts*' puts the MCU back on track with mental health
Have the recent MCU films felt bloated with meaningless characters to you? If so, “Thunderbolts*” may be your solution as these characters now have purpose.
The film follows the MCU’s recent anti-heroes including Yelena Belova’s Black Widow (Florence Pugh), Bucky Barnes’ Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Alexei Shostakov’s Red Guardian (David Harbour), John Walker’s U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), Ava Starr’s Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and Antonia Dreykov’s Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) as they seek vengeance against Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, or Val for short, (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) for wronging them.
In their journey, the group unofficially calling themselves the Thunderbolts—hence the asterisk in the film’s title, encounter Robert “Bob” Reynolds (Lewis Pullman), also known as Sentry whose unstable mental state unleashes a darker half known as The Void on New York City, which prompts the ragtag group of “forgotten” MCU characters to team up and save the day.
When “Thunderbolts*” was first announced, I was uncertain of how the movie would go. Can this team of misfits really even be a team? Surprisingly, yes.
Even more surprisingly, this film isn’t really about the team but rather mental health.
Sentry and The Void from the comics have always had a complex history, but the film manages to ground it in mental health explaining how everyone has regrets and a darkness within them that feels like a void.
This is something Yelena struggles with for the entire runtime as she went from just wanting a proper family to grappling with her sister’s death to being manipulated by Val to Alexei avoiding her.
Pugh and Pullman steal the show by being insanely relatable and palpable with their acting from Pugh’s portrayal of Yelena’s depression and Pullman’s portrayal of Bob’s reclusive side, which contrasts The Void’s menace.
As for the other characters, their actors are phenomenal but are left underutilized by the story, which is a shame because I want to see these characters maximize the potential to be great that I know they possess.
“Thunderbolts*” allows Yelena and Bob to get there, but Red Guardian is purely comedic relief for the entire film, Bucky is just going through the motions of the plot and Ghost slips away into obscurity once again as she did in her debut in “Ant-Man and The Wasp.”
That leaves U.S. Agent behind who -actually gets some more character development, which is nice as he’s one of the better post-”Avengers: Endgame” characters, but it still isn’t enough.
As previously mentioned, Yelena has been manipulated by Val, but she’s not the only one as all of the main cast shares this in common with each other.
That commonality serves as a bonding point for the team, making their “family” feel on par with that of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
While Val might be the true antagonist of the film, The Void is the main antagonist of the film.
I knew from the trailer shots of him making people disappear and leave only their shadows behind similar to those who were caught in the atomic blasts of Hiroshima would make him a force to be reckoned with, but the film managed to hook me in with his dark portrayal.
The Void has no mercy and no regard for anyone’s present state. As The Void descended onto Manhattan, I was left with my mouth wide open in pure shock at his relentlessness.
“Thunderbolts*” story does a good job of making you feel that there’s a true threat on the loose in The Void while balancing the mental health allegory, but the film does have minor instances of the plot magically resolving itself to keep the pacing going.
Those instances mostly appear in the third act and aren’t enough to ruin the enjoyment of the movie, but they will stick out like a sore thumb.
From a filmmaking standpoint, everything is exceptional.
VFX are only utilized when necessary with stunts and fights being primarily practical and shot with minimal cuts to allow for easy viewing of each character’s moves.
“When necessary” might not be the best description as I don’t think it was absolutely necessary for Pugh to jump off the Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but I’m not going to complain about more practical filmmaking techniques in the MCU.
“Thunderbolts*” feels like and is one of the best MCU movies in recent years. Everything from the acting to the practicality of it are amazing. The mental health allegory of everything also ties the story together neatly.
Yes, there are some slight hiccups with the characters and story that take you out of the film for a bit, but they won’t be much of a problem going forward in the MCU as things feel like they’re finally starting to get back on par with the Infinity Saga both in terms of quality and interconnectivity.
Thunderbolts* — ★ ★ ★ ★
Release Date: May 2, 2025
Director: Jake Schreier
Runtime: 2hr 6m
Rating: PG-13