Thunderbolts and Lightening, very, very frightening!’ warbled pomp rock god Freddie Mercury and after a recent spate of disappointing films from Marvel is Thunderbolts* a film that will frighten away audiences? That Florence Pugh leads front and centre is an assured step in the right direction and here she returns to her role as Yelena the adopted sister of the late Black Widow and all is not well. Sitting on the edge of a skyscraper deep in existential crisis about what her life has amounted to – mindless violence that’s further perpetrated as she skydives into her latest mission and brutally takes out a corridor full of bad guys.
The seemingly mindless missions continue with CIA director Valentin Allegra de Fontaine ( another terrific performance from Julia Louis-Dreyfus) that sees Yelena along with failed Captain America wannabe John Walker (Wyatt Russell) Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Taskmaster (not Greg Davies but Olga Kurylenko) and the far less impressively monikered Bob (Lewis Pullman) something of a man of mystery who, much like Yelena, is mired in his own world of disillusion. The group find that they have been trapped in a bid to eradicate all of them and their bid to escape is enjoyably comical as they battle each others egos as much as the scenario they find themselves.
The gang of misfit superheroes are later joined by Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) and Yelena’s adoptive father Red Guardian (David Harbour providing the laughs) in a neat set piece with live stunts rather than the CGI fest we’ve come to expect from Marvel films. Out of necessity the group form a sort of rag tag team working together for the greater good despite their own misgivings and neuroses.
So the band of ‘heroes’ each with their own foibles are all dealing some sort of repressed emotion and squabble and bicker. Many of the characters have had their own back stories explored in the numerous TV series but this is tightly scripted, that also gives us an explanation of that asterisk in the title, and there’s nothing lost by not having seen those series.
Thunderbolts* is a return to form for Marvel after rather too many flops of late and this neatly combats the claim of superhero fatigue with Florence Pugh proving once again that she is a brilliant screen presence.
related feature : ‘Havoc’ director Gareth Evans & stunt man Jude Poyer talk stunts and Tom Hardy
related feature : Is it time to end the Marvel post credits scenes?
Here’s the Thunderbolts* trailer……
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