Thunderbolts*

Directed by Jake Schreier (Netflixs Beef, Showtimes Kidding) and written by Eric Pearson (Transformers One, Black Widow) and Joanna Calo (The Bear, Bojack Horseman), Thunderbolts* documents the emptiness surrounding Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) as she goes through the motions while working for the Ox Group led by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus).

Yelena still hasnt recovered from Natasha/Black Widows death and is sick of killing people and doing villainous tasks for money. After a visit with her father figure Alexai Shostakov (David Harbour), Yelena decides to go straight and attempt to be a hero.

Unfortunately for her, de Fontaine is currently being investigated by the government and is on the verge of being impea...

Thunderbolts genuinely surprised me. I went in expecting a fun Marvel team up but got something even better: a fresh story, fantastic humor, and well-rounded characters that made it stand out in the MCU.

The Vault escape sequence was funny and memorable, capturing the chaotic spirit and humorous banter between the team. Valentina Allegra de Fontaine makes a standout villain, she was clever, cunning, and convincingly evil.

The character dynamics were great. Yelena Belova anchors the film emotionally, while Bucky Barnes feels more relatable and likeable than ever. Bob was a fun addition, bringing subtle humor and a few standout moments that added to the story's emotional beats and brought a few moments of intensity. The rest of the Thun...

FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ https://movieswetextedabout.com/thunderbolts-movie-review-a-refreshing-character-driven-detour-from-multiversal-chaos/

"Thunderbolts* is an exceptional superhero movie precisely because it focuses on a deep exploration of human fragility. Prioritizing its broken protagonists' internal struggles over pure audiovisual spectacle shows a rare maturity in a franchise often criticized for sacrificing substance in favor of generic scale.

This bold approach allows the cast to shine - Florence Pugh especially, who firmly establishes herself as one of the MCU's core pillars. By exploring themes like depression, grief, abandonment, and reconnection with honesty and care, Jake Schreier transforms a blockbuster into a po...

I wasn't really interested in seeing it, but I was interested in taking my wife to a movie for date night, so we did it and...

... nothing in the movie made us really interested in the movie we were watching. A lot happens that the plot demands happen. There's a lot of conveniences that are nicely peppered throughout the film that the protagonists can use because it's necessary for the plot.

I get the the feeling that the characters are from other Marvel shows, most of which my wife and I never cared to watch or just gave up on after the first couple of episodes.

And we left a little less interested in it than we were when we came in.

Superheroes are supposed to be special, gifted individuals, so it logically follows that movies about them should be equally special. However, as has become all too apparent in recent years, that quality has been steadily eroding in these films due to oversaturation in the cinematic marketplace, a circumstance that naturally begs the question, how special (i.e., how different or distinguished) can they really be when there are so many of them? Sadly, that's the key issue weighing down this latest release in the Marvel Universe. Even though the film serves as an introduction to a new slate of Marvel superheroes, the picture isn't particularly groundbreaking given the many similar offerings that have preceded it in this genre. Despite this fi...

Hats off to Florence Pugh for injecting some charisma into this film, but otherwise I found it to be little different from the latest slew of save the planet Marvel adventures that follows a predictable pattern of escaping from the frying pan into the fire a few times before it culminates in a proud declaration that a new franchise has been born. It turns out that Yelena (Pugh) has been working for years as an assassin for the Val (Julia-Louise Dreyfus) whose director of the CIA seems to have been running unfettered off-the-books projects around the globe trying to impose her own brand of world order. The US Congress is breathing down her neck, now, though - so it is time to eliminate all the loose ends. Of course, that doesnt quite go to p...

Just another average movie.

They tried to make it about mental health, but there was no emotional depth or congruity.

It seemed like 1 day story, completed with an awful ending. A lot of plot holes, like how the villain somehow brainwashed in a few hours time?

Pugh had a few good performances. Others were bland and annoying. Forced jokes also felt irritating.

In summary, another Marvel meh, which you have seen 100 times before.