Thunderbolts*

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Multiverse Saga

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Quickly becoming a personal favourite of mine in the "Multiverse Saga," 'Thunderbolts*' brings together a handful of underdog, second-fiddle anti-heroes in a way that not only refreshes our memories on things a bit but does so in a way that seems to advance things in the MCU finally, as well as making connections to upcoming MCU projects, which so many stingers have failed to do since the "Multiverse Saga" began, with a few exceptions. Thankfully, however, Marvel has listened to us again.

'Thunderbolts*' offered something slightly different for the MCU, although one could easily compare them to DC's 'Suicide Squad,' conceptually. Either way, it's nice to see some familiar, likeable faces again in their roles as mercenaries, working for CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who is involved with the O.X.E. Group's "Sentry" project. The film opens with one of Valentina's mercs, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), destroying a lab in Malaysia to cover up Valentina's involvement.

Yelena, wanting change in her life, communicates this to Valentina, who, in turn, sends her on a final mission to take out a target. Here, however, Yelena runs into John Walker, a.k.a. U.S Agent (Wyatt Russell), Ava Starr, a.k.a. Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and Antonia Dreykov, a.k.a. Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), all of whom find a new enemy in Valentina, as she sent them all there to destroy each other. They also meet a guy named Bob Reynolds (Lewis Pullman), who is hiding in the facility, and they take him with them while attempting to escape the facility. But some notice that there's something just a little strange about Bob.

In the meantime, Alexei Shostakov, a.k.a. Red Guardian (David Harbour), is living as a freelance chauffeur, who, one day, overhears Valentina's plans as he's driving her, realizing Yelena (his daughter) is in over her head, and he soon sets out to find her. Eventually, they all cross paths with Congressman Bucky Barnes, a.k.a. (ex-) Winter Soldier, who plans to use them to testify at Valentina's impeachment. But it's not long before this rag-tag team finds themselves in a seemingly hopeless situation that would regularly call for the Mighty Avengers, who are all preoccupied in one way or another.

It's safe to say that when a teetering MCU fan watches a 'Thunderbolts*' trailer, they might wonder about some characters they may not have seen yet. But I feel there's enough here, either subtly mentioned or said outright, that gives a bit of a recap on things, at least as much as one would need to know. With a film like this, that's necessary because to play true "catch-up" with this, you're looking at a ton of viewing material. Not only does it do a good job of recapping things on a need-to-know basis, but it also fuels the desire to go back and watch some of these things again to see if we get more out of it.

Something I always appreciate is the film's take on what could be considered dark mental health problems, not in a way that feels particularly "woke," but in a way that genuinely flows with the character(s) involved. It's a story about overcoming hopelessness and fighting to find the light in any dark situation. I must further give the movie kudos for the secret behind the astrix in the film's title, which IS revealed but will not be here. And to top it all off, the stinger here feels much closer to how things used to be, as it's simple, to the point, and doesn't provide a whole bunch of question marks with it as so many have since 'Endgame.'

In many ways, I agree with other reviews I've read and seen online that something about 'Thunderbolts*' feels right again, as if they've gone back to basics. I have a bit of a bias towards the film and some of its subject matter, namely the good old underdog concept, but I can honestly say something about this movie felt more "at home." This movie has an all-around human relatability that hasn't felt quite present in a while - maybe that's just me. However, as far as the Multiverse Saga goes, this is easily one of the most pleasant surprises the MCU has to offer.

5/5

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