If nothing else, the eccentrically punctuated Thunderbolts* can convincingly claim to be the least bad in the “Who the Bucky are these people?” trilogy of obscure Marvel Cinematic Universe team-up flicks. Eternals (never heard of them) was soporific. The Marvels (yeah, beats me) was maybe the worst entry yet in the series. The new film does, at least, seem sure in its intentions.
We have here an irreverent semi-comic romp that allows decent actors an opportunity to stretch their deltoids and test the limits of their vocal cords. It is a shame the project feels flimsier than the average TV-show pilot, but, after the catastrophe that was Captain America: Brave New World, one can celebrate something that at least has a middle between its beginning and its end.
That opening has something to do with Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s Valentina Allegra de Fontaine – an evil contessa and sometime director of the CIA – luring a ragbag of superpeople, each of whom knows something incriminating about her, to a remote bunker with a mind to mass eliminations.
We know these people are “antiheroes” as, unlike Superman or Mighty Mouse, their costumes are all a bit drab and muddy. Florence Pugh is, of course, Yelena Belova, current wearer of the Black Widow mantle. Hannah John-Kamen reprises her role in Ant-Man and the Wasp as a creature that can walk through walls. Wyatt Russell plays a cut-price Captain America with whom, apparently, I’d be more familiar if I’d bothered to watch The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on telly.
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Thunderbolts* review: The least bad in the ‘Who the Bucky are these people?’ trilogy of obscure MCU team-up flicks
Anyway, the team escapes from de Fontaine’s trap and embarks on a journey that, though sometimes irreverent, doesn’t skirt the supposed 16-cert outrages of Deadpool & Wolverine. People do get shot dead here. Other people get punched in the face. But nobody says the F-word before they die. “None of us can fly. We just punch and shoot,” one of the number says.
This does downplay the supernatural element somewhat, but for the first hour or so the film is, indeed, in old-school action mode. Fight direction has a crunch that feels satisfyingly in debt to distant Asian influences.
As we move into a deeply peculiar final act, attention turns to the most elaborate of de Fontaine’s schemes. Lewis “Son of Bill” Pullman plays an apparently harmless fellow named Bob who, unaccountably present in the opening bunker scenes, turns out to be the subject of ambitious experiments. Elaine out of Seinfeld seeks to turn him into a superbeing more powerful than all the Avengers combined. Because that’s the sort of thing that happens in these films.
Louis-Dreyfus has proper fun aping Hackman-era Lex Luthor as she taunts the team with her messianic ambitions. She, like most of the cast, has a true grasp of the project’s absurdity. This makes the final slip into existential gloom all the more puzzling. I initially laughed at the notion that Bob moving a water glass with his mind alone might be a reference to Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker. But the literal and metaphoric pall that later falls over New York suggests the nod may really be intentional.
For all that, not least thanks to a final gag that points towards an unexpected future, Thunderbolts* works best as a jokey romp at home to tolerable quips amid mounting chaos. David Harbour, returning as Yelena’s father figure, continues an agreeably diverting double act with Pugh. Both do more than merely drop the definite article in their comic exaggeration of Russian diffidence.
Will it revive the uncertain fortunes of the MCU? Impossible to say. The Fantastic Four: First Steps, awaiting us in July, will truly test the brand’s health.
* The asterisk references a note on the poster that “the Avengers are not available”. And maybe something else. Who knows?
Thunderbolts* is in cinemas from Thursday, May 1st
