The MCU has been a bit of a hit-or-miss affair lately. I've missed a few movies and mostly stayed away from the TV shows. Captain America: Brave New World appeared to be a welcome return to form, though it carried on the story from one of the weakest MCU entries: The Incredible Hulk.
Well, this week I got to check out "Thunderbolts*". This is their team-up movie in the similar vein as "Guardians of The Galaxy" or "Suicide Squad". All the individuals on the team are 'augmented', but their power sets basically makes them street tier level superheroes. The team of Winter Soldier (Bucky), White Widow (Yelena), Red Guardian (Alexei), US Agent (Walker), and Taskmaster mostly plays up as a team of anti-heroes who for the most part don't work well with others. In fact, they are merely brought together by circumstance due to the machinations of CIA Director Valentina Allegra De Fontaine, and for the most part you feel they'd betray each other given the chance. Into this already tumultous mix, a seeming nobody named Bob ends up worming his way into their ranks. Now, if you'd watched any of the trailers, you'd know that Bob is basically the answer to the age old question of whether anyone can be super or if anyone SHOULD be super. Like Dr. Malcolm would say,
"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should!"
In the MCU, this dichotomy has existed in the case of situations like Capt. America (Steve Rogers) vs. The Red Skull or even US Agent, and The Hulk Vs The Abomination who kinda end up with similar "juice", but end up with varyingly different results.
Sebastian Stan's "Bucky" is the veteran on the team this time around, and he anchors us to previous Avengers team members. Ghost was introduced as a tragic figure in the stellar Ant-Man 2, but has been incognito for a while; White Widow, Red Guardian and Taskmaster were fleshed out in the Black Widow movie (which I haven't watched yet) and US Agent was basically a Capt. America replacement from Falcon and The Winter Soldier, who's basically what you'd end up with if the American Army was the deciding factor in choosing Cap, and not Dr. Erskine - a big douchebag!!! I can attest that despite not spending too much time on their related backstories, the movie still fleshes them out enough that you won't feel cheated if you haven't watched prior movies or related series involving the characters. Bucky shines through as the leader, but the plot mostly revolves around redemption of these disparate characters, and it is chiefly typified by Yelena's story arc. Red Guardian is the most whimsical of the lot, and acts as the cheerleader of the group; he needs it to gel and work most of all, because through the group he feels like he attains a sense of purpose. Him being Yelena's father figure also reinforces his role as the "heart" of the team.
The weak point of this film comes from the vast scope of its villain's threats. In a world of established superheroes, you always wonder where the stronger heroes are when something seemingly insurmountable threatens to take over the world; why would you only send in the B-Team? (on a separate tangent, this was the same scenario in the first Suicide Squad movie and also interestingly the Justice League Unlimited episode, "Patriot Act). Also, in an era where we've been able to explore horror elements in the Dr. Strange branch of the MCU, why they didn't play up the horror angle of the final antagonist is beyond me. I can appreciate that the MCU has now given us a condition which is infinitely worse than being blipped from reality, but didn't pay as much attention to its progenitor.
Sadly, Marvel has also Von-Struckered another villain. This is sadly one of the flaws that they've carried over into many of their movies, and most people had already hinted at this from watching the trailers. At this juncture it just seems like cruelty is the point, because, coming from the comic book world, there's so much to tap into and glean in order to expand the characters; offing them summarily seems a little defeatist.
The ending, while trying to wrap everything up in a neat bow, ends up feeling a little like being robbed. One character was due for a very big comeuppance, but instead we get a Hail Mary play that just comes out of nowhere, and saves the character. It's kind of played for laughs (like Tony Stark's engagement to Pepper Potts in Spider-Man: Homecoming when Peter snubs the chance to be an Avenger), but it felt like levity just wasn't the right fit for the moment. It sets up a complication that the 2nd post-credits scene hints will be more prominent in future instalments.
Also, just like in Brave New World, against this big of a threat, you just know that the protagonists are going to have to apply a lot of "Talk No Jutsu" to resolve the conflict. Makes you wish that you'd actually have a god-tier hero to deal with a god-tier threat. It's something that the writers have to learn to deal with, but it seems that they'd already painted themselves into a corner.
All in all, this is a new direction for the MCU; it doesn't quite stick the landing, but I hope they finetune the formula so that we can get more movies with heart and stakes (The Marvels felt like a movie where nothing was really at stake, and I don't think I could take something like that again; Thor: Love and Thunder was a TRAVESTY that will remain unspoken!)
Grade: B-
P.S: Planning to catch a second viewing of this with my twin brother, so let's see if it marinates better second time around.
God Bless
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