SPOILER WARNING – In depth discussion of certain plot details from the Thunderbolts movie ahead. Please see my spoiler free review of it HERE instead for those who haven’t seen the movie yet.
Last chance to bail before the spoiler wall is fully breached.
With a few weeks passed since its opening and a second viewing under my belt, I wanted to revisit the Thunderbolts movie to share a few specific thoughts on its approach and execution.
Going into Thunderbolts there were a number of things I anticipated. The early movie casualty was no big surprise, both due to expected meta narrative reasons of needing to establish the stakes when such dangerous people were thrown into proximity and from a certain character’s notable absence in key trailer scenes.
But it was well executed and while the deceased character might have had some untapped potential Ghost was shown to be on the threat level of her other more well established teammates-to-be by taking out the Taskmaster. Something being predictable doesn’t necessarily take away from the impact (also I’m sure not everyone saw it coming).
“You’re not alone.”
What I wasn’t expecting however were some of the most prominent undertones and themes of the film. I was ready for an action movie anchored by intersecting quests for redemption. What floored me was how it was equally about loss, depression, and dealing with the Void within (lame pun intended). The writers and actors dug into the emotional core of where each character was at this point in time in a compellingly realistic manner, and the movie shines because of it.
The entire cast, from main stars to all the supporting roles, was fantastic. Florence Plugh and Lewis Pullman in particular were incredible as Yelena and Bob. Yelena is in an extremely vulnerable mental state, which Plugh brilliantly conveys through body language, a disheveled appearance, and superb acting. Thunderbolts is both an ensemble piece and entirely her story simultaneously, and the dichotomy wouldn’t work with a lesser performance.
Bob isn’t fully aware nor in control of himself, and is constantly switching between charmingly docile and effortlessly threatening. Pullman nailed the intricacies of the role. In the pivotal establishing scene for Sentry when he first fights the team the nonchalance with which he wiped them out was terrifying.
One of the most gut wrenching scenes of the movie involves Yelena and Bob simply looking at each other as a couple of overheard sentences from a mostly obscured memory lay bare the trauma of Bob’s past. All Yelena can say is “I’m sorry,” but that simply gesture of sympathy is more than Bob had before and was desperately needed. It was impressive handling of heavy subject matter with the movie’s ultimate lesson that it’s ok and often necessary to open up to and rely on others beginning to take form.
While more connected to the external world happenings, Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s great performance as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine was also crucial. There were a surprising number of important moments that hinged on her non verbal reactions to events and information. If she’d been less than genuine in any the multitude of times the camera lingered on her close up to convey the import of developments the movie’s atmosphere would’ve been completely destroyed.
Wyatt Russell’s John Walker was both an insufferable jerk and a well meaning professional deep down. David Harbour’s Red Guardian had to be an entertaining but not obnoxious buffoon 90% of the time and still believably heartfelt and wise when it’s time to have real conversations with his daughter. And so on.
The movie had more nuance and depth than other MCU movies, contributing to it easily being one of my all time favorites.
In a great touch the post credit scene ties it all together by jumping ahead and showing a short, simple glimpse at the everyday status quo of the New Avengers. A little bit of banter shows how comfortable they’ve become with each other and sets up several threads for future movies in a lighthearted manner. Great stuff.
“We’re just disposable delinquents.”
Changing gears a bit to finish this up, I’d like to present a little history lesson. I’m about to dig into spoilers within spoilers, so consider warning given. That said the concept to be discussed is the punchline to issue #1 of a 25 plus year old comic so is certainly fair game.
Like the vast majority of MCU movies, Thunderbolts adapts elements from a number of stories and eras to present something that both honors the source material while fitting in to a new continuity. Practically nothing is a slavish, direct adaptation from any single comic.
The origin of the Thunderbolts name in the movie is a throwaway joke, but it didn’t bother me. However it came up, and however brief it was, the name felt appropriate and it’s inclusion meant something to me.
The movie draws from later incarnations of the titular team, with members from those eras. I haven’t read a lot from those versions, but the movie concept always felt more like Dark Avengers or New Avengers to me so the end twist was no real shock. But again it was done well and served as a perfect payoff to the journey our unlikely heroes went through.
Being as I was an avid reader and huge fan of the original comic by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley, I thought it might be interesting to highlight the difference for those who are unfamiliar. Because in a certain sense the movie skipped some steps.
The concept of the original Thunderbolts comic wasn’t about thrown together villains and anti-heroes overcoming their pasts to be better. It became that in a way, and certain incarnations over the years embodied that more, but there was a fundamental difference in their original concept.
The Thunderbolts started as a team of villains running a con. At the end of the first issue of their comic it was revealed that the new superhero team that came out of nowhere were full on bad guys pretending to be heroes under fake identities to provide cover for their schemes. They were headed up by Baron Zemo (disguised as Citizen V), whose nefarious plan slowly went up in smoke as a majority of his assembled villains decided that there might be something to the thought of being heroes for real after all.
This kind of duplicitous beginning wouldn’t have worked with the chosen movie lineup, and the direction they went made much more sense given what had come before. A bunch of adrift operatives with questionable pasts but no real malice in their motivations coming together after being betrayed allowed for the above mentioned emotional undertones to be featured in a way that wouldn’t have landed if they started as villains trying to bamboozle the public.
Zemo was rumored to be originally planned for the movie, and Daniel Brühl’s been great in his appearances, but his role would have had to be totally rethought. He’s a callback to a version of the team that this incarnation had no resemblance to, and he wouldn’t have fit particularly well with this concept. Especially with them landing as the New Avengers at the end. Given how well it all went I’m personally fine with them not trying to not trying to shoehorn him in, even if having him involved would have been a nod to the original comics.
That’s it for today’s installment of Avengers with a Z. Remember disposable delinquents, “maybe we can be the ones that are coming.”
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