Justice, Like Lightning: Thunderbolts Review

So the tagline I used in the title has nothing to do with the version of the Thunderbolts in the movie. But I read the original Thunderbolts comics by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley as they came out so have a soft spot for the original concept and couldn’t resist the callback.

I enjoy the idea of taking secondary, often flawed characters from various stories and putting them together to see how they play off each other in general. And the entire lineup here were interesting in their previous MCU appearances with a lot of potential for fleshing out. Pretty much everyone in the movie was someone I was excited to see more of.

So I went into Thunderbolts with high levels of anticipation. I’m inclined to say it was everything I hoped for, but in actuality it was a good deal more than that.

I expected to love it, and I did. I also got the fun interactions and solid action I wanted. On top of all that though, I got a compelling, character driven story that was engaging from start to finish and made this movie an instant favorite.

No spoilers here but I had figured some things out ahead of time. Both in concept and in plot details. But there were also a couple surprises, as well as some things I expected done in unexpected ways. I really have no complaints about how anything played out.

A couple characters were a touch under utilized, but they still made the most of their roles and in an ensemble movie centered by a few key character journeys a few people were going to have to be supporting cast.

As a big comic reader going back decades I’ve been mostly at least peripherally aware of the characters we’ve seen and the big story beats in play for the previous MCU movies. The way things have been adapted to build naturally from how prior movies went nothing is ever slavish to the source material, but I often have the gist of some important points before I see the movie.

In contrast this was one of the first Marvel movies that prominently featured a character I know next to nothing about. It was interesting having no frame of reference for a change. While I can’t speak on how faithful it was to the source, I liked what the movie did with them.

There are SO many interesting implications of the end credits. Won’t say more, but I’m psyched as to where things go from here.

I ended up seeing this in 3D based on availability as to when I could see the movie. Last 3D movie for me was probably pre-pandemic. It was well done. It didn’t feel like the 3D was constantly calling attention to itself, but at the same time there were moments where the 3D made certain shots breathtaking.

Thunderbolts was fantastic. Well acted, looked great, strong plot, and on and on. If at all interested go see it as soon as you can.

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