THUNDERBOLTS* – Review

May has finally arrived which means it’s time for those flowers to start popping up, after those torrential April showers. Well, that’s what most folks think of this month, but for movie fans, it heralds the start of the Summer cinema season. And as with most Mays since 2008, the first big flick out at the multiplex is from Marvel Studios. Now they did have a film open just about three months ago, but it was really an appetizer for a big sprawling “multi-hero” epic. Hold up, they’re not getting the “band back together” as in an assembling of Avengers. And the really major team, the “first family,” is still a couple of months away. So, rather than the “A team,” this is more of the “B team”, or for you baseball fans, the minor league “farm” squad. We have seen them all before, and a couple of the characters are true “scene stealers”. So, can these “second-stringers” work together as the THUNDERBOLTS*? Hang on, true believers!

The story begins with one of those “supporting players”, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), who is finishing a mission in Malaysia, but just seems to be “going through the motions” (can a former Black Widow have an existential crisis). Afterward, back in the states, she pays a long-overdue visit to her papa Alexei (David Harbour), the former Red Guardian, who now drives a limo, but wants to be “back in the game” freelancing like Yelena. On her way out, she checks in with her employer and requests a more high-profile, “in front of the camera” gig. Her boss agrees to it after the completion of her next job. Turns out Yelena’s boss has a lot on her plate. We then go to Washington, DC, for the impeachment hearing of the CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Seems she’s also the “consultant” for a shadowy tech company OXE Group. A newly elected senator is also in the chamber, James “Bucky” Barnes (Sebastian Stan). After the hearing, Valentina instructs her assistant Mel (Geraldine Viswanthan) to make sure her forces converge on a defunct OXE lab site to destroy evidence of past shady experiments. And that’s where Yelena shows up, but she’s not the only one. Soon, the dusty research facility is a battle arena between her, US Agent AKA John Walker (Wyatt Russell), the first intended replacement for Captain America, the density-altering villainess Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), who last fought the ANT MAN AND THE WASP. and another former Widow, the mimic assassin Taskmaster (Oleg Kurylenko). Oh, and there’s an unknown there, too. Scrambling in the shadows is the timid, confused young man who goes by “Bob” (Lewis Pullman). Finally, the quartet realizes that they’ve been “set up” by Valentina. So just how will Bucky AKA the Winter Soldier” come into play, along with the Red Guardian? And is there more to Bob than meets the eye? Perhaps these hopeless heroes will be destroyed before they can ever join forces against a common enemy. So who could that be?

So who’s the MVP of this ragtag bunch? I’d say that it’s the always compelling Ms. Pugh as the forlorn ball of energy, Yelina. She positively crackled when paired with her sister Natasha in the BLACK WIDOW solo flick (almost ditto with Kate Bishop in the Disney+ “Hawkeye” streaming show), but that fiery twinkle in her eyes has dulled. Pugh is fierce in the action scenes and funny and heartbreaking as she confronts her losses and her “sins of the past”. She also shows her nurturing side as the protector of Bob, played with a twitchy, mysterious edge by the terrific Pullman. He keeps us anxious as Bob keeps his secrets as we wait for his truth to be revealed. The big comedic scene stealer may again be Harbour as the loud, gregarious Red Guardian, a man trying to recapture all of his former glory, but falling very short as he almost explodes out of his worn-out, dingy uniform. Louis_Dreyfus is also funny as Valentina, which is no great shock, but she surprises us with her devious deceit and manipulations, giving us a very interesting villainess. Plus, she’s the “boss from Hell” with Viswanthan as the abused aide who finally sees Val’s true colors and tries to thwart her schemes. Many fans will be surprised that Stan’s Bucky isn’t really at the forefront of the story, as he uses his spy skills in DC and eventually gets back into super-warrior mode. More interesting is Russell as the bitter, arrogant, and abrasive US Agent, a man who thinks that leadership is a prize due to him alone. Luckily, John-Kamen is there to put him back on his heels with her scathing retorts and withering gaze.

Prestige TV director Jake Scheier (who also helmed the features PAPER TOWN and ROBOT & FRANK) keeps the multi-character adventure moving at a fairly brisk pace. He manages to balance the big action sequences with intimate emotional exchanges, bringing great depth to these “sideline supers”. Yes, we get the usual MCU carnage on the city streets, but the biggest battles are fought inside the minds of the core teammates. Childhood traumas are built up into a desperate showdown for NYC in the film’s surprisingly dramatic and sometimes touching tender finale. And just to set our heads spinning, screenwriters Eric Pearson and Joanna Caio stun us with some big “turnarounds” sprinkled with lots of keen media satires (love the end credit headline montage prior to the usual bonus scenes, which are pretty big). And it’s all enhanced by the music score from the band Son Lux. This wrap-up of MCU’s “Phase Five” is a tightly-woven dramedy that satisfies while getting us invested in the franchise’s future. It’s a super team tale that doesn’t match the scope of AVENGERS: ENDGAME, but provides an involving look at the psyche of these “upstarts”. And the superb cast led by Pugh and Pullman really brings an electric charge to these THUNDERBOLTS*. Nuff’ said (till July)!

3 out of 4

THUNDERBOLTS* is now playing in theatres everywhere