I just realized Bob in Thunderbolts is also Bob in Top Gun Maverick. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Fun movie. I plan on seeing it again on the big screen, and look forward to the next one. Red Guardian is my favorite, so enthusiastic and funny, but with just enough pathos to keep him a real person.
Caught it in 3D, surprisingly (the prime showtimes usually aren't available in that these days). The 3D really enhanced the film since it's shot in such an intimate way it made things feel more personal. Overall the film was pretty good. Not sure I'd say it's one of the S-tier films like some hyped it up, but I enjoyed the characters before so seeing them play off each other was very enjoyable. But, in the end, this is essentially Black Widow 2 as it really is Yelena's film. And this is probably the first time the credits of a film have spoiled the post-credits stinger . And, I guess, the pre-show also sorta spoils it too, in a way.
My Thunderbolts review on my website bigalreviews.com ! Thunderbolts* Thunderbolts* is a sturdy entry into the ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it works surprisingly well as a standalone adventure, which is quite the trick as it’s part of an ongoing saga and a significant chunk of characters here were introduced in Disney Plus exclusive releases. It is also funny and madcap as it careens from one incident to the next, however there is some darkness and depth underneath the quips. It takes some less than recognizable heroes from different corners of the MCU and smashes them together in interesting ways to give this a more chaotic vibe than most superhero efforts.
It seems the non-spoiler consensus is "good, mostly fun, but not great." I'm not in a rush to see it in theaters, so I don't want to get too spoiled. But I am interested in one big spoiler, if people could respond with the answer in the spoiler tag: Which main/named characters die? And is it done well, without describing how it happens? I just can't help but worry one of my favorite characters will die, and I don't want to see the movie in theaters if they do.
Saw thunderbolts*. It was decent. I'd grade it a B/B-. Wife gives it a C, a bit more critical. Interested in the setup. We'll see where this goes.
Saw it last night, and enjoyed it. I'd give it a solid B I think. Starts a bit slow, and I do think it helps a lot if you know who the characters are, although my wife enjoyed it and she went in with, at best, a passing knowledge of most of the characters, so maybe that's less of an issue than I think. I definitely give it points for trying something different. It's very much a character-grounded story that wants to explore emotional themes - there's a good amount of action but it isn't a movie that is just trying to get from big action set piece to big action set piece. Florence Pugh is outstanding, and David Harbour is great. It's very much a Yelena-centered story so some of the other characters aren't explored quite as much as I'd like (I found it interesting to see who is listed in the cast list when I did a quick search -- given that the movie deals a lot with the impact of lingering memories and trauma, I wonder if there weren't cut scenes exploring some of the other Thunderbolts' backstory, that didn't make it to the final cut). As one of the rare few who really liked Ghost from ANTMAN 2 I particularly wished we got a little more of her. But overall, the balance worked, the performances were all good, and Yelena/Pugh can definitely carry a movie. Worth seeing? Definitely.
I suspect they intentionally didn't go deeper into Ghost's trauma because they already showed so much of it in Ant-Man 2. Though it would have been nice to get a callback "room" to those events.
As far Ghost, with her phasing pronblem, i'm under the impression she spent most her life "caged" to avoid desintegration. So all her trauma may be set around Bill Foster. Not sure how deep you can go there. And Bucky spent all TFATWS in therapy, so his trauma ,with the "killed by mistake man", was well covered already. As far the movie, nobody mentioned but was very impressed here with Valentina. In her first cameos i was like, "hey look Elaine is now in the MCU", but here Julia-Louise Dreufuss really immersed herself in the character, who was really well written. Val, in the end, remined me a lot a lot of Stryker ( played by Brian Cox) in X-2: a corrupt official disguising her evilness and greed behind some fake patriotism. And yeas she was more menacing/ruthless than Kang in all MCU attempts to showcase him.
This film is 100% at its best when it’s a group of damaged, flawed people vocally denying their desire to be better and find a family, but still being drawn together and to help others in spite of it. At its best, it has some shades of the excellent first Guardians of the Galaxy movie. It also happens to have a main antagonist who’s a perfect match for that idea, and the ending very much feels like it’s the very-good-but-not-great successor to GOTG1’s “Power of Friendship, *****!” climax. Just about everyone knocks it out of the park as actors, and yeah, the only real issue I have is that Hannah John Kamen didn’t get the one or two scenes specific to her that I think might have exploited her clear handle on the character. Pugh and Harbour, predictably, dominate the heart of the film, while Russel comes in as a strong 3rd, and Pullman makes a great Bob in all facets. In more detail… Spoiler The Thunderbolts all wordlessly starting to save people in the climax when the building starts to fall apart, and wordlessly uniting to keep John from being being crushed, is a great moment that could have been even better with just one or two scenes - particularly with Ghost. John’s personality and chemistry with the others as the sort of “******* oldest brother” is firmly established, as is his desire to be a hero; Red Guardian as the group’s self-appointed embarrassing dad is pretty much instantly realized; Bucky slots in as the sort of trusted and responsible uncle everyone knows better than to act up around; and Yelena’s the heart and soul of the film and the “team” before they become a real team. It’s only really Ghost who feels like her exact story with the team is sort of skipped over. Kamen seems to be quietly implying with her acting that Ghost is secretly glad to be teamed with the others, and is mostly projecting the angry loner thing that the others feel a little bit more genuinely; this would fit well with how Ghost’s trauma is more the physically painful stuff that’s happened to her, rather than things she’s done, and how she *does* have her own father figure already. I feel like they could have emphasized that so that her being the first to try and help John with the debris would have been her own little climax. And for the villains Spoiler What I like most about Val as a villain is that’s she’s so incredibly dangerous because she’s a sloppy, self-centered, and careless egotist - she comes off as incidentally more dangerous than other Marvel villains, rather than trying to be more dangerous. Most of her most destructive actions in the film are her just trying to save her career and avoid prison and making mistakes and uninformed decisions out of hubris and apathy. Which is the biggest reason why Bob/Sentry can be the overwhelmingly powerful antagonist of the story and still be so sympathetic - Val’s created him as an expendable side effect of her actual goals, ignorantly had him dumped into her last bit of “clean up,” worsens his mental state, and then leaves him to be consumed by the Void all without realizing it. She wanted to be the New and Improved Nick Fury, and instead she’s “Oops, accidental Hydra on steroids.” In some ways, she’s worse than Stryker because it was all an accident.
Spoiler You saw the track listing for Fantastic Four, didn't you? My eyes immediately saw it too and realized the post credit would use it.
Spoiler Yep, exactly that. Hard thing to avoid, but, still, it did undercut the surprise (even if one could predict it as a possibility). And since the music credits are probably the most-read part of the credits outside of the cast, it might have spoiled a good portion of the audience too. Speaking of that, I also noticed that they only confirm that no animals were harmed during the parts of the film that were supervised by whatever organization (humane society), as opposed to the more blanket statement usually found at the end of a film.
Spoiler I mean it was, what, just the guinea pig? Who would ever hurt those little fluffballs? BTW I saw it last night, very fun, not too formulaic, and had some great performances especially from Pugh and Pullman.
Asterisk officially spoiled on social media. Be careful out there if you haven't seen it. Spoiler https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1HdorjavM3/ Re: The End credit scene Spoiler So I think I read that the end credit scene was shot maybe a month ago and it is actually a scene from Doomsday. My initial thought is that this would appear directly in the F4 movie, but it seems that's not the case. It would be funny if the end credit scene for F4 was this same clip.
Spoiler So is this officially an Avengers film now? I mean it seems like they’ve officially changed the title to The New Avengers.
No it isn't. Spoiler The same way a film called "The Young Avengers" or "The Secret Avengers" isn't an Avengers film. Avengers films are simply "Avengers: ___________"
Thunderbolts. I wasn't ready. Out of context low-spoiler quote: Spoiler "I didn't think you wanted me."--Father "I did."--Daughter. Everyone did great but Florence Pugh just owns this.
I wish Kate Bishop had been a part of the story; she has great chemistry with Yelena. But she doesn't seem the type to work for Valentina. I'm hoping she's with Sam's Avengers and they'll have a showdown soon.
