After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap, seven disillusioned castoffs must embark on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts.
Why can’t I quit the MCU? It’s like they know the right unnatural ingredients to drag me on the same old path again from where I’m at to where I’ve been; I drift away and they pull back in, only this time the Phase 5 waves are too deep and I’ve been wearing thin. So please keep that treasure trove of information stored tightly when I say….
….”Thunderbolts” is another strictly ok entry. Call me a contrarian if you like, but it’s a reheated casserole of what’s come before.
Jake Schreier is trying his hardest to pour his energy and effort into injecting an intimate artistry into the movie he was asked to helm. He isn’t trying to knead the dough beyond just a bag of tropes so instead, his direction strives to create something personal…and yet, the gravitas he aims for comes in spades and dissipates just as quickly. Dare I say, it matches the viscosity like he's trying to wade through thick syrup.
Creating a production design that's this compact and exhausting is almost too simple a task to construct these days but even more difficult to have it really stand out and apologies to Grace Sun, but this is far from foolproof. Not every location is fully utilized to the best of their ability despite adapting to the scale of the movie’s confines and even as it leans far ahead into its own artistic weight, it can’t avoid an insular framework to where it limits the overall scope as a result. Still, her design still boasts an indistinct delicacy to better wear the broadness on its sleeve and for all the constant complaints we hurdle towards Marvel for making every film of theirs look the same with a drab or muted washed-out aesthetic, the denuded presentation at least feels thematically resonant to the rough-around-the edges approach.
Coupling that with a very deliberate, crippling hand-dog quality to the atmosphere only merely annexes some stimulation to this sandbox.
That being said, getting Andrew Droz Palermo, the cinematographer behind THE GREEN KNIGHT, and having him employ the most rudimentary of camerawork just feels wrong. Because even when he frames most of his shots as visually cold and paint-by-numbers, his touch still infuses a whisper of artistry into the visuals, like a faint heartbeat amidst the rigid order, especially evident against the backdrop of muted industrial shades of brown, grey and beige. If anything, the camerawork’s reluctance to fully commit to a more daring visual style screams untapped potential. That sentiment is mirrored and only partially realized by the competent yet uninspired rhythm that the editing imparts to the film. Son Lux’s music is, at least, memorable with their orchestral compositions and properly conveys the bleak and somber affair of the melancholic air, the use of CG is somewhat inconsistent with the more practical stunt work, most of the costumes are draped in that muted somber presence despite the mere omnipresent hues of black and grey irking me and everything maintains a steady pace less but like a sprint to the finish and more like a lumbering trek towards a hazy horizon.
And all of this while zip-tying and fastening all this seemingly auteur-esque baggage alongside one of the most contemplative yet nihilistically moody tones in this entire cinematic universe. Self-serious, waggish and omnipresent, it often can be more than a little overbearing at times in its haste to check off as many of its disparate elements as possible like the film is on its own existential journey, the very sense of an impending cosmic dread baked into its DNA.
Also, it bares repeating that it is such a relief to see delightfully choreographed, impressively legible, just downright bearable action sequences on a more grounded level.
Everything about the presentation of this iteration of the Thunderbolts is presented like a discount Suicide Squad and while yes, these characters are given more modicum's of depth to dwarf the roster from the first Suicide Squad movie, they still fall prey to their archetypal/stereotypical trappings and receive only fleeting moments to break that mold. Performances vary, with some actors elevating underdeveloped characters, while others struggling to leave an impression; Florence Pugh and Lewis Pullman are, arguably, the anchor beings holding everyone and everything in a semi-tangible state, the two performers with the most naturalistic presence and with the right amount of raw, emotional tangibility to sell their rather undercooked characters and sell the dismal, brandflake dialogue.
Also, yes, they wasted Taskmaster AGAIN. Christs sake….
For a back-to-basics grounding on characters over spectacle, there’s something of a, if not likable, then ardent modesty in the narratives own self-awareness, throwing together the most prominent, fourth rate loose end characters in what feels like an acknowledgment of both the franchise's creative exhaustion and wry sense of fatigue. Still, it goes the way most of these team-up movies do: combine under unfavorable circumstances, begrudging alliances, they start getting close, mid-act break-up, reconciliation, they realize they’re more powerful together than they were alone and defeat the big bad; a formulaic structure that's as sturdy as it is stale and doesn’t do much to mask that familiarity. Stakes are purely emotional, its antagonists are underwhelming and yet, for every promising thread that teases something more rewarding, the story pulls itself back into the same old routine of predictably altruistic arcs and slavish, rehashed conflicts.
Nevertheless, although some might say the film's deliberate constraints in scope and scale are admirable yet make it predictable, its focus on a street-level, grounded perspective gives it a character and essence similar to the early days of Phase 1. It’s uniformly straightforward without too many complications and the leaning on character-drama first, prerequisite potential world-ending crisis second still works absolutely to the story’s benefit.
Even as someone who didn’t major in or earn a masters or bachelor’s degree around the subject of mental health or psychology, I can admire the effort at giving this story some thematic heft and weaponizing a surprisingly healthy amount of ennui or earnestness to take mental illness and its psychological toll seriously. Drawing a poignant enough throughline between our antagonists and troubled protagonists is far from a new venture for Marvel or any film in existence but considering how many of these characters are alienated, overwhelmed, unloved or under-appreciated and don’t necessarily recognize or believe in their own powers, it probably was the best imaginable anchor to illustrate how we all have darkness inside. We all have a Void within us that makes us our own biggest enemy or saboteur, and being forced to adapt to and live in a constantly violent world can exacerbate many of those issues. It’s important to find people to share that pain and grief with because we can't always do it alone, it rarely ever works that way.
Still though, I would’ve been more inclined to be less strict on them doing this, had their approach to talking about it not been so surface-level, undercooking its entire messaging ploy. Despite the genuine sense of empathy, it's difficult not to see the film dipping its toes into deep waters only to backpedal. We catch glimpses of something more profound, looking at how these characters' powers equal as metaphors for their inner turmoil or how their isolation feeds into the hands of nefarious government forces capitalizing on their vulnerability and superhero fatigue, but these ideas are swiftly discarded in favor of jokes that don’t land or formulaic action set-pieces, the latter of which specifically coming to a head when the resolution of the climax comes off more like a cheat than an actual achievement. Kudos to them for sticking to a mind palace final battle where defeating the enemy has to come from within but….ehhh.
Oh, and there’s also them taking the confounding route of seemingly vilifying mental instability….at least from what I saw. And that is a huge no-no in my book.
Faint echoes in the wake of the series’s previous highs, it’s both a visual and auditory sign that when they can be bothered, Marvel Studios can still conjure up some semblance of heartfelt storytelling when they aren’t scrambling to feed the ever-growing obligatory beast of box-checking. “Thunderbolts” isn’t a home run by any stretch of the fabric, nor is it even a solid base hit. Instead, it settles for a so-so executed punt; moving the players to where they need to be for the next at-bat. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing; not every entry has to swing for the fences. However, when you consider how much of its DNA feels lifted from better and more cohesive installments…
…it's hard not to be a Debbie downer over its future.
