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In Thunderbolts with an Asterisks, Marvel attempts yet again to get us to care about secondary characters most of us casual viewers know nothing about—and manages to deliver a solidly entertaining story that rises above some of the middling muck the once venerated franchise has become known for.
Thunderbolts* (the asterisks’ purpose is revealed at the end, in a failed and confusing attempt at humor or rebranding, I’m not sure which) is perhaps Marvel’s take on DC’s Suicide Squad (if James Gunn’s Galaxy of the Guardians trilogy doesn’t count), in which a group of misfits and superpowered criminals band together to save America. Oscar nominee Florence Pugh leads the cast as what essentially is the new Black Widow. She, along with Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, and Wyatt Russell, give strong performances in part thanks to a script that feels less beholden to the Marvel tropes and cliches that have bogged down recent efforts such as Captain America: Brave New World.
Make no mistake: Thunderbolts* is a Marvel movie and still works in Marvel conventions—it just looks and feels like director Jake Schreier and screenwriters Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo tried harder to make this one work than the “spit out from the Marvel machine” junk that has become more commonplace. The characters are better written, the humor more effective, and the action not as generically bombastic.
And yet Thunderbolts* still can’t entirely escape its chains. Once again, nothing really feels at stake here. The characters, enjoyable in the moment, are largely forgettable. The plot doesn’t stand out in any way or form. The movie practically goes out of its way to scream into the void that all the really cool superheroes that made the Marvel franchise unstoppable are gone.
On its own, Thunderbolts with an Asterisks is a fun, easy to watch piece of entertainment that avoids some of the trappings previous Marvel movies have encountered. The climax thankfully feels different too. In the context of the broader MCU, however, it at best works as a footnote. Or an asterisk.
Review by Erik Samdahl.
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