Thunderbolts and Lightning, Mental Health is Frightening*

Thunderbolts* takes a bunch of relatively minor MCU characters and scoops them up into a "Suicide Squad" type adventure where they face off against insurmountable odds. Given most of the characters have appeared in TV shows, there is a distinct whiff of Disney+ about proceedings but it is also one of the most solid films Marvel has put out in years. The execs must have known they had something decent on their hands as they waited until a whole weekend after release to spoil the end twist with marketing, as appose to doing it in the trailers.

The titular Thunderbolts are : New Black Widow, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), failed Captain America replacement John Walker (Wyatt Russell), former Winter Soldier turned congressman Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Russian super soldier and Yelena's adoptive father Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ant Man 2 alumni Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and maybe mysterious newcomer Bob (Lewis Pullman). If you follow MCU events you will recognise most of them from past projects (mainly 2021's Black Widow) but no need to worry if you don't, there is some clunky exposition dialogue to catch you up on everyone's story. Events take place over a night and day as Yelena, Walker and Ghost (along with Taskmaster, another Black Widow legacy) are individually sent by sketchy CIA director Valentina (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) to clean up an off the books warehouse that is tied to a congressional hearing. After a brief tussle they realise they themselves are considered loose ends to be disposed of and end up on a collision course with Valentina's super hero experiment "Sentry".

So the characters aren't exactly household names but the film turns that to its advantage. Without a ton of baggage, Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo's script is able to mould the characters to fit the story. Harbour is funny as the over enthusiastic father figure, Russell is both smug and fragile and Stan is the cool uncle everybody wants to be. Ghost is probably least well served as the outsider looking for somewhere to belong while Yelana is the closest thing to a main character. If you are going to pick someone to hang your movie on, Florence Pugh is a solid shout and it's good to see her take centre stage after her underwhelming appearance in the Hawkeye TV show.

The round pegs in round wholes philosophy extends to the production, with Jake Schreier turning out to be a smart choice for directing duty. He may only have two films under his belt but he has done plenty of TV and the ability to come on board an existing property and get the job done pays dividends. With a background in music videos he clearly has an eye for style and the film looks great, marrying a grounded, fairly real looking aesthetic with a nice colour palette. We also get a cool looking superhero fight and the final big bad is visualised in a unique and thematically sinister way.

The story isn't anything spectacular and Red Guardian could drive an armoured limo through the plot holes, but having everything play out consecutively over a short space of time gives it a nice pace and sense of urgency. For a lot of the runtime it plays out like a child friendly(ish) version of Amazon show "The Boys", before ending on a finale that is basically a visual representation of battling depression. The MCU is often full of snarky and grandstanding main characters so it's a refreshing change to see the day being won by being nice. That said, depending on how you look at it, there are some uncharitable take aways regarding people with mental health issues not being fit for positions of responsibility or power. I'm sure any such message is unintentional and in a movie where a serum can dish out godlike powers, everything should be taken with a pinch of salt, but if you want to touch on such serious subject matter you really need to consider all angles.

Marvel say this is there first film release under the new "quality over quantity" policy and it shows. It's ironic that the title is Thunderbolts* as it's the first MCU film in while that can be called good without needing to add an asterisk.

7 sponsored Wheaties boxes out of 10.

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