Warning: Spoilers ahead!
On May 1, Marvel Studios released a new PG-13 movie titled Thunderbolts* directed by Jake Schreier.
Thunderbolts* follows Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) in the year 2027. Valentina Allegra De Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) sends Yelena, John Walker (Wyatt Russel), Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen), and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) separately to the location of the O.X.E facility with orders to kill each other.
After a long battle due to the group being evenly matched, Ava Starr kills Taskmaster, and the remaining three find Robert Reynolds, aka Bob. Played by Lewis Pullman, he’s a human experiment who had been presumed dead, with little memory of how he got there. When De Fontaine discovers the heroes escaped, she sends an army to take them out. Bob creates a diversion to allow them to escape, and he is revealed to be the Sentry, a superhero with powers akin to The Avengers. Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour), Yelena’s father figure, had heard De Fontaine’s plans and drove to the facility to rescue the group.
Just as they think they are out of the clear, De Fontaine’s army trucks appear and try to take out the group again. A random person on a motorcycle destroys all of the trucks and is revealed to be the former Avenger and current Congressman Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), the Winter Soldier. The group thinks they are saved, but then Bucky captures them, assuming they’re still working with De Fontaine.
Meanwhile, De Fontaine convinces Bob to work with her and get rid of the escaped group, now known as the Thunderbolts.
After speaking to the Thunderbolts, Barnes joins forces to take down Sentry and De Fontaine. At their first confrontation with the new superhero, they discover that they are extremely unmatched and Bob is more powerful than they thought.
After defeating the Thunderbolts, Senty turns on De Fontaine. Her assistant, Mel (Geraldine Viswanathan), uses the kill switch installed in Bob, and they both assume he’s dead. He transforms into The Void, the personified darkness within him. It turns people into shadows and makes them relive their worst memories.
Yelena discovers that the only way to turn the Void back into Bob is to go into his consciousness by willingly being turned into one of the Void’s shadows to pull him out. After doing so, the Thunderbolts follow her. Bob has to fight the Void side of him to retake his body.
At the film’s end, De Fontaine covers up her image by announcing that the Thunderbolts will be known as “The New Avengers,” and that they protected the city from the Void. Yelena lets De Fontaine go, but threatens her if she betrays them again.
The casting was amazing, and the CGI was smooth, upholding the standard that Marvel has formed over the years.
This movie deserves a 5/5. The story is beautifully written and takes audiences through a roller coaster of emotions. The characters continue to develop relationships and their personalities, and there is a lot of good redemption.. The fight scenes are intense, and the emotional moments are portrayed beautifully. Overall, Thunderbolts* is a cinematic masterpiece worthy of the praise it receives.
