Thunderbolts* Teases a Possible Reinvention of the MCU, But Ends up as One More From the Assembly Line

If there’s one thing the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is good at, it’s capitalising on its self awareness. Tony Stark knew he was the smartest guy in any room, and didn’t bore people with false humility. Steve Rogers knew how corny his idealism sounded in a largely-cynical world, so he kept up a stoic face while being mocked for it in film after film. Peter Parker was just another New York teenager anxious about not fitting in.

Ant-Man and Hawk-Eye knew their powers were perceived as ‘sillier’ compared to the A-listers, and they owned this silliness. It’s what used to be endearing about these films [till Avengers: Endgame, 2019] – but once the stronger actors and directors quit, it became increasingly clear there was nothing beneath the layer of self-awareness.

The audience, too, realised that the function of the cinematic universe wasn’t to progress towards a cohesive conclusion – but to keep the assembly line running, contrive cameos by the most popular stars money could buy, through all possible screenwriting conveniences – time-travel, the quantum realm, parallel timelines, prequels.

The objective was only to mint money, which the audiences saw through. And it’s no surprise that the last few Marvel films have struggled to break even (except Ryan Reynolds-starrer Deadpool & Wolverine – which advertised its self-awareness to nauseating levels).

Gritty action set-pieces and real-life fears of the characters

As I entered Jake Scherier’s Thunderbolts*, I wasn’t expecting it to blow my socks off. And yet, as the lights dimmed in the theatre, I showed faith in it like any other cinephile. Maybe they got bored of making empty spectacles which will make tons of money? Maybe they have something original and interesting to say this time? – I remember thinking.

If I’m being honest, Schreier’s film kept me invested for a long time. It has some gritty action set-pieces reminiscent of the kinetic John Woo films of the ‘90s, instead of the weightless (and therefore seemingly inconsequential) lasers being exchanged in front of green screens. It also has some interesting ideas to reinvent the Marvel film, by grounding its super soldiers in real-life fears and traumas.

For those who have been lax with keeping up with the MCU (like me!), there are quite a few new names and faces, which can be hard to absorb depending on your interest in the franchise. However, Schreier’s film doesn’t entangle itself too far, maintaining a nice rhythm to ensure even complete newbies to this world are able to follow the main plot.

Thunderbolts* opens with super-spy Yelena (Florence Pugh) at her most existential. As a way of grieving her sister’s death – Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), who died in Endgame – Yelena throws herself into work by accepting one mission after another. But she also admits that she goes through them with a sense of boredom, like a corporate slave stuck in a dead-end 9 to 5 job. She admits to feeling a void inside, a lack of purpose, which is making her job that much more exhausting. It’s a vulnerable thing for a super spy to admit.

CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (a deliciously power-hungry Julia Louis-Dreyfus), lures Yelena into an underground archive of the last remaining evidence of the CIA’s black site operations. All of it needs to be destroyed, after a congressional committee orders a probe into them. Yelena is told that she has to eliminate a target who enters that archive.

As the audience can guess from afar, this is a trap. Yelena is only one among the last four contracted assassins including, Ava (Hannah John Kamen), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), and a mysteriously ordinary-looking man called Bob (Lewis Pullman), who wakes up from inside a cryo-chamber in the archive facility. Once they realise that de Fontaine sent them to kill each other, also trying to kill them herself, these four misfits have to team up to survive.

Expression of remorse about the Avengers never coming back

Aided by the Red Guardian (a cute, unruly father-figure played by David Harbour) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), the group needs to overcome their differences, and reflect on their disposability. Barnes’ complexities, have been significantly watered down here.

Still, he gets the coolest (re)entry scene in a crucial action sequence. Harbour, presumably landing the role based on his portly-yet-courageous police chief character in Netflix series Stranger Things, is similarly good-natured and tough here.

The epicentre of the film though are Yelena and Bob. The only surviving member of the something called The Sentry project (commissioned by de Fontaine), it’s revealed that Bob has the powers of all Avengers put together. Which reminds me, the film time and again expresses remorse about the Avengers never coming back – so much so that one can practically hear Kevin Fiege sobbing each time it’s mentioned. But America needs to be ready for outer-space threats (like Thanos) – and this is de Fontaine’s way of rationalising The Sentry project.

Bob’s character is an interesting one – his strengths as a test subject are shown to be his earthly weaknesses: addiction, his struggle with mental health, his debilitatingly-low self esteem. It’s an unusual supervillain origin story, whose biggest strength and Achilles heel is his feeling of isolation.

I enjoyed Pullman’s manner of essaying the many temperatures of Bob – when he’s a bumbling nobody, to when he transforms into an all-knowing saviour/destroyer. The character reminded me of Oscar Isaac’s turn in Moon Knight (also a Marvel product) – one that was surely a far messier (and more ambitious) enterprise than this one.

Thanks to Bob’s ability to peek into a character’s worst experiences, we realise these super soldiers, however tough they look, are carrying their own inner demons. There’s this particularly ruthless scene showing Walker so consumed with his failure as a superspy, he ignores his infant in front of him – a scene tailor-made for Wyatt Russell’s rough temperament.

In Yelena’s case, Bob accompanies her to the day when she lures a fellow student from the Red Room deep into the forest, where she is then shot dead. It’s a part of a test while raising child assassins.

The film makes a rather simplistic deduction about mental health

Thunderbolts* is watchable (even intriguing) for a long stretch, posing questions about the battered souls of these super spy characters. How much trauma can they endure; do they have a breaking point too? It’s in the final twenty minutes that the makers resort to simplistic, blockbuster-template filmmaking.

After suggesting the  radical idea of downing the supervillain with compassion, the film makes a rather simplistic deduction about mental health. That the void can be overcome with love and companionship. It’s where I began to see Marvel’s vacant posturing – with no other deep conviction than to simply arrive at a palatable, passable climax.

It all ends with de Fontaine announcing the group as the ‘new Avengers’. They spot a spaceship entering orbit, which says Fantastic 4 (whose trailer is attached here, and is expected to release later in the year). And suddenly all the inquiry into a super soldier’s bruised mental health begins to feel performative. The factory line is long and there’s lots of money to be made at the box office. To paraphrase Robert Frost: the MCU has many more hits to conjure before they sleep.

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.