I haven’t been a devout follower of films from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or their rivals at D.C. So it’s not a good sign that, even to this casual viewer, “Thunderbolts*” is traveling familiar ground.
The film begins with megalomaniac CIA Director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfuss) facing an impeachment inquiry. Since this is a universe where Congressional probes can be effective, Valentina moves quickly to vaporize all evidence of her black ops—along with living witnesses.
At an isolated mountaintop warehouse, she dispatches a group of her contract assassins to kill each other off. The group includes Yelena (played by Florence Pugh), a character from the Black Widow storyline who’s been raised as an assassin since childhood; John Walker, a troubled iteration of Captain America (portrayed by Wyatt Russell); and Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) who can penetrate walls and zip around in subliminal flashes.
But one wild card turns up — Bob, a groggy kid in pajamas, (Lewis Pullman.) He might be the product of Valentina’s Project Sentry, an effort to develop a super-human. Upon merely touching him, other characters experience psychic flashbacks.
Defying expectations, the characters work together to escape. Down the road, they’re joined by popular Marvel character Bucky Barnes (again played by Sebastian Stan) and Alexei, who is Yelena’s surrogate father, a former Soviet super-hero and currently a limo driver.
In the role, David Harbour yells a lot in a gargled accent, suggesting they join forces as a scrappy band of anti-heroes called the Thunderbolts. The name comes from Yelena’s childhood soccer team, who never won a game.
Will the team save the world, or at least end up on a Wheaties box? Following in angst-ridden Marvel tradition, what’s the outcome of their final battle when the despair of one character takes concrete form to fight the heroes?
While the Thunderbolts predictably bicker, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss has the most fun being villainous, and the film snarkily plays up Valentina’s coincidental resemblance to Tulsi Gabbard.
Director Jake Schreier maintains enough energy and special effects to keep MCU fans happy. For outsiders, it rates about average on the scale, and we could use a Wikipedia primer in the lobby to keep track of the characters and their histories.
“Thunderbolts*”, which points the way to another Marvel blockbuster this summer, rates three on a scale of five.
