*Premise spoilers*
I’ve been pumped about this movie for months, and I’m so glad it’s here! I saw it opening weekend, but I decided to wait until Andor was over to post about it. One of my favorite Marvel projects in quite a while!
What’s It About?
As Congress investigates the skeletons in Valentina Allegra de Fontaine’s closet, she sends in her shadow ops agents to get rid of the evidence—including one another. Yelena Belova, John Walker, Ava Starr, and Antonia Dreykov are all put in each other’s crosshairs, but they begin to realize they may be better off working together. With the added help of an enthusiastic Alexei Shostakov and a tired Bucky Barnes, they try to evade capture and find out what Valentina’s really been up to.
Who’s In It?
At the top of my list for excitement about this movie were Florence Pugh’s Yelena and Sebastian Stan’s Bucky. I love these characters so much, and both of them somehow managed to get even cooler with every new Thunderbolts* trailer that came out. It’s safe to say that neither of them disappoint! Yelena especially is the lead of the ensemble, and the film offers Pugh plenty of great material to work with—action-wise and story/character-wise. Bucky isn’t as prominent, but Stan makes the most of his screentime, as he has throughout the franchise. He’s got some killer action, and I enjoy his position as the (surprisingly) most stable member of this ramshackle team of wary junkyard dogs.
David Harbour is still loads of fun as Alexei, and he shines in his more heartfelt moments too. I really liked Ava/Ghost in Ant-Man and the Wasp, and while she doesn’t have a ton to do here, she still gets some cool stuff, and Hannah John-Kamen does a nice job. Wyatt Russell has self-righteous A-hole Walker down to a tee, and it’s interesting to see him navigating trying to make good and reckon with himself after his fall from grace in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Not much for Olga Kurylenko as Antonia/Taskmaster, but I appreciate the nods to the history between her and Yelena. And then of course, there’s Bob, the mysterious lovable wreck they discover in Valentina’s vault of secrets. I loved Lewis Pullman in Lessons in Chemistry and he’s great as Bob, although I can’t help wondering what this character would’ve been like if Steven Yeun hadn’t had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts.
What Do I Love About It?
· The whole team has strong, chaotic chemistry together. Some of my favorites include Yelena’s protectiveness of Bob, Alexei fanboying over Bucky, and Yelena and Ava teaming up to make fun of Walker. It’s cool to see them go from guarded suspicion to tentative bickering cooperation to actual support and camaraderie.
· The action is fantastic. The trailers already showed some of the best stuff—Yelena, Walker, Ava, and Antonia fighting in the vault, Bucky on the motorcycle—but I love seeing these scenes in full on the big screen, and there are some great bits that hadn’t been revealed.
· Everything about The Void, the main antagonist of the movie, is so cool. The fantastic design, the eeriness of what he does to his victims, and the way he ties in with the thematic center of the film. The nature of the character and his powers gives us a compelling third act, deftly avoiding the MCU’s perennial problem of concluding with a big CGI slugfest.
· Coming again to the characters and their relationships, this film does found family really well. Besides Bob, these are all characters who’ve been in the MCU before, and there are some existing connections/acquaintances here, along with characters who are meeting for the first time, and it’s just great to watch them gradually come together.
Warnings
Comic-book violence, strong thematic elements (including suicidal ideation,) language, drinking/drug references, and disturbing images.
No comments:
Post a Comment