‘Thunderbolts*’ is the MCU movie you’ve been missing
This one is a huge bounce back from ‘Brave New World.’ PLUS: The Rock transforms into ‘The Smashing Machine,’ Ben Affleck visits the Criterion Closet, and Forest Whitaker steals the show on ‘Andor.’
Hey, Popculturology readers. I pulled off the rare feat of seeing two movies within the past week, Sinners last Saturday and Thunderbolts* last night. (You wanna know what that asterisk means, don’t you?) More on both of those below …
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Thunderbolts* assemble
Thunderbolts* is the movie the MCU has been missing.
The post Avengers: Endgame era of the cinematic universe has had its fair share of highs and lows, but it’s been missing that cohesive narrative that Kevin Feige and crew lucked into with the Infinity Saga. Once you see Thunderbolts*, it’ll make sense why Marvel Studios chose to close out Phase Five with this one.
On a smaller level, Thunderbolts* is a very good movie.
Going in to 2025 and knowing that we had Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts* leading off an ambitious slate that would culminate in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, it wouldn’t have been out of place to have guessed that a Captain America movie featuring Harrison Ford as the Red Hulk would be the stronger movie over a seemingly random collection of castaway villains and secondary characters from projects like Black Widow, Ant-Man and the Wasp and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
We shouldn’t be praising Marvel Studios for doing something as basic as delivering a movie that’s actually a movie, but unlike Brave New World — “a collection of scenes, some of them the result of a lengthy schedule of reshoots that often stick out like a sore thumb” — Thunderbolts* is a cohesive movie that feels like the result of letting a director actually tell a story. (I’m hoping we see Jake Schreier behind the camera for another MCU movie.)
Since introducing MCU shows on Disney+, the MCU has struggled to deliver a project that actually capitalizes on the possibility of bringing characters and narratives from the movies and shows together. Thunderbolts* is by far the most successful attempt at doing just that.
