In 2025, Marvel creates a new superhero team with the franchise’s “disposable delinquents.” Thunderbolts marks a refreshing return to what once made Marvel films compelling and loved, with relatable struggles, enticing action, and real-world concepts. Instead of the usual explosive battles with antagonists from outer space, Thunderbolts focuses on empathizing with the characters’ backstories and motivations that reflect our feelings about a broken world.
About the Story
Under the direction of Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, flawed heroes–Yelena Belova, John Walker, Ava Starr (Ghost), and Taskmaster–are assigned to eliminate Valentina’s illegal activities to prevent her impeachment in the CIA. However, they incidentally uncover Fontaine’s “failed” secret project, Bob Reynolds. Yelena, Walker, Ghost, Bucky Barnes, and Alexei Shostakov (Red Guardian) self-form the “Thunderbolts” to recover Bob from Valentina’s control.
The team follows Valentina to New York, where they encounter Bob’s new and improved character, Sentry. Despite his abilities, Bob suffers from depressive and manic episodes that manifest him into his alter ego, “The Void.” The Void is a complex manifestation of darkness, a villain that cannot be fought with force. In solidarity, the team is determined to help Bob confront his past and relinquish the darkness consuming the city.
Why Watch?
The film fully embodies the topic of mental health and features the right characters to facilitate the story. Marvel did an amazing job of addressing mental health issues in the storyline. Through the use of more raw emotion-based scenes, the audience was able to empathize to the characters.
Although the film played off of emotion and the complexity of mental health, the scriptwriting had enough comedic relief to combat the more sensitive moments. This is due to the actor’s top-tier acting, and the delivery of each humorous moment is never missed.
On the other hand, Mel’s character was rather inconsistent throughout the film, eliciting the question of her motives and purpose. Mel is Valentina’s assistant, very efficient at her work and very loyal. However, she expressed great concern over the dangers of the project, even secretly contacting Bucky to shut down Valentina. Yet, she continued to help Valentina and even saved her life from Bob. It is difficult to tell what Mel’s character enticed and what her incentive was in the film.
Verdict
Marvel appears to be shifting towards the tone of its earlier films where superheroes were about teamwork and heroism meant saving lives instead of the universe. Thunderbolts is bringing in a new era of Marvel, for the first time in a while, the audience has come out of the theater praising a Marvel movie.
