Finally saw
Thunderbolts* - first time in a movie theatre since last summer
I really enjoyed this, for the most part. I won't play the "
Best MCU Movie Since..." game because I've enjoyed all the pandemic-era Marvel entries, more or less.
Quantumania may be an outlier but I didn't hate it like many folks seem to...
Anyway, I appreciated the effort to break from formula and add some depth to the proceedings. I'm speaking relatively of course but there's an undercurrent of pathos to
Thunderbolts* that I found refreshing. Florence Pugh in particular is a revelation: she anchors the movie and provides a point of identification to create that elusive suture with the audience. She's never really been on my radar before but I'm definitely a fan now...
I do admit to being a bit confused by the movie's marketing approach. If the plan was to rebrand the film all along, why not just do that from the outset? As many critics have pointed out, the rebranded name holds a lot of cultural currency and might have helped the bottom line. It's impossible to quantify and I don't presume to be more knowledgeable than a major Hollywood studio - last time I checked I wasn't a billionaire, millionaire, or even a thousandaire - but I do find the marketing choices surrounding the film a bit baffling...
At any point, I'm wary of overselling
Thunderbolts* because, at the end of the day, it's still an MCU entry beholden to furthering the over-arching mythology. Still, the (relatively) more cerebral approach is welcome: were the movie nothing but one expensive CGI set piece after another, I think my visceral response to it would be easier to rationalize. As it stands,
Thunderbolts* is grand entertainment and feels oddly personal on behalf of director Jake Schreier. It's not setting the box office on fire like past MCU entries but I think history will be kind to it. Once the dust finally settles on the whole CBM boom,
Thunderbolts* may very well be remembered as one of the stickier late-era entries.
Well done, Marvel.
) 
Pedro who?
