Florence Pugh is obviously the best part of ‘Thunderbolts*’
Marvel’s latest outing has flair thanks to a robust cast and director Jake Schreier
IT HAS BEEN FOUR YEARS since Florence Pugh made her debut appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in 2021’s Black Widow, where she played Yelena Belova, the stealth agent and sister to Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff. In the intervening years, the state of the MCU – as Esquire outlined recently – has been in critical decline following a string of ugly misfires. All studios go through rough patches, this one looked like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Pugh on the other hand? One of Britain’s greatest exports, who has endured/experienced lightning storms caught on film (the Olivia Wilde-directed Don’t Worry Darling), Oscar-winning projects (Oppenheimer and Dune: Part Two) and smaller, sappier fare (We Live in Time). Can she also turn things around for Marvel?
Pugh reprises her role as Yelena, who we find grieving her sister while also putting an end to dodgy scientific research in Malaysia. She is still taking orders from Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), a girlboss-gone-wrong desperate to assemble superheroes she can bend to her will. Yelena soon takes on “one last mission”: Valentina promises that she will get a cushy public-facing promotion if all goes well. During that expedition, she meets a bunch of no-good superheroes: Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Captain America knock-off John Walker (Wyatt Russell) and a mysterious man named Bob (Lewis Pullman, a welcomingly downbeat presence among the explosive hijinks). They soon learn, as characters often do in the movies, the value of teamwork and form an alliance of antiheroes. Also in the mix: Sebastian Stan, hot on the heels of two of last year’s best movies The Apprentice and A Different Man. The Oscar-nominated actor returns as Bucky Barnes, while David Harbour plays Yelena’s father, the Red Guardian. Geraldine Viswanathan is good as Fontaine’s harried assistant.
The film has a pretty basic plot – as far as I can see, it is the plot of every Marvel film: let’s get this gang together and beat someone up – but director Jake Schreier (who brought us Netflix’s Beef) has attempted to break the mould in a few of these well-worn places. At the UK premiere last week, Schreier introduced the film and rather elliptically – I assume on account of Marvel’s draconian spoiler policy — noted that it was “about something”. It turns out that Thunderbolts*, like many genre films aiming for some intellectual heft, is about grief. Does it work? Unfortunately, the mostly entertaining script, from Joanna Calo and Eric Pearson, and story do not have much time for a serious mediation on this complex feeling. But at least Pugh can sell it when she the chance: as she rages against her colleagues, and more convincingly, against herself.
And when the film conforms to Marvel stereotypes, because of course it must, Schreier wisely leans into the weirder side of things. Although it is initially Dreyfus who does the heavy lifting as the film’s villain, eventually Bill (a kind of all-powerful being rebranded as Sentry) takes on that mantle. And as he tears down New York City (poor New York! Why can’t these superheroes ever congregate in . . . a field in Oklahoma?), Schreier switches the focus to tense therapy-adjacent conversations between Yelena and Bill, both grappling with the greatest villain of all time: childhood trauma. I am not sure I learnt anything new about that particular bugbear but I do know those heart-to-hearts – or should that be hero-to-heroes? – between Pugh and Pullman are more fun, and more riveting, to trace than the typical CGI mush that concludes these films. I still remember Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, thank you very much.
A month ago, Marvel released a trailer for Thunderbolts* that was edited, many alleged, like an A24 trailer. There were murmurs that, with Schreier and other indie heavyweights on board, this film would be something of a fresh, frenetic, maybe even cool start for Marvel. You have the star of Midsommar in this! That was, if not a complete bait and switch, then a bit of clever marketing – you know what: maybe they’re not total idiots at Marvel HQ! – that has piqued the interest of those outside the core audience. That I went in with those expectations and did not leave feeling totally short-changed is a small-M marvel.
‘Thunderbolts*’ is out in Australian cinemas from 1 May.
This story originally appeared on Esquire UK.
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