So Thunderbolts* is out now and the movie certainly feels like a return to form for the MCU. For one, it’s a proper team-up movie of the sort we haven’t really been getting too much of lately, integrating characters from a bunch of different movies and seeing how they play together. Granted Marvels did team-up two different tv shows and a movie and though I did really enjoy that movie (in no small part because I continue to be a huge Captain Marvel fan), I’d argue it was less successful at doing the team-up thing than Thunderbolts*.
A lot of the fun of the team-up movies, y’know, your Avengers, aside from seeing a bunch of different superheroes on screen together, is seeing how they interact. Big personalities bouncing off each other is fun, because, as I said thirteen years ago(!), the question of how they get along is a huge part of the draw. Thunderbolts* understands the assignment and the characters quickly settle into their roles: Yelena’s the tired sane one, John the blowhard who thinks he’s the leader, Ava the snarker, Alexei the overenthusiastic, Bucky the adult in the room who’d rather not be, and Bob’s Bob. It’s a delightful dynamic and, thankfully, the movie doesn’t take too much time getting there.
It certainly helps that Thunderbolts* plays a little with the conventional formal, having a final fight that’s less bunch of monsters swirling about and something a little more, well, internal. It all works and, at the end of it all, movie’s a great time — the sort that reminds me just why I really like the MCU. If the movies’ future is more of this, well, I’m looking forwards to First Steps and Doomsday.
Essays, Not Rants! 