While watching “Thunderbolts” (“The New Avengers“ after its release), the movie kept getting better and better. It was on track to be one of my favorite movies of all time. It was building up to what appeared could’ve been one of the greatest fights in Marvel history, but then it was abruptly cut short, likely as sequel bait.
“Thunderbolts” was released on May 2, and takes place in 2027 after “Captain America: Brave New World.” It had a budget of $180 million. It has topped $325 million worldwide, while receiving mostly positive reviews from critics.
“Thunderbolts” is about a group of assassins who have undergone rigorous illegal training to make them killing machines. But they have to work together as an unlikely team after they are unknowingly pitted against each other by their employer, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, to tie up loose ends so they can’t testify in a court case against her and her shady company. But an enhanced human experiment went wrong and caused a guy named Bob to lose control of his body to his dark alter ego, known as “The Void,” who has reality-warping abilities.
The group includes Yelena Belova (Black Widow) and Alexei Shostakov (Red Guardian), who are returning from “Black Widow” (2021), Ava Starr (Ghost), Bucky Barnes (The Winter Soldier), and John Walker (U.S. Agent). Taskmaster is another returning character from “Black Widow” and is one of the first characters introduced in the movie, but is killed off almost instantly, leaving fans disappointed, since the character has had little representation in Marvel movies and is largely forgotten. The movie’s comedic relief character is Alexei Shostakov, played by David Harbour. He is most known for his role as Jim Hopper in Netflix’s most popular show, “Stranger Things,” making him the perfect person to lighten the mood.
After what felt like only 40 minutes had gone by, the credits started to roll. But to my surprise, the movie had a 2-hour and 6-minute runtime. I thought it was some sort of fake credit scene and that the rest of the movie would play out with them having their new title of “The New Avengers” because it felt like something was missing and skipped over. But when the funny post-credit scene with Alexei played, I knew it was over.
One of the two reasons I watched the movie was The Void’s ability to turn people into shadows, which is based on the “Hiroshima Shadows. ” Like many people, I wondered how this ragtag group could defeat such a powerful villain. It is also a refreshing change to have creative elements in a Marvel movie for once. There was great choreography in the few fights that were in the movie. So that left me hopeful that the final fight would be great. But after Yelena essentially just talks Bob into not turning every person in New York into a shadow, the movie simply ends. The climax was empty, there was no Avengers-level final battle for these so-called “New Avengers.”
The other reason I watched it was simply that the final trailer for the movie featured a song by my favorite band, Queen and David Bowie, “Under Pressure.”
I’d recommend watching this in the movies with friends for a good experience and laughs, but only if you’re okay with wasting two hours of your life. Or you could always wait about a month until it comes to one of the eight streaming services that no one has, as per usual.
