Thunderbolts movie review: Florence Pugh starrer is like a dry lightning, it rumbles but does not rain

Still from the movie

Cast: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Wyatt Russell, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Lewis Pullman, Olga Kurylenko, Geraldine Viswanathan, Wendell Edward Pierce, & Chris Bauer.
Director: Jake Schreier
Rating: 3/5
Runtime: 126 min

Thunderbolts are a bunch of misfits that hope to give ‘The Avengers' a run for their money. Our heroes are a bunch of anti-heroes and even villains and the bad guys are something even worse.

Bolts consist of a bunch of family who care two hoots for each other. Conflicted Yelena (Pugh), Scarlett Johansson's sister from Black Widow, her obnoxious father Red Guardian (David Habour), Walker (Wyatt Russell), who was Captain America in The Falcon And The Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) The Winter Soldier and Ava (Hannah John-Kamen) aka Ghost, from the Ant Man-franchise. They are together only to battle with big bad, CIA-director Valentina de Fontaine (Julia-Louis Dreyfus), who wants to become ‘unimpeachable' and dole out Justice as she sees fit. Geraldine Viswanathan as Valentina's conflicted assistant Mel and Lewis Pullman as Robert Reynolds have interesting supporting roles.

Yelena informs us about her life choices and the death of her sister while breaking into a highly secured lab in Malaysia. Afterwards, she visits Alexei her Russian Dad and later accepts another assignment from Valentina. Yelena then follows Ghost into an underground bunker where she is confronted by Captain America and a random guy, Bob. They all eventually realize that they have been sent to kill each other. Seeing no other way out, they team up to take Valentina down once and for all.

The film details real-life mental health struggles, confronts past traumas but the mood remains upbeat. The action and humor provide vicarious relief.

The tormented man Bob develops a special connection with Yelena and it's through Bob's character that real-life mental health struggles are depicted. By and large this comic book-inspired movie delivers real human drama.

The plot is simple, not incoherent like most of the recent MCU outings. The script has characters with tortured pasts begin to respect each other (if not like) and become a stronger whole. They are basically outcasts, a group of lonely guns for hire forced to tolerate each other in unique circumstances.

Director Schreier's first entry into MCU is rather old-school and the big set pieces don't look like they originated in CGI. The fight sequences are blood-and-guts aggravated, not exactly stylish or polished.

Thunderbolts is fairly enjoyable. It's one of the better Marvel editions to come of late. It's not as bad as ‘The Suicide Squad' and it's not as much fun as ‘The Guardians of the Galaxy' either, but it has a workable story, the script by Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo generates enough sparks and the direction from Jake Schreier is steady and lucrative. The actors play their roles well and the special effects help keep you entertained. Florence Pugh, has a commanding presence and makes every scene that she's in, worthy.

This may have been one of the most anticipated MCU films of this year but it's definitely not going to bring the MCU back from the red. It might make money, but Marvel might still have to wait ignominiously to relieve its former glory of 10 years ago.