‘Thunderbolts*’: Meet the new team, same as the old mess

Marvel’s latest film dials up the irreverence, but forgets to give most of its characters something to do.

By James Verniere/Boston Movie News

With the forgettable “Captain America: Brave New World” still in a handful of theaters, more filler from Marvel—“Thunderbolts,*”—introduces us to a band of misfit superheroes who will no doubt soon save the world from destruction. But for now, their job is to save themselves from a Cruella-like Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Yeah, it’s not much of a plot or very dramatic to be sure. But it’s what they’ve got for now. It’s not going to save the box office from its post-COVID slump. But it might keep it afloat.

Directed by music video filmmaker Jake Schreier of the pleasant 2012 feature “Robot & Frank” and more recently of the acclaimed TV series “Beef,” the action kicks off with Yelena Belova (a game Florence Pugh) complaining that there’s something wrong with her before she fights some people, blows up a lab and saves a hamster in Asia. Meanwhile, back in Washington, D.C., Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Dreyfus) sits before an impeachment proceeding headed by Congressman Gary (Wendell Pierce, cruelly wasted). Is she being impeached as CIA director because of her activities related to a secret experiment to create superhumans? All we know is that Valentina has sent Yelena, her assassin, to a “vault” on a mountaintop where Yelena is attacked by one-time Captain America John Walker (Wyatt Russell). (FYI: Wyatt and Louis-Dreyfus also played their roles in the Disney+ miniseries “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.”). Yelena will also be attacked by Ava Starr, aka Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and Antonia Dreykov, aka Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko).

Also present in the vault is a goofball stranger named Bob (Lewis Pullman) in a hospital gown. After fighting with all three opponents to a kind of draw, Yelena figures out that Valentina has assembled them in a barricaded space to kill them all. Eventually, the five will be joined by Yelena’s vodka-soaked father Alexei Shostakov, aka the first super soldier, the Red Guardian (David Harbour in a big, bushy beard), who was reunited with his daughter at his home outside Baltimore earlier.

The fights and other action in “Thunderbolts*” are exciting, well-staged and fun. The film has some of the irreverence of the “Guardians of the Galaxy” series. But the screenplay by Marvel regular Eric Pearson (“Black Widow,” “Thor: Ragnarok”) and Joanna Calo (TV’s “The Bear”) mostly ignores Ghost and Taskmaster and is so weighed down by Marvel minutiae and misbegotten idea that everyone is a Marvel magus that the entire enterprise takes place in a vacuum. “Thunderbolts*” puts you in a sleeper hold whenever things are not exploding or crashing. The Avengers are gone, we are reminded. Bob is connected to something called the Sentry Project. In weird flashbacks, we learn that Yelena was a child assassin. John has a wife and son. But they have left him. Yelena names her new group the Thunderbolts after a hopeless soccer team she played on as a girl. Cute. Unfortunately, no one on the team has the charisma of Robert Downey, Jr.’s Tony Stark, or the originality of Iron Man.

Eventually, the Thunderbolts take on Valentina in New York City, where a building begins to collapse and cranes come crashing down. It’s a minimalist version of the city-leveling destruction of previous Marvel outings and, again, very well done and exciting. Bob turns out to be much more than a guy in a gown who lost his memory. Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), who was part of the impeachment proceeding, joins the Thunderbolts as the Winter Soldier complete with his cybernetic arm.

But the best gadget in the film is a beat-up, vintage, stretch limo driven by the Red Guardian and equipped with some 007 reminiscent toggle switches. Action that occurs in New York City will recall “King Kong” (1933), a fantasy film more original and far superior to “Thunderbolts* ”The Manhattan setting and imagery of the final battle, however, give the film more meaning and context. Pugh is strong in a role that would be a real challenge for any actor. The ending will feature the covers of legacy publications “Rolling Stone,” “The Hollywood Reporter,” “The New Yorker” and “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now,” the Starship theme song of the 1987 rom-com “Mannequin.” Whose ideas were these?

‘Thunderbolts*’

Rating: PG-13, violence, profanity, thematic elements, suggestive language

Cast: Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Sebastian Stan

Director: Jake Schreier

Writer: Eric Pearson, Joanna Calo

Running time: 126 minutes

Where to Watch: In theaters May 2

Grade: B-