1 day Ago By Mamta Raut
If there’s a more entertaining superhero film this year, I’ll book myself on an all-expenses trip to ‘The Void’ (no, not the dumping ground for reject mutants, superheroes shown in ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ but the supervillain in ‘Thunderbolts*). It is directed by Jake Schreier, whose approach was to deploy cinematic winks with ironic dialogues, and it stars Florence Pugh in the lead as Yelena Belova aka the White Widow, a trained assassin to come out of the Red Room program, and Marvel’s replacement of the Black Widow (Played by Natasha Romanoff). After the death of her sister, Yelena is consumed by emptiness and working for the CIA, mindlessly clocking in and clocking out, completing her missions which she calls “the cleaning business” without purpose.
It isn’t necessarily a bad thing for a film that can be obnoxious and simultaneously very funny, and Thunderbolts* is frequently hilarious. Mark my words, the film is going to go huge at the box office. Why, you ask? Because cinemagoers will be forgiven for suffering from superhero fatigue of late, with outings such as Captain America: Brave New World, Venom: The Last Dance, and Kraven the Hunter, failing to match spectacle with anything vaguely approaching substance.
A post shared by Marvel Studios (@marvelstudios) This latest offering from the MCU is a little different, focusing on a gang of misfits, who make for an entertaining, if explosive movie squad act. They have plenty in common: they are an ensemble of reformed Marvel anti-heroes, people who’ve been accused of contract killings, robbing government labs, being shadow ops and assassins, put together on a deadly mission. But their differences – slashed, stabbed and punched out in close combat followed by a funny ride in a red limo - is what gives the film its juice.
And by juice, I mean both blood and life, the gore and the risque rags. Thunderbolts* may be frontloaded with visual fireworks that neatly meld the practical and the virtual, but it is the likable interplay between its down-to-earth characters that gives the film oomph, making it more than just a Suicide Squad-style romp. Rising star Lewis Pullman is excellently cast as Bob aka Sentry, whose alter ego Void, the invincible supervillain completely shrouded in darkness, can turn people into shadows.
A post shared by Marvel Studios (@marvelstudios) David Harbour returns as Yelena’s dad Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian, whose “Old Santa” makeover and failed Vodka bottle fire attack is going to leave you in splits. Wyatt Russell is cast as John Walker, the Junior Varsity Captain America (pun intended), who was fired after he murdered an unarmed insurgent in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. Then there’s Ant-Man and The Wasp’s villain Ghost played by Hannah John-Kamen, and the most sanest among them Bucky Barnes, essayed by the charming Sebastian Stan, leading their redemption journey, whose deadly prosthetic arm is no match in front of our new supervillain.
Meanwhile, spiralling CG visuals intertwine with sinewy camera moves, ensuring that our eyeballs keep spinning even as our heartstrings are gently plucked. The movie arrives after a string of duds in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, attempting to revamp the course of this superhero phase, and Thunderbolts* definitely gets the job done. In the goofy exchanges between Yelena and Alexei, the film is already one of the most entertaining Marvel pictures in a long time.
After Thanos’ snap which wiped out half of humanity and the submerging of a Celestial being in the Indian Ocean to the discovery of Adamantium, a metal more powerful than Vibranium, we’re now introduced to the ultimate Void or as Yelena calls it interconnected “shame rooms”, created by Bob’s supervillain, which needs the entire New York saving from his dark shadow. A post shared by Marvel Studios (@marvelstudios) Thunderbolts* negotiates potential cliches such as flashback sequences and that hoariest of old chestnuts, with a gravity-defying lightness of touch. It’s also at the very end, when the picture trades its focus on exquisite, thrillingly executed fight sequences for a battle between a bunch of special effects, that this exhilarating blend of genres shines the most.
Although it often feels as though barely a month passes without another comic book movie puffed as a new pinnacle of achievement for the superhero genre, it’s vanishingly rare for a film to actually deserve its hype. But Thunderbolts* does so, and more. Director Jake Schreier is canny enough to realise that the key to success with an effects-driven, eye-popping extravaganza is not the CGI spectacle, it’s the basic stuff.
Textured characters. Funny and combat-fuelled friendships. And electrifyingly badass fight choreography.
There’s a slapstick quality to the action scenes that fits the film’s comedic tone, with city-folding moments of surreality comparable to Christopher Nolan’s Inception; yet it wears its digital accomplishment a bit more lightly. This is, first and foremost, fun – and it wouldn’t be half as much fun were it not for the boisterous limo ride, the cucumber joke, the taco pun, and more hilarious tricks that drive the film. It’s a tremendously engaging and likable superhero ride, in which the classiest of casts show they know exactly where to take it seriously – and where to inject the fun.
You enjoy, laugh hard, and eventually realise - Ahh so that’s what the asterisk is for. ALSO READ| ‘You’ season 5: Penn Badgley’s evil drivel serial-killer Joe Goldberg gets a silly finale.
