Starring Florence Pugh, The New Marvel Action Film Thunderbolts Is One To Watch
Tearing up the screen this month is the new film Thunderbolts*, starring Florence Pugh (Little Women) as the leader of a ragtag group of rejects who all happen to have special abilities. A new entry from Marvel Studios, Thunderbolts* aims to be a bit more unique from many of its previous cinematic outings and focus more on characters than spectacle.
Pugh plays Yelena, an assassin forced to work on a dangerous mission and joined by Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice) as Bucky Barnes and David Harbour (Stranger Things) as Red Guardian. Here’s all you need to know:
What is Thunderbolts* about?
Pugh’s character Yelena previously appeared in Black Widow, a spin-off film starring Scarlett Johansson, and Hawkeye, a Disney+ series starring Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld. Here, however, she takes centre stage as one of the core members of the Thunderbolts, a group of antiheroes assembled to take on dangerous excursions. Stan reprises his role as Bucky from past MCU films, while Harbour and Wyatt Russell play Red Guardian, a former Soviet propaganda hero, and John Walker, a disgraced super soldier, respectively. None of these people are particularly happy, and that’s where much of the film’s more interesting character moments come from. They’re eventually assembled by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (played by Veep’s Julia Louis Dreyfus), the head of the CIA and who is trying to use the group of antiheroes to her political advantage. Her initial plan is to have them all kill each other to cover up any evidence they existed, but our (anti)heroes have other plans.
There’s a few other figures who become part of the Thunderbolts group, including Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) and Bob (Bill Pullman), all of them also have their own problems and past traumas that they’re trying to get past. One of the themes of this film is that there are no high-powered superheroes, and with the absence of many figures like Tony Stark and Thor, the world has become a more dangerous place. As the group stops being quite so acrimonious to each other and learns to work together, the film also reveals another of its themes, with many of our characters struggling with mental health and PTSD from the various incidents in their lives that they’ve had to deal with, not least Yelena, who bickers with her slobbish father figure Red Guardian, and the mysterious Bob. Thunderbolts* and Marvel have tried hard to go “back to basics”, with more focus on characters and smaller-scale action that feels quite fun.
What else do I need to know?
Unlike some of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s recent entries, Thunderbolts* has received good reviews from critics, who see it as a return to Marvel’s heights and a film that feels much more accessible to casual viewers. Florence Pugh has, unsurprisingly, been singled out as the film’s highlight performance, giving Yelena gravitas and a loyal following online. If you want a fun blockbuster to have a blast with this summer, Thunderbolts* is definitely worth checking out, and is in cinemas now.
