Film number 36, and if it isn't stopped, the size of the MCU will eventually overtake that of the real universe. Taking a cue from the overall failure of Eternals, a team composed only of ridiculously superpowered individuals, Thunderbolts* instead serves up a bunch of bickering misfits with virtually no powers at all. The villain is also not powered, but the scheming director of the CIA, seeking to weaponise a mentally unstable man her researchers have imbued with godlike abilities so that he can serve both as a PR figurehead and a one-man replacement for the now defunct Avengers as Earth's protector. This also means doing away with the titular crew since they know all about her self-serving schemes.
Naturally a torrent of chases and blurry fight sequences must fill the bulk of the running time, but there is also plenty of humour deprecating genre cliches, a reasonable stab at drawing parallels between the villain's motives and Trump's world of toxic propraganda, and Florence Pugh, flavour of the month though she might be, again producing a commanding performance as the conflicted de facto leader of the protagonists.
Still a bit of a mess, but a step in the right direction at least.
5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment