My Review of "Thunderbolts*"

Thunderbolts* is a super hero team movie that seemingly came out of nowhere. In my thoughts of Captain America: Brave New World, I thought that you had to keep up with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to understand their movies now. This movie proves that you don't have to. Although there are a ton of references to the MCU, it isn't necessary to know everything before going into this one.

The movie starts off with the main character Yelena. She's an assassin that's great at her work but she's having an existential crisis. Her problems are quite relatable. She's on cruise control at her work and is feeling empty. There seems to be a void in her life and she doesn't know how to fill it. Though she's great at what she does, she doesn't have any fulfillment doing it.

She discusses this issue with her dad, but he wishes he was in her position. He's stuck in grunt work and he doesn't know how to express his dissatisfaction with his life with her. They have a weird relationship as he loves her very much but she feels as though he's ignored her all her life. He gives her his advice to become a front facing superhero. His hope is that she will feel love when she does good for the community.

Trying to take on his advice, she requests this change with her boss. This takes her on her next mission. Little does she know, her boss, Valentina is a horrible conniving human being. She's being indicted because of her wrong doings and she's trying to clean up her mess. Yelena is just one of the many things she's trying to wipe clean from her past.

Yelena's next mission is a big trap. Valentina has sent all of her assassins to kill each other. Instead, these assassins figure out what's going on and decide to work together to get out of Valentina's many efforts to kill them. Together they basically become a team.

While working together they discover one of Valentina's biggest secrets. They have to work together to stop it and try to expose Valentina for who she really is.

Again, there are tons of references to the MCU. I think you'll especially enjoy this movie if you've been keeping up with what's going on but overall it's not totally necessary. This is a stand alone origin story for the team and it works well by itself.

I like that this movie tackles some topical issues in society right now like mental health. It shows that even superheroes have mental health issues. They've all seen and done so much that it has to have an effect on them. This is done in a very relatable way. The audience can probably see themselves in a lot of the issues that these heroes face as well.

There are some slick camera work particularly the end scene in which it feels more like the movie Inside Out. It's quite darkly beautiful and very slick. I liked the creativity that came out of that whole scene.

The characters are all quite different but have a great chemistry with one another. They feel like a dysfunctional family but in a good way. Each of them have a certain charm to them that I haven't seen since the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.

Overall, I really liked this movie. I hope that this is the new direction of how they make their movies. As a stand alone movie this can be watched without knowing all the references with other movies and TV shows. They're just an added touch that will make it more enjoyable. I loved the characters, the relationship dynamics, the pacing and the cool innovative scenes. I have to give this movie a 7.5 out of 10.