Rating: ****
Alternate Title: The New Avengers
Review Date: 5/6/25
Cast: Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Stan Sebastian,
Hannah John-Kamen, Lewis Pullman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Geraldine Viswanathan,
cameo by Olga Kurylenko
"So none of us can fly? We all just punch and shoot?"
The memories of terrible deeds and past trauma have left black ops agent Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) drowning in depression, loneliness, and despair. She wants out of the game, but her boss, Valentina de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), wants her dead, along with a handful of other operatives who could compromise her position. These undesirables include Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), Ava Starr/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and John Walker/U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), who have to learn to work with each other or die. Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour) and Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Stan Sebastian) end up joining the team, who are sarcastically named after Yelena's losing childhood soccer team, The Thunderbolts. The wildcard is a nigh-invincible, god-like super soldier known as Sentry (Lewis Pullman), who refuses to obey Valentina, and swallows up New York City in a black void of pain and suffering.
This is an unusual Marvel movie in that it's a study of depression. All of the protagonists are losers and broken heroes, and Sentry's depression actually manifests itself into an uncontrollable destructive force. The entire cast is great, but Florence Pugh is outstanding. She is the heart of the film, and her intensity and charisma penetrate your soul. While Red Guardian is mostly played for laughs, David Harbour brings an honest sadness and sincerity to the role, and his exchanges with Pugh are heartbreaking. Wyatt Russell also brings a wounded sensibility to his super soldier persona, and is both endearing and abrasive. Curiously, despite being listed towards the top of the credits, Olga Kurylenko has literally less than five seconds of screen time before being written off. The real villain of the story is Valentina, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus is deliciously evil in her quest for authoritarian power and glory. Her secretary, Mel (Geraldine Viswanathan), is immensely charming, and sort of serves as Val's conscience, if she had one.
From a technical standpoint, the film is on par with other Marvel movies. It's well-made, the pacing is solid, the dialog is smart and well-written, and it looks and sounds great. The fight scenes are excellent and the actors are all very convincing. The action scenes are exciting, and the use of as many practical effects as possible is appreciated. The color palette and music are appropriately somber, and the film's tone is oppressive and emotionally draining. Fortunately, the characters are charismatic enough to lighten the burden, even though they have their own baggage to carry. Florence Pugh's makeup is wildly inconsistent, and while light blue is not a good eyeliner color, the smokey eye looks great on her character. Unfortunately, the film goes off the rails towards the end after Sentry unleashes The Void, which broke my engagement and lost my interest. But the set-up leads to a whole new Marvel arc, and it will be interesting to see where they go next.