"Thunderbolts*" Is A Desperation Move By Marvel
#318: "Thunderbolts*," "Andor," "Unbreakable," "Chronicle"
Edition 318:
Hey movie lovers!
This week: It’s our annual (ish) check-in with the superhero genre. There’s a new Marvel blockbuster out, and it’s trying to be different from all the rest. After that some examples of superhero and other big IP stories done extremely well, scattered around various streaming services. And in this week’s “Trailer Watch,” a new Spike Lee joint starring Denzel. Enough said!
Thunderbolts*
It’s important for any discussion of Thunderbolts* (don’t forget the asterisk!) with the fact that this is the 36th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 36! Three dozen!
Anyone who’s read this newsletter for any length of time knows that I wouldn’t be upset if superheroes go the way of the dodo. I’ve raised my complaints about Marvel again and again and again. These movies are, at best, not my particular taste, and at worst, an insult to the art form.
But up to this point, Marvel has shown a kind of confident defiance in its storytelling style, even as its tried and true formula has lost its luster since Avengers: Endgame (which for context was the 22nd MCU movie, and came out in 2019). Fans will care about whatever we tell them to care about, so long as there’s enough quips to keep them entertained and enough breadcrumbs to keep them coming back next time, the company seemed to say.
By way of response, the past dozen Marvel movies have mostly disappointed both hardcore fans and the casual audiences that made it the most commercially successful franchise in movie history.
Regardless of whether this multiversal “phase” has killed the golden goose or whether the superhero genre is simply falling out of favor in the same way musicals, westerns or steroidal action movies once did as the biggest blockbusters of their day, Thunderbolts* is the first real admission from Marvel that the status quo isn’t working.
There’s no multiverse, no laundry list of lore that must be studied beforehand, and to be honest, even very little superpowers. Our protagonists, a rag-tag group of ancillary characters from previous films, are of the kick-punch-shoot variety. “Can none of us even fly?” asks one at one point, exasperated.
This grounded-ness was a selling point of the movie, up to and including the A24-style trailer advertising this movie as a Marvel-lized version of a gritty human drama.
But it’s A24 as someone might think of it if they only watched Marvel movies and had never actually seen an A24 movie. Our lead hero, played by the always wonderful Florence Pugh, struggles with grief for her dead sister. Another is in denial of his wife and child leaving him.
And for a villain? His superpower is giving other people depression. That’s the kind of emotional crap that’s in A24 movies…right? Right?!
It’s a classic pitfall many movies have run into in recent years: using trauma as an attempted shortcut to emotional depth but in the process flattening out every character into a single-dimensional scar of one awful thing that has happened to them.
Scenes in that kind of emotional register—even if they’re fantastically acted, especially by Pugh and recent Oscar nominee Sebastian Stan—feel so at odds with the rest of the classic Marvel storytelling tactics. It’s like ok, are we done with that? Now let’s get back to the punchy-shooty stuff and the heroes cracking jokes with each other. It’s not all that surprising that the most memorable part of the movie is David Harbour’s buffoonish Red Guardian. That’s Marvel’s bread and butter.
If this is an attempt at “elevated” genre fare (the kind of thing that’s been done dozens of times in the horror genre recently), it’s really hard to tell what the theme or message being sent here is. Our heroes quite literally go into a dream world of the villain’s past trauma and then punch that trauma in the face. Boom. Problem solved!?
As is my enduring problem with all these movies, it’s difficult to take seriously the problems either internal or external of any characters when you know the heroes are going to defeat the villains in the end. There are no real stakes here. The drama is a charade.
The mere fact that Marvel feels the need to deploy these new tactics to appeal to viewers, or to create attention, carries to me the faint whiff of desperation. Even the name, Thunderbolts*, with the asterisk signaling a change in title to New Avengers post-release, is the kind of gimmick that would’ve felt so unnecessary and thirsty just a few years ago.
Whether it pays off in the way Marvel really cares about—money money money—remains to be seen. This was a trial balloon. It feels like the brand is going all-in later this summer with Fantastic Four, and the success of that movie could determine the course of superhero movies for the next decade.
Something New
Andor S2 (Disney+): Here’s proof that big IP does not necessarily have to be at odds with great storytelling. This show is, by far, the best Star Wars thing ever created (all movies and shows included). And you might say hey, you grouch, is that just because there are no Jedi in it? To which I’d reply….well, maybe. A galaxy far, far away has never felt closer to home, and that could be part of the reason why.
The show tracks the early days of the rebellion in the lead-up to A New Hope (episode four), in the first season with the recruitment of Diego Luna’s character Cassian Andor, managing to squeeze in a heist movie, a prison movie and a big battle all within 10 awesome hours. Now the show is back for its second season and picking up right where it left off with intrigue and suspense. The characters are memorable, and the threads between them both enrich the show and drive it forward. I truly cannot recommend this show enough as a shining example of operating within the tent of a massive franchise property.
Something Old
Unbreakable (2000, Hulu): I want to highlight a couple of examples of superhero stories that can be creative, and deep, without sacrificing excitement or feeling like a sideshow. The first is from 25 years ago—back when M Night Shyamalan was making good movies, before he went full camp—and stars Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson and Robin Wright in what you don’t really know is a superhero movie at all until the exact moment when it serves the plot (as ever, I’m a #PlotWhore).
It’s very clever and super stylish, back when we used to think of Shyamalan as a young Spielberg. It brings superpowers into the real world with real life consequences, and is richly rewarded for it. Lovers of the MCU who think that’s all superhero movies can be will have their brains exploded by this movie, I think.
Something To Stream
Chronicle (Max): Another example of superheroes in the “real world,” this indie movie was so good it convinced us that 26-year-old Josh Trank was going to be the next filmmaking golden boy (his career dropped off a cliff) and that Dane DeHaan was going to be a movie star (Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets pretty much settled that).
Not that every superhero movie could copy this, but it’s pretty cool to see the found footage POV deployed in this context, which fits in well with our bullied teen protagonists who discover a radioactive material and start to develop superpowers. Our characters show their flaws and go through their own struggles, but that development pushes the story forward. In fact, it really is the movie. That’s not to say it’s not exciting or without cool action scenes, it’s just what happens when those two sides work in tandem rather than competition (see Thunderbolts*). Definitely recommend to superhero fans and non-fans alike.
Trailer Watch: Highest 2 Lowest
Incredible week for movie trailers — a look at Ethan Coen’s latest solo project, the much-hyped Dave Franco/Allison Brie horror movie, an A24 rom-com starring zaddy Pedro Pascal and Dakota Johnson, and the super creative and creepy Long Walk. But none of those can compare to a new Spike Lee joint starring Denzel Washington.
The hardcore film nerds know this is a remake of master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's 1963 Japanese film High and Low, but set in the record industry of America. It’s crime, ambition, and above all, SWAGGER. One of the must-watch movies of 2025.