“Thunderbolts” opens (as it should – when you’ve got the goods, you use them) with Florence Pugh.
Yelena Belova (Pugh), younger sister of Natasha Romanoff – AKA, the Black Widow – is on a mission, sent by CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) to destroy any and all evidence of a super soldier experiment gone wrong. As the last scientist standing tries to take her down, she begins to narrate exactly how the following scene will play out – there’ll be a scramble for the gun, a brief skirmish resulting in a bunch of smashed lab equipment, the scientist will make a brave attempt at a few last words, and Yelena will kill him. Bing, bang, boom, done.
Throughout this sequence, Yelena sounds bored. There’s a sort of bland routine here that she’s making fun of, a monotony that exists despite the action, and the guns, and the superheroes. She might be talking about the mission at hand, but it’s not hard to make the leap that this is “Thunderbolts” commenting on the state of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole. The formula is becoming tired, the fanfare around every new movie or show less and less exciting. Every new entry feels like a chore we’re forced to endure.
Read Sammie’s full review on Rough Draft
