Thunderbolts *

[Monterey Jack]

* You think The Marvels required MCU homework...?

[AndyDursin]

When Harrison Ford derided the "slavery" he felt working for George and Steven back in the '80s, what depressing irony that he'd be ending his career not winning Oscars (or even acting for them) but cashing checks for his grandkids' college funds with Disney garbage like this.

[Monterey Jack]

When Harrison Ford derided the "slavery" he felt working for George and Steven back in the '80s, what depressing irony that he'd be ending his career not winning Oscars (or even acting for them) but cashing checks for his grandkids' college funds with Disney garbage like this.

The sad part is, even after he's dead, his digitized mug and voice will be exploited by Disney for decades to come.

[Monterey Jack]

An A24 film...!

[AndyDursin]

Is that a joke trailer or Marvel notably trying to change their branding with these "edgy" visual looks for this and CAP?

This movie looks like "hot garbage" according to Theo.

[Monterey Jack]

Is that a joke trailer or Marvel notably trying to change their branding with these "edgy" visual looks for this and CAP?

This movie looks like "hot garbage" according to Theo.

Supposedly Florence Pugh made a reference to the movie being "Like an A24 movie", and Disney whipped up this ad as a gag, but it's funny how, a decade ago, everyone was trying to ape the MCU template, and now Disney is trying to sell their most recent MCU movies as anything but superhero movies. It's proof positive that audiences are sick of the genre (Deadpool & Wolverine being a last-gasp success story) and want to move onto something, ANYthing else, but Disney refuses to --



I'm reminded of the third season of Stranger Things, where Will Byers just wanted to keep playing D&D, while his friends had moved onto girls. Sometimes you just have to accept that your audience doesn't want what you're selling anymore, and give them something else. Superhero movies had a longer run as the dominant form of big-budget spectacle movies than most, but it's OVER, it's DONE, time to TURN THE PAGE and find something fresh. The current weaksauce Captain America hasn't even cracked $350 million yet. That's probably what the last Avengers movie made in its first three days worldwide.

[Monterey Jack]

Reviews are...good?! 92% on RT at the moment.

[AndyDursin]

From what I looked it, it's getting lots of marginal, 3/5 and 7/10-type reviews they're counting as "fresh" on RT. Very few people saying it's really good.

At this stage it's in all of their best interests for the movie to be good so I don't trust them. I'm also superheroed out, I'll wait for Disney to send me the code in 6 weeks.

[Monterey Jack]

From what I looked it, it's getting lots of marginal, 3/5 and 7/10-type reviews they're counting as "fresh" on RT. Very few people saying it's really good.

Oh, to be sure a lot of these will be wan "It's not as bad as the last few MCU stinkburgers!" recommendations at best. Eh, it's got Florence Pugh and her adorable Russian accent, so I can't resist.

[AndyDursin]

From Variety's review:

Most of “Thunderbolts*” smells like reshoots and ADR-enhanced attempts to steer this lumbering franchise back toward something mainstream audiences might show up to see in theaters.

...Unfortunately, it’s all in service of a bummer ending (the worst since “Avengers: Infinity War”), meant to fuel this exhausting franchise for another few years (till the Avengers return in 2027).

Wow sounds great!

I just have no interest in these movies anymore and certainly don't intend to support them financially at this point. I did my part with CAPTAIN AMERICA because it was winter break and we had nothing else to do, but that's about it.

The only people going now are hardcore Marvel fanboys who lap up anything that gets put on-screen and Disney is just intent on recycling this formula -- stringing out a bunch of movies with a loose interconnected story leading into another AVENGERS movie -- it seems until the whole thing makes no money at all.

It's all diminishing returns and the desperation of bringing back Downey smacks of them knowing they need something "else" because the whole franchise is on the decline.

[Monterey Jack]

The only people going now are hardcore Marvel fanboys who lap up anything that gets put on-screen and Disney is just intent on recycling this formula -- stringing out a bunch of movies with a loose interconnected story leading into another AVENGERS movie -- it seems until the whole thing makes no money at all.

It's all diminishing returns and the desperation of bringing back Downey smacks of them knowing they need something "else" because the whole franchise is on the decline.

It's this, exactly. There was a point, seven or eight years ago, when the MCU was THE biggest thing in the pop culture osmosis. But after Endgame, a lot of the most casual consumers drifted away, due to a combination of that serving as such a definite...end for all of the big "Phase One" heroes (Tony Stark and Natasha Romanov dead, Cap going back in time to live the live he never got to the first time around) and the Pandemic shutdowns in 2020 putting the franchise on hiatus for the better part of two years. When it came back in 2021, all we got were either reheated scraps (a Black Widow movie made AFTER Scarlett Johansson was killed off, resulting in zero dramatic tension, a Dr. Strange movie that just moved alternate universe chess pieces around) or introductions of C-level Marvel characters no one knew existed prior to the now-forgotten movies (Eternals, Shang-Chi). Back in 2014, at least a bunch of "Who the hell are THESE guys?" like the Guardians Of The Galaxy could be pushed through and become successful due in large part to the momentum of the MCU as a whole, but we're long past that now, and the brand getting diluted further by a glut of D+ shows that have ranged from mediocre to flat-out awful haven't helped, especially now that the continuity of these shows have bled into three big-screen movies to a confounding degree. Thunderbolts* is going to be the second MCU movie in the last three months to have a fake Capt. America in it!





This is why another giant Avengers team-up movie is such a terrible idea. In 2012, it was THE HULK! CAPTAIN AMERICA! IRON MAN! THOR! Now, it'll be --



I'm reminded of the original Eastman/Laird run of B&W TMNT comics, which culminated in an epic 13-issue storyline titled "City At War", which brought that first volume of the series to an ending that -- emotionally, dramatically, narratively -- was the perfect finale for the characters. I read a few issues into the color "volume 2" that followed in the immediate wake, but I just couldn't get into it, due partially to Vol. 1 having such a satisfying conclusion, and partially just to "aging out" of the TMNT fandom in general. This is where the MCU is at the point in time, and the more frantically Disney tries to "save it" by adhering to what worked in the past and forcing massive cross-character team-up storylines, the more it's gonna continue to fracture and hemorrhage viewers.

[AndyDursin]

Disney's creative bankruptcy extending to TV now -- they're "rebooting" a whole bunch of old series from BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER to SCRUBS and MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE.

Absolutely pathetic.

https://deadline.com/2025/05/disney-tv- ... 236377899/

[AndyDursin]

Previews just under BRAVE NEW WORLD, so this is pretty much the level you can expect on the high end from these kinds of things now. FF will go up because of the hype and audience familiarity but we're not talking Spidey levels of box-office even there.

https://variety.com/2025/film/box-offic ... 236384138/

[Monterey Jack]

5/10



While not as obviously patched-together from three or four different previous versions like The Marvels or Captain America: Brave New World (not to mention last year's troika of Sony Spidey Spin-Off Stinkers), Thunderbolts* represents the MCU at an absolute low ebb of creativity, excitement or dramatic stakes. At least those aforementioned films had a certain train-wreck amusement factor, trying to suss out which scenes came from which batch of reshoots and trying to pinpoint the most obviously ADR'ed lines, but Thunderbolts* gives you nothing whatsoever to hold onto, aside from how achingly pretty and charismatic Florence Pugh remains even in the most mercenary of franchise junk. The dim, washed-out cinematography is atrocious (the whole movie -- even the rare scenes shot outside in full daylight! -- looks like your theater forgot to take the 3D filter off the lens), the action routine, the quips (mostly delivered by a trying-too-hard-to-be-jovial David Harbour) lame, and the obligatory Credit Cookie breadcrumbs fail to deliver even the most transitory of anticipatory tingles. I have no idea what the critics were fluffing about this, other than being relieved it wasn't as bad as the worst of the franchise or genre in the last two years. Also, Olga Kurylenko must have a really good agent, considering how her "Taskmaster" character from Black Widow is given such high billing, yet gets treated like this after delivering a single line of dialogue:



I honestly feel like I cannot possibly get excited by the MCU or superhero cinema at all anymore. Aside from the third Spider-Verse movie, there's almost nothing coming up, superhero-wise, in the next few years that's moving the needle even slightly. I know Disney's in frantic all-hands-on-deck mode with the next two Avenger movies, but with this current, suck-ass collection of heroes, I can't imagine anyone getting pumped for them. Exactly a decade ago, an afternoon matinee of Age Of Ultron was like a raucous party, now sitting through one of these is like being one of the last people at an all-night party and seeing that obnoxious guest who refuses to leave and is STILL on the couch eating chips and playing video games when you just want them to leave so you can clean up and go to bed.

[TaranofPrydain]

Disney's creative bankruptcy extending to TV now -- they're "rebooting" a whole bunch of old series from BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER to SCRUBS and MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE.

Absolutely pathetic.

https://deadline.com/2025/05/disney-tv- ... 236377899/

And you can now add Desperate Housewives to the mix now too.