Marvel has released their newest addition to MCU, Thunderbolts* or now The New Avengers on May 2 in theaters. Thunderbolts* is a rated PG-13 movie directed by Jake Schreier with a running time of 2 hours and 6 minutes. The movie takes place months after Captain America: Brave New World where congress is trying to impeach Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) for illegal projects.
The movie follows Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and John Walker (Wyatt Russell) as they try and struggle to become heroes with the original Avengers now gone.
This movie does focus on the characters mental health more than we’ve seen before. Each character has something they’re ashamed of and the actors do a great job at expressing those emotions. Actress Florence Pugh has been praised for her past movies and this one will be no exception. Pugh does a great job in showing the mental toll Yelena has from her past in the Red Room and her actions as a Black Widow.
Most of the characters are people who have been trained to fight or have a super soldier serum. Ghost being the only one out of the five with a different power, being able to become invisible and walk through walls, there is limited special effects being put in for them. Their action scenes came out nicely and the actors do a great job at making them look real.
In the movie they introduced Sentry (Lewis Pullman), Bob, as a man who volunteered for human experiments. He eventually gained powers from the experiment although it is not known to him and the other characters in the beginning. Although the actor Pullman did a great job at portraying the character emotionally and physically, the scenes where he is using his powers look off. The actions seem too fake as if they didn’t smooth it out before releasing the movie. Other than that, the character was interesting and entertaining to watch.
Just like other Marvel movies the two post credit scenes tease new movies and conflicts. The Thunderbolts* are expected to appear in Marvel’s Avengers: Doomsday in 2026.