Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts (dubbed from the Hollywood film of the same name; UA) is a story about new superheroes who are the New Avengers.
CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) faces impeachment for illegal activities. To save herself, she sends Thunderbolts members Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen) and Antonia Dreykov (Olga Kurylenko) to a secret compound to battle each other. After Starr kills Dreykov, a man named Bob (Lewis Pullman) appears suddenly. When the Thunderbolts members realise that they were sent by de Fontaine to be destroyed along with all evidence of her activities, they escape from there.
Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) captures the three surviving Thunderbolts members so that he can use them as evidence for de Fontaine’s impeachment. He teams up with the trio and they all storm into the former Avengers Tower in New York to discover that de Fontaine has turned Bob (who was the subject of one of her top-secret projects) into a genetically enhanced human called Sentry. Things go awry as a result of which Sentry’s dark side — known as Void — is activated. Yelena realises that she can still save the day by stopping Void. Does she succeed? What happens to Bob and to the other two Thunderbolts members? What happens to de Fontaine?
Eric Pearson has written a nice story based on Marvel Comics, which keeps the audience engaged for a good part. It does get a bit boring at places but the long-drawn climax is again very exciting. Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo’s screenplay is well-written and is pretty engaging for the most part. The thrill element is high. The drama has plenty of turns and twists and, therefore, keeps the audience both, interested and intrigued.
Florence Pugh is exceptional as Yelena Belova. She is charismatic and delivers a swell performance. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is first-rate as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. Lewis Pullman is outstanding as Bob/Sentry/Void. He is remarkable as far as his appeal is concerned. Sebastian Stan does a fine job as Bucky Barnes.Wyatt Russell stands his own in the role of John Walker. Olga Kurylenko makes her mark as Antonia Dreykov. Hannah John-Kamen is good as Ava Starr. Geraldine Viswanathan is effective as de Fontaine’s assistant, Mel. David Harbour is wonderfully entertaining as Alexei Shostakov, a father-figure to Yelena. Chris Bauer, Wendell Edward Pierce (as Congressman Gary), Charlotte Ann Tucker (as the little girl who is saved) and the others provide fine support in brief roles.
Jake Schreier’s direction is excellent. He has made a very engaging entertainer. Son Lux’s background music is outstanding. Andrew Droz Palermo’s cinematography is superb. Grace Yun’s production designing is terrific. Editing (by Angela Catanzaro and Harry Yoon) is super-sharp. Dubbing is lovely.
On the whole, Thunderbolts is a pretty interesting entertainer and will, therefore, score at the turnstiles.
Released on 1-5-’25 at Movie Time Goregaon (in 3D; daily 2 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay by Star India Pvt. Ltd. Publicity: good. Opening: nice. …….Also released all over. Opening was decent at most places. The original English version has also opened simultaneously.
