Here’s What’s Missing from the MCU’s ‘Thunderbolts*’
Ensemble comedy captures antiheroes in action without a certain mind virus
“Thunderbolts*” may not revive the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The once-mighty franchise stalled with disappointments like “Eternals,” “Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “The Marvels.” This year’s “Captain America: Brave New World” showed signs of life, but its $200 million U.S. haul is a far cry from the saga’s biggest hits.
At the moment, “Thunderbolts*” is looking to snag between $70-75 million in its opening frame, according to Variety.
That’s not the biggest news to come out of the standalone feature.
Director Jake Schreier’s film is free of anything resembling woke.
Yes, after the MCU injected Identity Politics into its recent films, “Thunderbolts*” is all about story, laughter, pushing past trauma and finding joy in teamwork.
That’s it.
The cast isn’t upended by race swaps or progressive messaging. The dialogue doesn’t slow to a crawl to send a “message.” There’s no “girl power” montage a la “Avengers: Endgame.”
Nothing.
MCU fans can debate if the new film is as magical as past efforts. Certainly, the comedy dished out by David Harbour as the Red Guardian is as funny as anything we’ve seen before. And Florence Pugh reminds us how easily she transcends genre limitations – remember her superlative turn in “Midsommar?”
This isn’t accidental. In fact, Disney has been steering clear of woke in recent months. Smashes like “Moana 2” and “Inside Out 2” ignored woke messaging, and audiences flocked to both. The recent Disney+ series “Win or Lose” edited a trans storyline out of its kid-centric tale of a softball team bound for the playoffs.
Disney CEO Bob Iger has repeatedly said he wants to get back to the basics. He might even mean it.
Yet the transition isn’t seamless. The upcoming reboot “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” gender-swapped the Silver Surfer character – yes, there is an instance in the source material with a female Surfer, but it’s not the one fans have known for decades.
Even the actress playing the part was confused by the decision.
That film’s stars are also sabotaging the marketing efforts with their woke pronouncements.
The film may be 100 percent woke-free, but audiences may suspect otherwise.
Still, it’s clear Disney has been listening to fan complaints regarding the progressive bent to the MCU saga. Will that be enough to make “Thunderbolts*” the summer’s first blockbuster?
We’ll get some answers starting Friday when the film opens nationwide. The more complete answer may come the following weekend when word of mouth officially kicks in.
Wow. This is a desperate article. First, for a group of characters that aren’t heavy hitters, the opening is pretty damn good. Second, they didn’t gender swap the silver surfer. There has been a female silver surfer so please stop this pearl clutching
” yes, there is an instance in the source material with a female Surfer, BUT IT’S NOT THE ONE FANS HAVE KNOWN FOR DECADES.” (emphasis mine).
Good points, and ultimately you hit the nail on the head: Disney needs to get control of their stars somehow. Either hire people who aren’t outspoken for wokeness, or make them sign “no political discourse” clauses as a condition for hiring, or both.
The estrogen is rather high for superheroes movie, but no gender swapping. Everything seems like it’s designed for a female modern audience that doesn’t like superheroes or action movies. This impedes the box office. The women have to be HOT for men to notice.
Such a good website. Saves me so much money.
I refuse to spend dollars at the box office for woke, agenda, race-swapping, gender-swapping anymore. If the world has changed and left me behind, fine. But it’s not getting another penny from me.
A $15 ticket (plus the grand-larceny at the concession stand) for a multi-person-family is a lot of money for hard working regular folks (spelled “knuckle-draggers living in fly-over-country” by the Hollywood elite). It’s not worth taking a risk anymore. The woke alerts from this website save me a lot of time and money.
Toto sees it so you don’t have to. (And I’m “all-in” for The Thunderbolts this weekend!)
You precisely explained why I love this site as well. Christian Toto offers good reviews and as you said offers “trigger warnings” (joke intended) for people who don’t want to pay for the woke BS. But unlike other critics where you wonder if they actually saw the movie they’re commenting on, Toto seems to be e genuine fan of the comic book-movie genre.
FOLLOW UP REVIEW
Yep. Just a fun summer flick with no lectures. Not great, but a welcomed escape from Hollywood agendas. You actually end up caring about the characters. Female characters are strong without belittling or emasculating male characters (did you know it’s possible to raise women up without tearing men down.) There’s even a nice metaphor about battling screen-induced-isolation and overcoming loneliness via friendship and teamwork. 7/10.