‘Thunderbolts*’ Review: Marvel’s Superheroic Shrug - WSJ


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Summary of 'Thunderbolts' Review

The Wall Street Journal's review pans Marvel's 'Thunderbolts', deeming it a tired and self-aware film that reflects the MCU's current creative slump. The film's characters are described as jaded and uninspired, with dialogue that feels more like a meta-commentary on the MCU's perceived lack of originality than compelling storytelling. The opening action sequence is criticized for its perfunctory nature.

The review highlights the film's self-referential humor, suggesting that the screenwriters are acknowledging the audience's awareness of the MCU's creative shortcomings. The overall tone is negative, indicating a disappointing cinematic experience.

  • The film's characters are described as second-raters who are aware of their own lack of appeal.
  • The script is criticized for its lack of imagination and its overuse of self-aware humor.
  • The action sequence is deemed generic and uninspired.

In short, the review suggests that 'Thunderbolts' is not only a weak film in its own right but also a reflection of broader problems within the MCU.

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Bored, jaded, tired, out of gas and facing the Void. The script for “Thunderbolts*” begs you to notice how its characters’ internal doubts serve as allusions to the sorry state of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So: refunds for everyone who bought a ticket to “Eternals” or “The Marvels”? A public apology for “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”? 

No, just more of the smug, self-referential humor that sounds like screenwriters saying, “We know you all think we’re running low on imagination. Now here’s a movie about that!” The dramatis personae are a dismal phalanx of second-raters who correctly keep telling each other, and the audience, how lame they are. In an opening mass-slaying so perfunctory that director Jake Schreier might as well have simply put up a card reading “Generic fight scene,” Black Widow’s little sister Yelena (Florence Pugh) languidly narrates script directions: “You shoot, I dodge.” She and her cohorts are practically yawning with ennui. Screenwriters Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo don’t seem to grasp that yawns are contagious.

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