"You can't outrun the emptiness."

I'm alone.

In August of last year, I moved up to college for my freshman year. I was excited, who wouldn't be. College is one of the most formative times in a young person's life, and I was ready to make the most of it. Come May of this year, I fucking hate it here. During welcome week, I didn't meet anyone. Okay, fine, there's always the actual school year. School year starts, didn't meet anybody then either. I made the mistake of reing Instagram. I saw all my friends from high school having fun with the people they met. My fucking roommate was playing League of Legends all the time and I never had a moment to myself despite having no friends. Eventually, I did meet two people that I enjoyed being around. I haven't heard from them since Biden was in office. I see my friends from high school every so often but I can feel the group drifting apart. It's natural, people come and go as you get older, but fuck man, it sucks. So, why am I using this Thunderbolts* review to tell you this? Well, dear reader, I'm glad you asked. Amidst Marvel's sea of slop, Jake Schreier managed to make a film that is so deeply personal.

The film follows Yelena Belova, and her opening monologue sets a tone. She's empty inside, after the death of her sister, but she feels there's more to it. This opening narration plays over a gorgeously shot and choreographed hallway fight scene, and this is where I knew I was in for some good shit. All of the action in this film feels kinetic, it's not just weightless and meaningless punching. The movement is fluid, it's like a real movie. This opening monologue also makes it clear that, while this is a Thunderbolts movie, it's really Black Widow 2. The ing cast is a lot of fun, however. David Harbour's Red Guardian was one of the few good things about Black Widow(and also Florence Pugh but like obv). Sebastian Stan is a delight as always. Wyatt Russell's character has a natural continuation of where he was left off in Falcon and Winter Soldier. It was nice getting to see Hannah John-Kamen in a movie with a director who knows what he's doing. Taskmaster is here too. And while it is very obvious he was supposed to be played by Steven Yeun, Lewis Pullman does an incredible job as Sentry. This entire ing cast is incredible and is essential for Yelena's arc.

They did the impossible, folks, they made Red Guardian a character. Yelena, Bob, and the entire team are incredibly unhappy with where they are in life. Red Guardian peaked in Russia. The world let go of the Red Guardian, but he didn't. In a lesser movie, say, oh, I don't know, like Black Widow, this would be played for jokes with one emotional moment near the end to give you the concept of a character arc. In this film, Harbour still has jokes, but the Red Guardian stuff is his arc. He constantly wishes to be Red Guardian again. He still makes jokes, it's not like he's an entirely different character, but in this film the jokes are a mask to hide a hollowed out man. This kind of character depth has been absent from this franchise for years(except for you Wakanda Forever and Guardians 3, any MCU slander in this review is not directed towards you).

John Walker is a lot of fun in this one. A man who lost everything walking around with the same ego of the man who became Captain America. In his first scenes, he immediately tries to assume the role of a leader. Not fully grasping that Yelena and Ava don't respect him at all. I love the way he justifies him killing the innocent Flagsmasher but saying he was not "so innocent," it's the little character moments like that which help create a bigger picture of the man he's become. His facade is not so easily broken. He keeps a harder outer wall, pillared by his Captain America ego. It's only through the lens of the void that we discover what's happened to John since we last saw him. So wrapped up in his own fall from grace that he began to neglect his own family. He couldn't keep them so he wants to order everyone else around so he can feel good again, the same way he felt in the military. And if you're wondering when I'm gonna tie that intro into this essay, I'll get to it.

Bucky's been here for awhile. And he's always fighting. He was molded to be a soldier, and now he's finally trying to break out. However, congress isn't exactly the best place for our old pal Bucky. His interview with the press where he can't really give them an answer is really fun to watch, and it's clear he misses being an agent. The moment where he keeps the congressman away from cameras is a really fun way to show this. When he gets his big action scene during the 2nd act, he feels comfortable again. Without the suits, without the press, he's himself. But he's also doing it to help further his political career, because movies.

Ghost is the one with the least going on, other than Taskmaster who gets headshot 15 minutes into the movie. Ghost has hype moments and aura, the knife shot in the vault is really fun. Since this is an ensemble film, one character did sorta have to get a little less to do than the rest, but it was really fun seeing Ghost action with good direction. However, she does still have that whole childhood trauma thing going on to tie her in to this group of mentally unwell individuals. Alright, now we can talk about Yelena and Bob.

Yelena and Bob are intertwined. One arc cannot be completed without the other. Lewis Pullman is great, and while it is very obvious that part was written for Steven Yeun, Pullman does an incredible job. Florence Pugh, however, gives probably my favorite MCU performance, bar none. She is incredible, and it's clear that her and the entire cast understood that this was like a real movie. My dear friend HawkTuahSigmaKing said to me that Bob Thunderbolt and Yelena were lowkey us. And watching the movie, seeing every horrible thing those two went through, all I could think was "fuck, he was right." Yelena's struggle with loneliness and depression really hit me close to home. It's been a really rough year for me, but this movie, and yes I recognize how corny it sounds, made me feel like it might all work out in the end.

The team's first meeting with Sentry is amazing. Elaine from Seinfeld has essentially manipulated him into becoming her perfect soldier. Taking advantage of a person who's been dealt a terrible hand. Parents always fighting, abusive father, drug addict, the works. One of his first lines in the film is saying how he wouldn't mind dying cause he has nothing to live for. It's a thought I've found myself having more often than I'd like to this past year. The feeling that you're not good enough. That you can't contribute to society. That you're worthless. Val capitalizes on this to try and turn him into something he isn't, which then leads into an incredible fight scene with The Sentry. The team gets their asses kicked, which causes the entire team, especially Yelena, to feel deflated. Like losers. Worthless, with nothing to contribute to society. This leads us into the best scene in the MCU, except for maybe the ending of Guardians 2.

The scene with Yelena and Alexei when she finally blows up is incredible. Earlier in the film, she tells Bob he needs to bottle up all the negative emotions that he feels. Truth is, that doesn't work. Eventually, the bottle's gonna burst and everything is gonna come pouring out. Yelena blows up at Alexei to the point of tears about everything she's feeling. Her depression, her loneliness, her desire for connection in a world she's become increasingly disconnected from. Throwing herself into work she doesn't find enjoyable. Anything to have purpose again, but she can't find it. She sinks deeper and deeper into the ground, a hole being filled up with her own regrets that she's had since childhood. And when Alexei comforts her, he says that he doesn't "see [her] mistakes." I would love for my dad to tell me something like that, but alas.

In the films final scene, the gang finds themselves in the void, where Yelena and Bob have a really nice talk in an attic. When the void starts fighting against their newfound community, their push back against the emptiness, it begins fighting them. When all seems lost, the rest of the Thunderbolts come to save them. Is this scene hype moments and aura? Yea, but it's balanced out with some incredible writing. Eventually, the fight is simply between Bob and The Void. He begins beating it relentlessly, only to start being taken over by the void itself. You can't beat your depression into submission, that'll only it make it worse. But, when you fight alongside people you find community, say, a bunch of forgotten MCU characters, that's when you can really beat it. We're stronger when we aren't alone.

To wrap things up, this film is a surprisingly great delve into mental health and depression that I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would. A stellar cast, great writing, doesn't look like sludge all the time. It's really everything you could want in a post-endgame MCU film. Shame about the impending slop.