Thunderbolts*: Florence Pugh stars in 'super-silly' yet 'terrific' film

Having "muscled countless independent films out of cinema screens", Marvel has had the "audacity" to promote the latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise "as a big-budgeted film with the 'feel' of a low-budgeted one", said Clarisse Loughrey in The Independent.

It even boasts, with a wink, that the film was made by a "crew of indie veterans who sold out" (many from indie production giant A24). Well, it's annoying in a way – but getting those people involved has paid off, because the film is pretty good. The titular Thunderbolts are "an ill-matched squad of antiheroes" drawn from previous Marvel films, who squabble at first but then bond over their shared PTSD: Florence Pugh, for instance, is back as Yelena Belova, still reeling from the death of her pseudo sister Black Widow, in "Avengers: Endgame". That is a fresh approach, and there is also a fresh appearance from Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a deliciously Machiavellian CIA director.

The story itself is "super-silly", but done with "terrific brio", said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail. Faced with possible impeachment over her involvement in a nefarious project, Dreyfus unleashes Bob, a genetically engineered superhuman with world-destroying powers. She hopes to set the Thunderbolts against each other; instead, they unite to foil her wicked scheme.

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There are some "cool fight sequences", said Fatima Sheriff in Little White Lies, and the storytelling is "miles better" than the franchise's norm. But it's a low bar, and the film's endless references back to the plots of previous Marvel movies ultimately become wearisome. You can't help feeling that "a potentially great film" has been "downgraded to good by its inability to escape the wider Marvel machine".