GeekVisionz
GeekVisionz
So I Watched... The Thunderbolts*
Marvel delivers exactly what I have been craving in The Thunderbolts—something genuinely different for the post-Endgame MCU. This isn't just another superhero team-up; it's a surprisingly poignant exploration of damaged people finding connection through shared trauma.
Florence Pugh's Yelena emerges as the emotional core, building beautifully on her established longing for real family from Black Widow. She leads a cast of remarkable performances, with Lewis Pullman surprising everyone as the sympathetic yet disturbing Bob. Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes finds perfect positioning as a mentor figure who's walked the villain-to-hero path himself, while David Harbour's boisterous Alexei provides essential levity among a team of sarcastic loners. Julia Louis-Dreyfus finally gets substantial screen time as the manipulative Val, bringing layers to a character we've only seen in brief moments.
What sets Thunderbolts apart is its unflinching focus on mental health themes—guilt, regret, and loneliness aren't just character traits but the very foundation of the story. The film handles these elements with surprising depth, culminating in a climax that prioritizes emotional resolution over typical superhero spectacle. The Void effects create a visually striking metaphor for internal struggles, though the film's overall cinematography remains somewhat bland with muted colors.
The post climax reveal reveals these characters to be "The New Avengers" and changes everything, intentionally positioning them as underdogs compared to the original team. Meanwhile, the substantial post-credits scene meaningfully advances the larger MCU narrative toward Doomsday, suggesting Marvel has found its footing again after an uneven period. Whether you're a die-hard Marvel fan or just someone looking for a superhero film with emotional weight, Thunderbolts delivers something refreshingly human in a genre often dominated by world-ending threats.
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hello, all you awesome people out there, welcome, or welcome back to geek business entertainment. I'm your host, as always, hoover, and we have here, well, we've got something that uh, should have been recorded quite a while ago, but I'm only really just now getting to it. But y'all know things happen and you know that's how it goes sometimes. But, uh, we have here the. I just watched the thunderbolts, which is my sort of my genuine, my genuine impression, what I thought of the movie. Some things I like, some things I didn't like, things of that nature just very, very quick hit kind of stuff, where I just kind of talk about the movie, uh, in general. You know, like I said, we don't do the in-depth review stuff anymore, but, yeah, so I just watched it, even though I watched it like two, three weeks ago now. Uh, yeah, I think it's like in a third week, it's going to a third weekend opening. So, uh, even though I saw it a while ago, I'm only just now getting to this, but you know that's what happens, life gets in the way. Also, what do y'all think about the, the picture back here? I don't know how long it's gonna be up, but I'm on the youtube side. I don't know how long it's gonna be up, but you know, I'm just trying out a little something, trying to, you know, spice up, spice up the background a little bit. I got a second screen here. It's always black, so just figured I'd try to do something a little bit here. But yeah, so we're going to talk about the Thunderbolts, thought about what I liked, what I didn't, kind of. You know some more other things in the movie and things of that nature, but just generally talking about the movie, all right, so I will start with a little bit of an overview. So the Thunderbolts, released on May 2nd it is still in theaters right now.
Speaker 1:It is written by Eric Pearson and Joanna Callow. It was directed by Jake Schreier Schreier, I think it's pronounced and it stars Florence Pugh, sebastian Stan, david Harbour, wyatt Russell, lewis Pullman, hannah John-Kamen, geraldine Vishwanathan I think that's how you pronounce her last name and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. All right, so the Thunderbolbolts if you didn't know, the thunderbolts tells the story of a team of criminals uh, assassins and villains that come together to form a team in order to save the world and, in the end, or one another, uh, it very much has like the uh, the guardians of the galaxy vibes with the found family aspect, which I do like. Uh, I do like things like that, uh, it's, it's a really cool aspect of the movie. It's just another little, so small thing that I like with movies in general. Um, while having a very simple premise, it is paced, uh, very well and, honestly, it kind of just breezes through the movie. Um, it never felt like it was dragging on. It never felt like things had to be shoehorned in or it was kind of rushing through things too quickly. The movie was paced extremely, extremely well. Now, I remember when I heard the initial receptions to the movie, I did see that there was like an emphasis on like a mental health and it really handles the things of like guilt and regret and loneliness, and it really does. And it handles those things of like guilt and regret and loneliness and it really does, and it handles those things, uh, extremely well. Uh, the entire climax of the movie, honestly, is really just overcoming that, uh, which I do like, uh, uh, for in this movie. Overall, this movie does something different, which, for me, is like the number one thing of Marvel movies right now is is the movie doing something different, especially post end game it's? What is it doing differently? What is it offering to the Marvel cinematic universe that other movies aren't? And this does that and it keeps it prevalent through the entire movie. You know, some Marvel movies kind of have that, but it kind of does them a little bit, but not too much. But this one, I feel like, does that, uh, in spades and to a tee um, so sign us some.
Speaker 1:Some other things I want to talk about. I see it's getting dark, let me suck at it there. We go all right. So some other things I do want to talk about here is, uh, florence Pugh's Yelena uh, she's the main character here and she is definitely the one who, like um, pushes the movie forward, uh, in in a way. Uh, but all the characters here are represented well and they all are given, like, the moments to shine in the movie. Like, uh, sam bucky kind of become like a mentor or even like a guide for these guys, because he has indeed been where they are. Uh, it's really cool to see, you know, a previous villain who has run with the avengers, so he's been where they are. So I feel like he's like the perfect person to sort of guide and mentor these characters, which is a dope thing to see for bucky himself as well.
Speaker 1:Um, another person I want to talk about is a alexi. Alexi might have been like my favorite character in the movie. Uh, it was just just this loud, boisterous ball of energy, uh, something I feel like this team really needed. Uh, because everybody in this team is a fairly like snarky, you know, very sarcastic kind of person who takes themselves a little bit too seriously. So, uh, getting getting Alexi sort of within all that to kind of mix it up a little bit, uh, I, I, I really like to see him, even a character like John John Walker got a little bit of redemption, I mean, I mean, I mean he's still a prick in the, he's still kind of a prick in the end. But yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, he does get some redemption, um, which is which is pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Um, also, uh, slight spoiler, uh, uh, the the Taskmaster Theory was right. The Taskmaster Theory was correct and it was not hard to see it coming. Anybody who paid attention to the marketing and the trailers and everything in this movie kind of saw it coming and yeah, it was, yeah, it happened, it was true. Um, all right, uh, let's kind of talk about some things I liked in this movie, continuing on with that train. Uh, I mentioned yelena was the main character, and rightfully so, because florence pew's performance was great.
Speaker 1:Um, definitely one of the standout, definitely, I think definitely like the one of these standout characters, if not the standout, I think definitely like one of the standout characters, if not the standout character and actor in this movie. It's one of those arcs that really pays off well. If you've seen Black Widow and you know how much having a family means to her, you know, in a Black Widow movie she preached about how, when she was a kid and they were in deep cover, how for them it was a mission, or even for, like, uh, uh I was gonna call her, uh, scarlet for nat, how it was, how she kind of just wants to move past it and move beyond it. But for elena, like that was real, it was one of the only real moments she felt she had in her life. So it really pays off well if you've been following her character for quite some time. Um, uh, and I I mentioned it before, I'm gonna bring it up again.
Speaker 1:While, yes, I was very sad that steven yoon couldn't stay on the play bob, uh, if y'all didn't know, steven yoon was originally signed on for this movie. He was originally signed on to play Bob, but after the strikes and the movie being delayed, he had to. He couldn't make the movie. So they recast it and they recasted it with Lewis Pullman. And man do I have to say Lewis Pullman was great. He really pulled through in this movie. He was the thing the young kids say nowadays. He understood the assignment, um. So, yeah, him playing bob, who was like this funny uh, but sympathetic, but also kind of like a horrifying character at the same time, a very damaged uh character with uh, with definitely like a side of vulnerability, he played it extremely well and I think he's also like one of the breakout characters in this movie as well, probably standing right alongside Yelena in all this stuff too. So that was great too.
Speaker 1:The climax was done very, very well. Yeah, the climax was done very, very well. Um, uh, yeah, the climax was done very, very well, uh, and it took a different way than I thought it would have and what I thought it would have went uh, but also yet somehow went exactly like I thought it would, if that makes any sense. Um, like, uh might get slight spoilery, but I'm not gonna talk about. I'm not gonna ruin anything in the movie, but like, uh, you could tell. I mean, if you know the comics and you know the character, uh, you've seen the trailers, you know we were eventually gonna get it and go there. But, like, the moments with the void were great.
Speaker 1:I love the effect they use for him visually, um, and what they did for like the little flashback moments too. Um, like, uh, when they went to the flashbacks and they seen everybody's things, how the shadows were kind of engulf everything in the background and then we find ourselves in the little flashback moments. I thought that was really cool. Um, the whole voyage has been like this whole like shadow, almost like a silhouetted figure. I thought that was pretty cool too. I really I really liked the uh, uh, the effect they use for the void, um.
Speaker 1:Speaking of performances, though, uh, a lot of love has been given to uh, pew and pullman. I, I literally just did it myself, uh, but I see a lot of people, a lot of other reviews, do the same thing. A lot of news headlines do that same thing as well. But I do want to extend some love to julia louis dreyfus's character. Um, this is the most we've seen of val um uh in like all of her performances. All of her performances, her appearances so far has been very small and very light, just kind of there and then she's gone. You know, hawkeye was super short, falcon and winter soldier was very short. I think wakanda forever kind of had the most in it, but even still she was very much like a tertiary character in there. So this is the most we got of her, and I think Julia Louis-Dreyfus did phenomenal Just the way she played that character, just like a very selfish and conniving person, always either very convincingly putting on the front that she's in control, or very much or very much believing she is in control, no matter what the situation uh becomes and turns into.
Speaker 1:So I thought that I thought she was pretty good too, uh. But yeah, it's a selfish, a conniving person, like she'll give you a smile. It's like she'll smile right to your face. She'll give you a nice little speech, you know, give you a little tap on the arm and say you're doing great and then she'll just stab you in the back just as fast and throw you, throw you under the bus. So I thought that was.
Speaker 1:I thought she did a really phenomenal job as well, um, oh, oh, I did mention the the effect of the void. Like I mentioned, that little silhouette effect. They also gave a nice little like, um, a nice little, nice little thing they put in. There was like just a very slight tint of his eyes, which I thought was very, very good. Uh, it reminded me of, like what they did for the vampires in sinner, where they just gave like the light in their eyes, just the simplest, smallest little tint, little glow, so you can only just bake out his eyes and all of the darkness and all of the shadows in there. I thought that was great. There's also a moment where he kind of smiles, so they also show his teeth, and his teeth are white, so they kind of give a little color to that. It reminded me of that one fucking character from my Hero Academia, if y'all know what I'm talking about, that character, who's like an all-shadow character from Class B. He reminded me of that, uh, so that was cool.
Speaker 1:Um, all right, let's talk about some of the things I kind of didn't like about the movie. Um, I thought the cinematography was actually kind of bland. I thought the cinematography was actually kind of bland. The colors in this movie were very, very, very drab. A lot of grays, a lot of like tan, you know, low tone browns, very muted color scape in here and there weren't there weren't a lot of shots that I thought stood out to me or just made me go oh damn, that's a really cool shot. Standard fare, like I said, is fair for, like Marvel, lighting and colors just kind of flat, pretty bland, you know nothing that really sticks out uh, phenomenally too much. Uh, now, granted, uh, I do explain this a lot of times, first viewing, I'm not really looking for things like that all the time, but, um, if it, if it put, if I, if I spot it, I'll very much point it out like oh damn, that's a really cool shot. Or like, oh damn, this looks really good like.
Speaker 1:I remember, like two off the mind, like ragnarok, the um, the valkyrie section, when valkyrie, when loki gave valkyrie her little flashback, so we saw them flashes of like when the valkyries were fighting hella, I was like god, goddamn, that's a good, that's a good shot, that's a gorgeous shot. When Captain America in Endgame was standing against Thanos' army by himself and they gave that ultra wide shot of him, uh, kind of like skewed, with the whole army in front of him I was like, damn, that's a good shot I didn't get. I didn't get that in this um, which which you know, it's like yeah, but like I just didn't get that one, there's nothing really stood far and stood out like that for me. Um, same thing with the music as well. Um, nothing again. Uh, okay, like I might, that might change when I watch the movie again. I might discover like, oh, I didn't hear that the first time I watched it, but I know music really popped out to me either upon my first viewing. Um, another thing I didn't like.
Speaker 1:Uh, I felt Ghost was very underutilized here and and no, I'm not saying that just because I've been crushing on Hannah John Kamen since Ant-Man and the Wasp, no, I'm not saying that it's not because of that uh, but she does just kind of go into the background. Uh, after that initial scene where everybody was playing right now, that first initial scene where everybody kind of meets up for the first time and they have to escape, uh, after that she kind of, she kind of just falls into the background. It doesn't really do too much. Um, I have seen some things with the writers talking and they've talked about how, originally, in one of the first scripts, um, ghost had a, uh, they had an arc with taskmaster originally, uh, so suppose the two of them come together and become closer, um, but that didn't happen. That whole arc was cut out. Um, yeah, so I guess things changed and maybe most of what her stuff was was cut out with that, so maybe that's why she just didn't do too much in there. But, yeah, I feel like ghost was was very underutilized in this. But besides that stuff that's about all the stuff I didn't like about the movie uh, a couple things I do want to touch on. Um, now, okay, now, look, I wasn't going to talk about this, I wasn't going to mention this at all.
Speaker 1:Uh, but Marvel said fuck it. And revealed it themselves after just the opening weekend like the movie wasn't even out a week and they revealed this themselves. Um, but they pulled like, uh, they put a Falcon and the Winter Soldier in here. Remember in the end of Falcon and Winter Soldier when Falcon became Cap, and so they changed their title at the very end to captain america and the winter soldier. They did the same thing here, because at the end of the movie it's revealed that yelena kind of plays them and now the thunderbolts are the new avengers. So, as I mentioned, marvel has changed. Marvel has revealed that themselves. So if you follow marvel, they they're fucking changing posters. They're uh, if all the text they've been using for all social media posts has the thunderbolts, uh, striked out, and then it has new avengers after. So they've been doing it themselves so and they did it pretty damn quick.
Speaker 1:We always kind of knew, uh, kevin faig was teasing the entire time the movie was announced and before it came out that the thunderbolts was kind of like a uh, not the official title. That's why the asterisk was always attached to it. And now we have the reveal that the fact that it's not the thunderbolts, they're the new avengers, so that's cool also. And then at the end they have this whole thing of like um, I don't know if I should talk about that because it's kind of spoilerish. Are credits spoilers? Like legitimately the credits, the names rolling, is that spoilers? I don't think it is.
Speaker 1:If you care about it, you can skip on ahead. I ain't going to do time. I don't know if I do a time stamp, but it's 16 minutes. We'll see where we at now. If I do this again, come on back. But yeah, they have the end credits was like the thunderbolts and like a bunch of news headlines, but to do is articles, uh, website articles, uh, kind of like just the universe, the end, the end world universe, uh, uh, reacting to this announcement that these guys are the new Avengers.
Speaker 1:And's a lot of negative stuff, a lot a lot of jokes being thrown out. Uh, you know, uh they, they mimic a lot of famous, um, uh famous artworks. They did like the queen, uh cover art and stuff like that. Um, yelena did the I don't know what the chick is called the the uh, the woman who does the. We can do it and she and she flexes uh that thing. So it was pretty cool and it's also funny because I was looking at comments under all the posts when, uh, marvel revealed that the name is the new avengers and people were reacting in like the same way and I thought I thought that was pretty funny and I think it's completely intentional. They're supposed to feel like a massive downgrade from the original avengers. We got uh, when you, when there's a fucking, when there's iron man, a super soldier, a god and a hulk in the original avengers and now these new avengers is just these guys who just, you know, who just shoot people and fight that's, but it feels like a huge dagger and I feel like it's supposed to feel like that.
Speaker 1:Uh, so another thing of the post-credit scene here is really good. Like it is really good. It's like the first true post-credit scene from marvel that we get. That really moves us into doomsday and that's really cool and I like it. Apparently it like one of the longest post-credits scenes Marvel's done, which I can see that. But yeah, I like it's really cool and it also kind of sets up another potential um issue we could be having in the future between some characters. I don't want to talk about it because it is now the post-credit scenes. I know those are very spoilers, so I ain't gonna talk too much about that. But, um, yeah, just some some stuff there that could possibly be spoilers, but it seems like it might be teasing a future conflict that we might be seeing in Doomsday. So we'll have to wait and see. But yeah, overall this is a very, very well done movie.
Speaker 1:Since Endgame, my biggest things of all the movies that have come after have been like a what does it bring to the table? What is it doing? That is different than we got in the in the mcu before. Uh, what does it bring to the table? And this fulfills both of those for me, uh, it's something entirely its own, with a lot more focus on internal struggles, and it extends honestly to. It extends to an honestly kind of beautifully into the main villain and the climax of the movie. Uh, I express how I feel like it's just a perfect kind of synergy between them. One thing I was talking about is I talk about how some of these marvel movies are trying to do things differently. But it feels like I always have to take a back seat to the typical marvel movie, superhero shit like Multiverse of Madness.
Speaker 1:I didn't like it on my first viewing. Um, I didn't like it upon my first viewing. I watched it again and I have a I have a new appreciation for it. Uh, it was doing the horror things there. It was there and it was actually pretty good. So I actually kind of enjoyed it, uh, but I do feel like I wish that was like the entire full movie was a lot of stuff like this. Of course, I have to take a back seat to all of the damn multiverse shit that was going on.
Speaker 1:Um, you know, thor love and thunder did like the romance stuff and I'm like, well, I never fully bought into thor and jane's relationship too much. Also, they were only together for two movies and then Natalie Portman was gone between Dark World and Love and Thunder, so their relationship never kind of it wasn't on a level like Tony and Pepper or Steve and Peggy. That's a crazy thing. I don't want to go on a tangent, but yeah, it's just, it's just. What is it doing differently? Is it, is it enjoyable and does it do it well? And I feel like this is this, does that and that's all I've wanted. So I highly recommend this movie. Uh, I've seen it being called the best, uh, marvel movie since endgame. Uh, I don't know about that. I feel like people are kind of forgetting about spider-man no way home. Spider-man, no way home was straight gas. Uh. Shang chi was surprisingly a very good movie. Um, uh, how heavy wakanda forever was. Um, and how well it turned out after having to pivot after chad with bozeman's death.
Speaker 1:Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 is fucking fire, uh, and continues to tug at the heartstrings. I just feel like there are some that are better. Like I said, I, this is just my first viewing. Uh, it's most definitely better than a lot of the other ones in the phase in, in, uh, in this phase that it's in, I think we're still on phase five, right, because Fantastic Four is the start of phase six but I definitely rank it higher than a lot of other ones in there, like Black Widow, eternals, multiverse of Madness, love and Thunder. First viewing. I definitely think it's better than all of those. I can see this being like how the first Ant-man was for me, with just, uh, repeated viewings really kind of raise it up in the standings for me, uh, and it's a movie I definitely do want to see again. So there you go.
Speaker 1:So there are my thoughts on marvel's the thunderbolts or marvel's the new avengers, whatever the hell they call it. Now I wonder if I go to the theaters and watch it again, will it literally be titled marvels? Will it be titled now the new avengers and now it's not the thunderbolts anymore? That would be insane. Has there ever been a movie where the marketing shifted after the movie came out? Like the literal title of the movie is different when it was, before it was coming out, and when it came out, that's it. That's very. Has that ever happened before? I don't know.
Speaker 1:But yeah, highly recommend the movie. It is very good, I liked it. Um, is marvel back? I don't know. Marvel's been on a pretty damn good. Despite what a lot of motherfuckers might be telling y'all out there, marvel's been on a pretty damn good streak lately. Uh, this born again was fucking great.
Speaker 1:Cap ford uh, a lot of people just fucking hating that movie. We wonder, you wonder, why a lot of people was hating that movie. But cap four was actually pretty fucking good. I don't care what everybody says, cap four was actually pretty goddamn good. I don't know why everybody fucking didn't like that movie. I do feel like they should have saved the rent hulk stuff for the actual.
Speaker 1:I'm going off on a tangent again. But yeah, marvel's been on a pretty good roll, a nice little bounce back after. You know, it wasn't last year. Last year only did Agatha and Deadpool Wolverine, which both were Deadpool. Wolverine was fucking phenomenal. Agatha was pretty good. But the year before that was a rough year, very rough year. But yeah, yeah, so that's it for me. My screen is going dark. It's indicated to me that I should wrap this shit up. Uh, so yeah, thank you all so much for watching. I very much, uh, very much, do appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Uh, what did you guys think of marvels the thunderbolts? Did you enjoy it? Uh, did you not? If you didn't, uh, provide like a you know, a good, genuine reason as to why you may not have liked the movie. Also, for the same reason why you did like the movie Instead of just I didn't like it. It was boring. Okay, was there anything you enjoyed? But all about the movie you liked, no, okay, whatever, all right. But yeah, are you excited for what the future of Marvel holds? If you've seen the post credit scene?
Speaker 1:Fucking, fantastic Four is in like two months away, so we gotta get ready for that. What the fuck is going on with Ironheart? I forgot about that. Ironheart is supposed to come out in June because I think it's the thing before Fantastic Four, the Disney Plus series, ironheart it's supposed to come out pretty soon. They ain't dropped not one goddamn trailer, uh, poster or nothing.
Speaker 1:What the fuck is going on, I don't know. But yeah, are you? We back on, it's my back. We back on the marvel train or what? I'm all in. We're getting the secret war. So I'm all in. I've been enjoying the things they've been putting out recently, so I'm all, I'm all on the train until we get to uh, until we get to uh, secret Wars. So there we go. But yeah, so, if you like, check out some of the other stuff. I got some other stuff. I'll talk about Daredevil Born Again. Uh, sinners I saw before this. Uh, paradise might be the sleeper TV hit of the year, so far at least, uh. So, yeah, go check out some of those, check out some of those, check out some of the other stuff. On the channel News drops all that good stuff, but thank you all so much for watching. So everybody please always remember to stay watching, to stay playing, to stay awesome and, most importantly, to stay safe out there. Till next time, everybody. I'll see you all later. Goodbye.