Florence Pugh is the standout in fun Thunderbolts, Marvel’s best movie since Avengers: Endgame

With a star-studded cast including Florence Pugh and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Marvel’s newest release Thunderbolts has been the subject of a lot of hype. But is it worth it?

With a welcome returns to form for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a better-than-most horror video game adaptation and bonkers action thriller, it’s all go in the movie world this week.

THUNDERBOLTS* (PG)

Director: Jake Schreier (Robot & Frank)

Starring: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Lewis Pullman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus

★★★★

After too much calm, Marvel zaps up a storm

For those who have kept the faith in all things Marvel while the comic-book studio powerhouse has struggled to snap itself out of its post-Avengers: Endgame slump, the wait is finally over.

There won’t be any talk of so-called “superhero fatigue” this time around: Thunderbolts* marks a refreshing reclaiming of form that hopefully augurs well for more Marvel magic to come.

While Thunderbolts* lands ever so slightly short of being truly great, its strengths as a well-acted, shrewdly-written and consistently entertaining movie experience are there for all to see and genuinely enjoy.

Florence Pugh at the world premiere of Marvel Studios' Thunderbolts at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. Picture: AFP

The movie is a ‘tougher, gruffer variation of a Guardians of the Galaxy’. Picture: Getty Images for Disney

Julia Louis-Dreyfus stars as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine in the newest Marvel movie, Thunderbolts. Picture: AP

Conceptually, Thunderbolts is structured like a tougher, gruffer variation of a Guardians of the Galaxy instalment, where a raggedy bunch of self-deprecating, second-tier superhero types must reluctantly join forces for the greater good.

In many ways, this lot are more antiheroes than superheroes, all plucked from the substitutes’ bench of earlier Marvel fixtures, and given substantial game time for the first time.

The unofficial leader of this pack is Black Widow’s Yelena Belova (a fantastic Florence Pugh), a shell of her former self who has recently been making ends meet as a black-ops mischief-maker for the CIA.

Florence Pugh’s Yelena is the MVP in the strong cast of Thunderbolts*.

The equally exiled likes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s John Walker (Wyatt Russell) and Ant-man and the Wasp’s Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) have also been pulling a pay cheque from the same employer.

However, when the CIA’s disreputable boss Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) tries to literally terminate all who have been doing her dirty work, the Thunderbolts begin to properly take shape.

Former Captain America associate Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) has cause to join this fledgling task force, as does Yelena’s vodka-fuelled dad, the very amusing Red Guardian (David Harbour).

By movie’s end, all will be pulling in unison to take down an all-new, ultra-destructive superhero named Sentry, a figure described as being the equivalent of all Avengers rolled into one.

Picture: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel

The only advantage that might end up working in favour of the Thunderbolts is that they used to know Sentry when he was merely a meek and mild fellow named Bob (Lewis Pullman).

Longtime Marvel devotees will immediately recognise the uptick in quality achieved by Thunderbolts*.

By the end of the movie’s first act, its easygoing confidence has enlivened every aspect of the production.

The better Marvel movies have always struck the right balance between individual characters and a unifying calamity, and Thunderbolts hits this all-important benchmark with ease.

While the climax of the tale arguably lags in pacing and tone compared to all that has happened earlier, the vivid feelings of relief and elation generated by Thunderbolts* at its best are not to be taken lightly.

Thunderbolts* is in cinemas now

UNTIL DAWN (MA15+)

Ella Rubin in the horror movie Until Dawn.

★★★

General release

An engagingly nimble little horror movie that adequately mirrors (and sometimes, sneakily transcends) its origins as a well-known PlayStation game.

The action centres on a strange place known as The Welcome Center, where five young friends have arrived in search of a member of their circle who has mysteriously disappeared. Before long, the group find themselves stuck in a grotesque, Groundhog Day-style time loop, where their search continually leads to guaranteed death, only for time to suddenly rewind back so they can start all over again.

The key line that may help this mob make it out of this macabre maze is “survive the night, or become a part of it”.

If they can learn from their mistakes – and hopefully, not make any new ones – they just might make it until dawn.

Yes, we have been in similar scenarios before, but there is still an energetic enthusiasm in play here that won’t be denied. Director David F. Sandberg (Lights Out, Annabelle: Creation) is an underrated master of making little chills go a long way, and his willing cast of newbies merrily keep dying and keep trying right through to the end.

HAVOC (MA15+)

Tom Hardy goes ballistic in the action thriller Havoc.

★★★

Now streaming on Netflix

It is called Havoc for one very good reason. Just as this unabashedly anarchic, all-stops-out action flick isn’t here to make friends, it’s not about to suddenly make sense at any given moment, either. Simple storytelling tools such as dialogue, character names and plotting are merely stepping stones to get us from one shootout, chase sequence or hand-to-head combat routine to the next.

While you will need a GPS to follow exactly who is hating on who throughout – by my count, there are at least 20 corrupt cops, crime lords, mobsters, fixers, dealers, municipal politicians and their relatives jostling for fleeting prominence here – the only figure truly worth focusing on is a down-and-out homicide detective named Walker (Tom Hardy).

That’s him spending the night of Christmas Eve being funnelled through a series of implausibly deathly confrontations that would have Die Hard’s John McClane laying down his guns and making a run for it.

Aside from the occasional flourish of mumbled menace contributed by Hardy, the real stars are the movie’s stunt choreographers, who come up with a number of hyper-ballistic ballets that can only be applauded. Co-stars Forest Whitaker, Timothy Olyphant.

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Originally published as Florence Pugh is the standout in fun Thunderbolts, Marvel’s best movie since Avengers: Endgame