re: Early reviews for Thunderbolts… The MCU is saved!!!

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I can’t give it approval. Reviews I tend to listen to are mixed. At best.

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my only issue is that your approval is solely based on someone else's opinion

But your opinion is based on someone else's opinion

It had a lower opening weekend than Captain America 4. Word of mouth might save it but right now it looks to be in line with all the other recent MCU movies not named Deadpool & Wolverine.

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The sheep who doesn't blindly go pay for next content because the studio tells him to? You doth project too much. Clown.

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Do you automatically assume anyone currently excited about where Marvel is headed in 2025 has loved all of the hit or miss slop that has been the MCU post endgame? I can count 6 maybe 7 projects I’ve genuinely enjoyed since Endgame, with a TON of shite I didn’t like and will never watch again.

I can’t speak for everyone but it seems like a lot of the people otb who are currently excited about the Fantastic Four/Doomsday/Secret Wars are so enthusiastic because of how bad most of phase 4 and 5 have been. I know I was constantly bitching about numerous things with Marvel from 2021 through 2024.

No you didn’t and I predict your response to this post will also be a lie.

Having seen it, I'd give it a solid 6/10

The actors all did really well and the overall story was decent.

It just lacked something. It felt hollow, like it had no real heart. I feel like we, the audience, should have connected with Bob's story more as a child and have that story mean something in parallel to the blonde chick's story. Something that clearly linked them and brought us into their lives and to use that link for them to both overcome in the end. GoTG did this well with Peter Quill. But all those small connecting features and natural charisma was missing from this film.

Now the post, post credit scene, that dialog was written better, I feel like if the entire movie had that feel it would have been slightly better.

This movie was so close to being great but ended up slightly better than decent.

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It felt hollow, like it had no real heart.

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I shite talked this movie about 3 months ago on here saying it had no stars and who gave a shite about these characters. Maybe in the pre Captain America 4 threads.

I think the overwhelming majority of people really enjoyed this movie precisely because it had heart. That has been missing for all post Endgame movies not named Spiderman or Deadpool and I'll Guardians 3. People want that. They want to connect to characters. I mean shite Rocket Racoon has had arguably the best post end game arc.

This was a true return to "having heart" for a studio that has self inflictedly sucked the life and soul out of their own media for 6 years now. This movie shows me that they can still make a great movie when they aren't being retarded and insulting their audience's intelligence. It is exactly what they've needed because the next 4 are arguably the last chance this studio has at staying relevant and giving people characters and movies they enjoy once more in Fantastic 4, Doomsday, Spider-Man, and Secret Wars. Those 4 titles alone would have this place losing their shite just 6 or 7 years ago.

“Don’t ask questions! Just consume product then get excited for next product! ”

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I shite talked this movie about 3 months ago on here saying it had no stars and who gave a shite about these characters. Maybe in the pre Captain America 4 threads.

I think the overwhelming majority of people really enjoyed this movie precisely because it had heart.

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As usual, I'm years ahead of where the movie board will be on a movie when the seal clapping shine wears off.

I didn't say "I didn't like it". I said it was a solid 6/10.

What people are calling heart was more themes tied to the psychological motif of failure and depression juxtaposed to the previous Avengers. That's a pretty solid basis and theme.

With a foundation like that, however, the corresponding elicited emotions should be a strong driver to connect the audience. The frustrating part of this movie is that HAD THE INGREDIENTS for it with Bob. He was a great character.

The movie should have started off with him as a child, like GoTG. Bring us into why he is the way he is, then show how Elena is similar to foreshadow their connection. Build more sympathy for Bob so that when he "turns" its more dramatic.

All the plot points pushed forward too quickly and never really gave us time to let them land. A great example was them in the void. Great direction would have been to slow those room transitions down and make them more mysterious and magical pointing us back to elements that help us relate to Bob.

Bob was the centerpiece of the story but he felt like a side character plot device.

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Having seen it, I'd give it a solid 6/10

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So a late showing last night, and that’s pretty much where I am on it too. I thought your assessment was pretty spot on. There were a lot of things about it that I liked. The overall story and writing were lacking though. For the most part, the actors themselves were good. I especially liked David Harbour. However, I think there was a real overestimation of knowledge and connection to the Yelena character. The actress did a fine job, but I didn’t really care that much about her character.

ETA: The knockoff Cap was also better than I expected. It’s hard to remember much from the bad Falcon show, but he had a decent minor arc in this. The Ghost character is cool in theory, but the actress didn’t have a lot to do. Bucky was underused/misused.

SPOILERS.

Her reintroduction scene where she murdered a lot of folks for laughs didn’t exactly put me on her side. Bucky has a congressman was also a little jarring.
The Valentina character as the behind the scenes big bad was meh. Her plan to take out the team in the underground bunker was just flat out stupid. Saying that, I did really enjoy the first half of the film.
Bob/Sentry has some promise as a character, but it seems like they really don’t know what to do with him. Him being so overpowered is going to create some issues if they plan to use him moving forward from here. When he went all dark, it wasn’t exactly clear What the hell was going on. So dude basically sent all of New York into some guilt/shame zone and then brought them out when he felt better? How the team beat him was a little anticlimactic to me as someone said earlier. Defeating a Superman character with a group hug… Really?

END SPOILERS

It is a midtier Marvel movie. Better than some of the recent stuff has come out, but nowhere close to the heyday. I would like to see more of these characters in the future, but to me, this was one I could’ve waited to see streaming.