THUNDERBOLTS*

A group of antiheroes and leftovers must band together to take on a dark and extremely powerful force that threatens humanity. Stringing together B-characters from other Marvel films, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) inadvertently brings our band of misfits together for a mission, which then turns into another mission: the destruction of the superpower known as Sentry. Think of Sentry as Marvel's Superman, whose advertised as more powerful than all of the Avengers put together (and there's a sick scene upon his first appearance where he easily dispatches the Thunderbolts, displaying his massive power with the ease in which he vanquishes the team is quite impressive). The film centers around Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) whose dealing with her own past being raised as an assassin in The Red Room in addition to the death of her sister, Natasha Romanoff. Her story and her relationship with her father The Red Guardian (David Harbour) are what keeps the film light but also brings the most heart. I wasn't familiar with the Sentry character before the film other than knowing he was a Marvel version of Superman. I wanted to see more of his power displayed onscreen as outside the scene mentioned above, the rest of it is relegated as lackluster. The midcredit scene is kind of a surprise but also not at the same time and the post credit scene sets up the future nicely! This feels more like Marvel's old formula and is one of their better films from Phase 5 alongside GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 and DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE. 6.5/10