This weekend, I finally caught up with Marvel’s latest cinematic duology, as Captain America: Brave New World debuted on Disney+ and I went to see Thunderbolts* in the theatre. (I knew I was behind the ball, but I was still surprised that there were only three other people in the theatre with me. I guess rumours of bad box office are true.) I had a great time with Thunderbolts (I’m already tired of typing the asterisk) and did not hate Captain America BNW (again, lazy typist here), both reactions are mild surprises given how disappointing all things Disney have been for the last while.

Thunderbolts*

Marvel’s answer to the Suicide Squad premise was a bit better executed, in my opinion, than its DC counterpart (though, acknowledge that I have not seen the last Suicide Squad film so I may be way off). I like how Marvel has been able to truly spin its villains and B-characters into a pretty fun ensemble. Their best decision was to feature Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova (White Widow) in the lead. I not only prefer Pugh over Scarlett Johansson, I also like Yelena way more than Natasha, the Black Widow. I think Yelena made the Black Widow movie much more fun to watch, and even brightened up the Hawkeye TV series by appearing in it. Pugh’s delivery of Yelena’s dry humour and sarcasm (with a Russian accent that sounds pretty good to me, a doesn’t-know-any-better Canadian) is pitch perfect. Similarly she does a good job expressing all the insecurities, self-loathing, unburied trauma, and existential crisis that Yelena experiences as a hired gun helping Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s Valentina Allegra de Fontaine destroy evidence of corporate super-villainy. Segue to Louis-Dreyfus, who is also spot-on as de Fontaine, a sarcastic, scheming, slick Washington power player. She seems to be channeling a lot of her Veep character of Vice President Selina Meyer (not that I watched many episodes) and it works. She is a treat, always cool and calm even in the most chaotic circumstances — as Washington politics can get in the MCU.

As you may recall, de Fontaine made many Nick-Fury-esque cameos in past Marvel films, menacingly making overtures towards some of its less heroic characters. We all knew (she may have explicitly said it, I can’t recall) that she was working towards something, and this story  is part of that culmination. She has gotten a bunch of these not-so-good types on her payroll, and now she brings them together in a not-so-good way. Again, it’s both environmentally- and fan-friendly how she recycles Yelena, John Walker (the disgraced former Captain America, played by Wyatt Russell), Ava Starr (Ghost-ly super-villain taken down by Ant-Man and the Wasp, played by Hannah John-Kamen), along with Bucky Barnes (former Winter Soldier, played by Sebastian Stan) and Alexei Shostakov (former Red Guardian, Soviet super-soldier, played hilariously by David Harbour) who join up with them later. Similar to how the rag-tag ensemble in Guardians of the Galaxy really hit when it was held together with humorous banter, the zingers, eye-rolling, and Red Guardian’s sincerely tone-deaf enthusiasm made this reluctant team really click as well. Things start to go darker as their mysterious new friend, Robert “Bob” Reynolds, reveals that he’s no ordinary hapless innocent, but someone special who’s dealing with some pretty crazy issues (it’s not a spoiler because it’s absolutely obvious).

There are a few good fight scenes (which is admittedly more than half of what one looks forward to in a superhero movie) including the team’s initial clash before they become friends. I particularly like one moment where they throw and pass a dagger between each other in a deadly quick round of catch. Later, they have to fight the big bad of the film, and that battle was well made, but a bit more on the conventional side: everyone tries to attack the baddie and he tosses them around. While the fight scenes were good, the climax of the film took a more psychological, emotional turn. It gave me more Buffy the Vampire Slayer vibes the way the heroes do a lot more talk therapy with their enemy. I won’t say it wasn’t satisfying because in many ways it was more satisfying, especially for a movie, rather than lots of punches and explosions. It was also good that there were a lot of emotional scenes sprinkled along the way, including a two-hander between Yelena and Alexei (her de facto father) that was really good (I was a bit choked up, if I’m honest). The action-drama-humour mix was really well-measured.

Bottom-line is that I haven’t enjoyed an MCU film this much for a very long while, definitely not any of the last half-dozen. It’s probably naive of me to think this means that Marvel’s got its groove back, but it’s a good sign anyway. (4 out of 5)

Captain America: Brave New World

I don’t have a whole lot to say about this one, but I did watch it prior to watching Thunderbolts. I was not a big fan of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier series. I found it kind of boring and did not feel much chemistry between the two leads. Also, I don’t really enjoy Anthony Mackie as Falcon or Captain America. He’s kind of wooden. In this movie, I found his protege, Joaquin Torres (the future Falcon, played by Danny Ramirez), way more likeable and heroic. Perhaps it was all in the writing, but he got all the fun banter and all the vulnerability that actually was more interesting than Sam Wilson playing the good soldier/agent. 

The basic premise is that former general Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross is now the president of the USA, and Wilson as Captain America struggles with serving and protecting the president while keeping him in check as he tries to get his hands on the adamantium resources of Celestial Island (not Greenland). Things go awry when mind-controlled agents, including Wilson’s good friend Isaiah Bradley, go after the president. Gradually, it’s revealed who is behind the bad events and frankly, it was a bit of a letdown. There weren’t any real twists or turns as we meet the villain quite early — and he was kind of a dud. Also, while there are definitely a bunch of action sequences — many airborne — there were too many half-baked political scenes that kind of sucked the energy out of this superhero movie. Even the fight scenes were a bit frustrating because I had a hard time buying the physics of what Captain America could do most of the time. It’s not just how his shield can be thrown in a way to always bounces and hit the exact targets they are supposed to, regardless of how many and where they’re positioned, it’s also how his wings seem to be all purposed. They slice, they dice, they make julienne fries. 

Of the comics, I am not much of a Captain America reader, so I don’t know if this story was true to whatever source material exists, however, I have always been a fan of the villainous Serpent Society (a group of evil super-villains with snakey powers). They were led by Sidewinder, who had a skullish mask and could teleport/blink by side-stepping in and out of reality. It was kind of cool, and the other snakes had other cool powers. For this film, they cast the incredibly menacing Giancarlo Esposito as Sidewinder, but not only did he have no powers, he was kind of a pathetic and spineless bad guy, far beneath Esposito’s talents. What a waste!

Complaints aside, I thought Harrison Ford was pretty good as the president. He has a presence that sold me, despite somewhat shallow characterization. Also, overall I thought it was a serviceable movie that was reasonably fun. It’s often thrilling to watch people protecting the president. Even with the climax getting a bit over the top, I found this film met my extremely modest expectations — though I am glad that I didn’t pay cinema prices to watch it. (3 out of 5)