'Thunderbolts*' Review: Made for the cinema, and better than most in the genre

I realised many of the comics I had been reading lately disappeared out of nowhere, though upon inspection it was actually that some of them were just mini-runs that would only see five issues within their stories. And with some of their endings relatively open, it wasn't entirely clear that these had effectively seen a conclusion of some sort. One of these was the Thunderbolts story that was part of the One World Under Doom narrative. Now, I've never been a fan of the live action side of things regarding superheroes, it's generally something I try to avoid as I feel the comic book fun is rarely ever visible within cinema. Either wrong casting or too reliant on special effects and reality to really give them that spark that hand-drawn art can provide regarding stylisation of world building and character design. I really didn't expect much from Thunderbolts* though I had seen a lot of positive mentions throughout the months online, especially with how superhero fatigue had been setting in over the past few years as the formula grew too repetitive and tiresome even for some of the larger fans.

My knowledge of the Thunderbolts comes purely from the comic I recently read, which was short and more focused on the Doom side of things more than anything else. So this film was essentially an introduction into the characters, but also a bit of a general introduction to whatever had happened in the previous bloated universe of things. I won't ever watch those films so whatever context was found here was just not all that interesting to me. Though some of the references to the previous titles I guess did help with spreading some of the awareness the characters had regarding their situation in time, with how supposedly the bigger heroes were now gone, and the world in this moment of disarray after the events, now struggling to find that new normal without them supposedly maintaining structure for the western forces. And some of that is visible in the early narrative here, with the US realising it doesn't now have leverage over the world with the forces it had, and the few remaining people hold uncertain futures. Though these aren't heroes, they're more the leftovers of the rogue types, the few that don't take too kindly to the interests of elites. Surrounded by shadow organisations and living by the any-means-necessary ordeal.

This antihero concept is something we do need to see more of, especially with how many engaging characters there are within the world of comic books that are rarely utilised, more so just the main popular ones within live action. It's nice to see that change a bit and to see a bit more of the action, a bit more of the hard-to-relate-to main characters that seem more distant and reliant on their independence. From a cinematography perspective, I think it's done quite well too, it can be quite creative in parts, with some strong attention to more cinematic lighting and improved set design over special effects. Not to say there aren't any still, just they aren't so jarring. It keeps things a bit more grounded in part, though sometimes the world still feels a bit too real, again that stylisation side of things missing. This definitely screams something made for the big screen. Incredibly wide and cinematic in its lens choices. And it really works for those action sequences where explosions are strong and the choreography utilises all of that wide angle frame, from left to right in some instances. In some ways that's returning to form, remembering what made cinemas interesting, and what we considered cinematic in the past, not just shallow depth-of-field, and as much as I love it, not always that anamorphic look. I'd say it was an interesting watch, but still somewhat of the same thing people should expect within the genre. Not for everyone.