Producer: Kevin Feige  Director: Jake Schreier  Screenplay: Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo   Cast: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Lewis Pullman, David Harbour, Geraldine Viswanathan, Hannah John-Kamen, Olga Kurylenko, Chris Bauer, Wendell Pierce and Julia Louis-Dreyfus   Distributor: Walt Disney Studios

Grade: B-

Designed to turn a page in the MCU without alienating the fan base, “Thunderbolts*”—let others debate the meaning of the asterisk, which might as well be a “patent pending” sign—is appreciably better than most of the recent fare in the franchise, though of course that’s not saying much.  It resembles “Guardians of the Galaxy” in introducing a new group of superheroes, which like that bunch is composed of relative unknowns (though MCU true believers will have no trouble recognizing them).  But unlike “Guardians,” in which the group was an already established entity, this is a typical origins story.  And in contrast to the earlier film’s jocular tone, this one is positively gloomy, with one character even sort-of quoting Kierkegaard as proof of its seriousness.  Even the usual banter has a decidedly caustic edge. 

The moroseness is reflected in an opening line delivered by Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), a former Russian assassin distraught over, among other things, the death of her adoptive sister Natasha, the Black Widow.  “There’s something wrong with me,” she says, diving off the roof of a skyscraper.  “I feel empty inside.” 

But it’s not a suicide leap.  Though obviously Yelena is suffering psychologically, she’s still plying her trade, this time as an operative for power-hungry CIA Director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), whose corrupt corporation OXE is being investigated by a fact-finding committee headed by Congressman Gary (Wendell Pierce).  Yelena is employed by de Fontaine to destroy evidence of her firm’s evildoing, and the jump is a means of getting into a lab that has to be dismantled.  It leads to the movie’s first big action sequence, pulled off reasonably well by director Jake Schreier and VFX supervisor Nikos Kalaitzidis (as are others that follow), even if they break no new ground; overall Schreier also blends the comedic and dramatic elements of the movie pretty effectively, abetted by solid work from editors Angela M. Catanzaro and Harry Yoon.    

Yelena’s next—and, she insists to de Fontaine, last—job is to destroy incriminating data at a huge base built into a remote mountain.  But there she’s confronted by others in de Fontaine’s employ—John Walker (Wyatt Russell), a former Army Ranger but now disgraced ex-stand-in for Captain America; Ava Starr, aka Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), who can pass through solid objects; and Antonia Dreykov, aka Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), a master fighter and former Russian assassin.  De Fontaine has ordered them to take on one another, destroying the final evidence of her misdeeds, and then to blow the entire place up with them trapped inside.

Taskmaster falls in the ensuing melee, but the rest survive, adding to their number sad sack, amnesiac Bob (Lewis Pullman), a leftover from some experiment OXE had been engaged in; they join together to escape the army led by the mayhem-loving military man (Chris Bauer) de Fontaine has brought in to eliminate them when she discovers they’ve survived.  They get away except for Bob, who sacrifices himself to save the others, evading their pursuers thanks to intervention from Alexei Shostakov, aka Red Guardian, the vainglorious former Russian super soldier who’s assumed the protectorship of Yelena, and from Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), the former Winter Soldier recently elected to Congress who’s aware of de Fontaine’s crimes.

Unfortunately Bob has fallen into de Fontaine’s hands, and she intends to complete the experiment to turn him into Sentry, an invincible superpowered being whose dark side Void can transform people into shadows.  She plans to use him as the instrument of her ultimate rule, but will his understanding of his unlimited abilities lead him to seize the initiative and employ them to respond to his own psychological torment?  Or can Yelena and the others convince him to eschew destruction and join their newfound commitment to oppose evil?  The choice facing him is mirrored in that of Mel (Geraldine Viswanathan), de Fontaine’s assistant, who veers between following her employer’s orders and assuming the role of whistleblower.

Clearly the overriding theme of “Thunderbolts*” is that mainstay of contemporary cinema, overcoming trauma.  Most of the principals—Yelena, Bob, Bucky, Ghost, Walker—have unresolved tragedies or bad choices in their pasts, and they must struggle to deal with them; this story, in which they embrace, in quite literal terms, the light over the darkness is in effect their group therapy, resulting in their bonding as “The New Avengers,” at least until the old ones reappear.  How the transformation is depicted is fairly heavy-handed, but at least some thought has been put into trying to portray the process in visual terms.

There are those, of course, who are not going through such turmoil.  Shostakov, for example—and why not go all the way to Shostakovich?—seems to harbor no regrets, nor does de Fontaine have the slightest remorse about all the evil she’s done (which makes her fate here somewhat troubling).  And Mel is still in vacillation mode.  But even in superhero movies not everyone can be traumatized.

As to the actors, Pugh sets a high standard, bringing fierceness to both Yelena’s physical prowess and her inner despair.  She’s matched by Pullman, whose quizzical, slightly goofy manner—until he becomes the steely, imperturbable Sentry—is actually quite endearing.  And for those who go for a rowdier brand of humor, bellowing Harbour will be irresistible, the ultimate crowd-pleasing doofus.  John-Kamen and Kurylenko are the afterthoughts, especially the latter, who’s reduced to little more than a cameo.  As for Stan, he’s a disappointment, sullenly going through the motions after his spectacular year in “The Apprentice” and “A Different Man.”  (Can it be that he’s tired of being Bucky?  One can sympathize.)  But Viswanathan is a natural charmer.

As usual with MCU product, the picture is skillfully packaged, with expert production design by Grace Yun and cool costumes by Sanja Milkovic Hays, all captured in Andrew Droz Palermo’s slick cinematography.  David Farmer’s sound design is stellar, while Son Lux’s score is, happily, a departure from the cookie-cutter stuff usually found in this fare.

After a recent string of MCU offerings that were largely lackluster at best, “Thunderbolts*” should cheer the devoted, and even appeal to outsiders as a decent action movie with some ideas in its head, even if they’re not terribly profound.  Whether the momentum can be sustained as the franchise moves into its next phase—the second of two post-credit addenda points the way to the upcoming “Fantastic Four” picture that aims to revivify that moribund title—remains to be seen.  But at least Phase Six, as it’s called, promises the return of the old Avengers to fight alongside these new ones, as well as of Tom Holland’s likable Spider-Man.