Thunderbolts* (MCU)

[Techwright]

2 hours ago, InvaderStych said:

 

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Given the nature of what Void is in relationship to Sentry, I would expect some variation of the above. They'll have to appeal to Sentry to overcome his "hidden persona" in some fashion. Either that or we've yet to see the roles played by the two top-billing actors in this image with no character names listed. Dude could be doing The General or, much less likely, Mastermind, or who-knows-who, but no clue who the woman will end up being.

 



 
 

 

 

Still looks like standard, if possibly solid, Marvel fare. Liking the theme of characters who get to become more than the sum of their mistakes. If they give HJK some actual acting to do instead of just using her skills in choreographed cinema-fighting I'll be pleasantly satisfied with it.

 

Responding to that specific hidden comment:

Spoiler

It is possible that Geraldine Viswanathan is going to be playing Songbird, another villain-turned-hero (her villain code name was "Screaming Mimi").  As the two names imply, she's a sonic screamer, likely a Marvel knockoff of Black Canary, though I guess at that.  Songbird in the comics was a founding member of Thunderbolts.

 

Some internet sources have revealed that at one meeting, the cast were wearing the names of their characters, and her's was "Mel".  Songbird's name is Melissa Gold.  I want to keep an open mind: "Mel" may be a deliberate misleading in a public event.  All we know for sure is that Geraldine's character is an assistant to the Contessa.

 

One thing that might play against this theory:  Songbird can use her sonic ability, in connection with a special suit to "fly" like a flying squirrel, or like Banshee of the X-men. That is, I've seen the animated Songbird do this.  I'm not certain about the comic book version.  The movie trailer has the team members discussing that they have no flying person on the team.  So, if it is Songbird, then either they are not yet teamed with her, or her flight powers are not yet revealed for some reason.  Perhaps the MCU Songbird has tech-based powers rather than mutant powers, in keeping with the MCU Thunderbolts team that we know so far, which is tech/science/natural heroes.

 

Chris Bauer remains a mystery character at this moment.  I looked through the early rosters of comic book Thunderbolt characters and there some interesting possibilities there, some very interesting possibilities, but narrowing it down is impossible at the moment.  That's even assuming he's ultimately a team member.

 

One thing I've not seen is Baron Zemo.  Zemo has a well-established history with the Thunderbolts, and the MCU Zemo is a very popular character.  Perhaps his role would come into play in a future Thunderbolts movie.

 

We've also not seen Bill "Goliath" Foster.  His connection to Ghost is important and rumor is he will be there for her.  Not sure if it is just in the role of surrogate dad or if he'll be digging out the old Goliath suit to help out.

[ZacKing]

I'm curious how they'll handle Sentry/Void.  Other than that, I've zero interest in this movie if I'm being honest.  These just aren't interesting characters to me. 

[Techwright]

Interesting hypothesis on the asterisk in the title.  Especially when sharp-eyed fans noticed the number of arms on it changed.

 

Spoiler warning: the link speaks only in concept, but backs it up with some trailer observations regarding one character, which might end up revealing a lot. 

 

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

Fun thing: can't find a YouTube for it, but there's an extensive clip of Yelena/Flo Pugh getting to do some Proper Acting. Going through her experience of getting Blipped, finding her best friend is married with a kid, and that Natasha is (probably) toast. Worth a look if you can find it.

[Techwright]

16 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

Fun thing: can't find a YouTube for it, but there's an extensive clip of Yelena/Flo Pugh getting to do some Proper Acting. Going through her experience of getting Blipped...

 

Interesting.  I've only recently sat back and realized one would need to think through a host of characters who survived the Snap (I personally hate the term "the Blip") and who didn't based on the productions that occur later.   For example:  Spidey's pals Ned and M.J. would have been lost in the Blip as well, otherwise, they'd be 5 years older than him, visibly so, likely done with high school, maybe even done with college before he came back.  (Chances are all school years were shot to pieces by the Blip, so seniors may have had to take an extra year or two while reorganization took place.)  We never see the Blip happen to the sidekicks, we just see Ned greeting Peter in the school hallway after the return, still the same age, and later M.J., likewise the same age.

 

Yelena's loss in the Blip is worse because, like Photon, she doesn't get to spend those 5 years with her loved one, but instead awakes to find a permanent loss. 

[Ghost]

3 hours ago, Techwright said:

 

Interesting.  I've only recently sat back and realized one would need to think through a host of characters who survived the Snap (I personally hate the term "the Blip") and who didn't based on the productions that occur later.   For example:  Spidey's pals Ned and M.J. would have been lost in the Blip as well, otherwise, they'd be 5 years older than him, visibly so, likely done with high school, maybe even done with college before he came back.  (Chances are all school years were shot to pieces by the Blip, so seniors may have had to take an extra year or two while reorganization took place.)  We never see the Blip happen to the sidekicks, we just see Ned greeting Peter in the school hallway after the return, still the same age, and later M.J., likewise the same age.

 

Yelena's loss in the Blip is worse because, like Photon, she doesn't get to spend those 5 years with her loved one, but instead awakes to find a permanent loss. 

I’ve always assumed the people who survived, called it “The snap”

Those that got snapped away, called it “The blip” since that’s what it was to them.  

[Techwright]

2 hours ago, Ghost said:

I’ve always assumed the people who survived, called it “The snap”

Those that got snapped away, called it “The blip” since that’s what it was to them.  

That's an interesting idea, and I would have loved to have seen that on-screen.

 

I think the reality of it is that real world fans called it "the Snap", while someone at Marvel/Disney decided it would be called "the Blip".  So while the world was calling it "the Snap", a change was forced when all the onscreen characters started calling it "the Blip".  I've not seen about half of Phase 4 and 5, but I've never seen it called "The Snap" onscreen during these phases, to my memory.

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

59 minutes ago, Techwright said:

So while the world was calling it "the Snap", a change was forced when all the onscreen characters started calling it "the Blip".  I've not seen about half of Phase 4 and 5, but I've never seen it called "The Snap" onscreen during these phases, to my memory.

 

I think I remember it being both.

The Snap was basically the duration of Endgame, when the world - and the Universe at large - came to terms with half of its population being missing.

 

The Blip is what it changed to because everyone who got Snapped came back, so it's just a Blip.

Which sounds great, if you weren't one of the folks that's now five years behind your peers, with people moving into your house, marrying your husband/wife, adopting your kids...

...or lost anyone else due to Blip-related accidents (eg the plane crash that's seen at the end of Infinity War).

 

It's going to be a hugely traumatic event for everybody. And the planet, quite likely: assuming Thanos meant only all animal life.

Wiping out half the plant life, plankton and bacteria etc would have killed most planets' ecosystems stone dead.

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

New small “Absolute Cinema” trailer that appears to exist only for the purpose of taking the p*** out of A24…

[Excraft]

The Thunderbolts* is bombing in China, marking the “lowest launch for an MCU film in 14 years” in China.  Not a good sign.

 

https://www.superherohype.com/movies/599163-marvel-thunderbolts-bombing-china-box-office-numbers-revealed

[GM Crumpet]

37 minutes ago, Excraft said:

The Thunderbolts* is bombing in China, marking the “lowest launch for an MCU film in 14 years” in China.  Not a good sign.

 

https://www.superherohype.com/movies/599163-marvel-thunderbolts-bombing-china-box-office-numbers-revealed

I'm waiting on the Critical Drinker review

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

3 hours ago, Excraft said:

Not a good sign.

 

It's not the worst-performing Disney flick this year: the Snow White remake did only Y9m total (or about $1.25m), and they're smacking down Minecraft, which has been on release for just over a month and has only clocked $26m.

 

Besides, Chinese moviegoers have had a much better selection to choose from of homegrown movies of late. Ne Zha 2 - one of those movies you're gonna need to know a lot about Chinese legends to get set up on - is wiping the floor with every imported movie you can think of. (One exception being the Kung Fu Panda series, which... well.)

 

I think Whollyodd studios generally - and genre movie producers specifically - are gonna have to get used to not having China as a guaranteed moneyspinner any more.

 

If we're looking for some good news, the reviews are unexpectedly good, especially Flo Pugh holding it together.

Let's see how things pan out over the May Day release weekend.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/thunderbolts

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 09:06 PM by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[Techwright]

8 hours ago, Excraft said:

The Thunderbolts* is bombing in China, marking the “lowest launch for an MCU film in 14 years” in China.  Not a good sign.

 

https://www.superherohype.com/movies/599163-marvel-thunderbolts-bombing-china-box-office-numbers-revealed

Not to get into the minefield of politics, but the current political/economical climate might very well play a large role in the bombing of this film in China.

[Excraft]

5 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

I think Whollyodd studios generally - and genre movie producers specifically - are gonna have to get used to not having China as a guaranteed moneyspinner any more.

 

That's what I meant with regard to the film bombing in China.  Hollywood has been banking on the Chinese market for a while now.  Losing that doesn't bode well for the profitability of these movies.  Although that might not necessarily be a bad thing if the studios become more choosy on what projects to do.

 

47 minutes ago, Techwright said:

Not to get into the minefield of politics, but the current political/economical climate might very well play a large role in the bombing of this film in China.

 

I don't think you're wrong at all.

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

 

3 hours ago, Excraft said:

Not to get into the minefield of politics

Yup. My inner editor decided not to add this tidbit from Reuters, though it’s interesting.

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/marvels-thunderbolts-test-chinese-appetite-hollywood-trade-war-rages-2025-04-30/

 

[battlewraith]

Losing the Chinese market is part of it. The studios are also going to be facing skyrocketing production costs.

[PeregrineFalcon]

On 4/30/2025 at 9:50 AM, GM Crumpet said:

I'm waiting on the Critical Drinker review

Looks like your wait is over:

 

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

Early numbers: $11m Thursday previews, US weekend $70m-$75m, global open prediction $175m. Which given May 4th isn't a Federal holiday, is pretty solid.

And if that $175m figure does appear, that's the entire budget banked on open: $525m for technical breakeven should be well within reach.

 

Previews aren't necessarily good predictors: Shang-Chi opened low at $8.8m but got legs from word-of-mouth, whereas Cap:BNW had $12m and then died.

Sinners and Minecraft are still also strong contenders.

 

BTW: if you're not fancying seeing Bucky, Yelena and Bob at the flicks this weekend... go see Sinners.

Really. GO. Try not to watch or read anything about it before you do. Not even one trailer.

[Excraft]

7 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

Previews aren't necessarily good predictors: Shang-Chi opened low at $8.8m but got legs from word-of-mouth, whereas Cap:BNW had $12m and then died.

 

I think this movie is going to follow the latter and drop off a cliff.

 

7 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

BTW: if you're not fancying seeing Bucky, Yelena and Bob at the flicks this weekend... go see Sinners.

Really. GO.

 

Seconded!  Great film.

[Ulysses Dare]

Paul Chato liked it: 

 

[BrandX]

On 3/6/2025 at 2:19 PM, Techwright said:

That's an interesting idea, and I would have loved to have seen that on-screen.

 

I think the reality of it is that real world fans called it "the Snap", while someone at Marvel/Disney decided it would be called "the Blip".  So while the world was calling it "the Snap", a change was forced when all the onscreen characters started calling it "the Blip".  I've not seen about half of Phase 4 and 5, but I've never seen it called "The Snap" onscreen during these phases, to my memory.

 

I can imagine that in the real world, people would call it The Blip, as something silly like The Blip would trend and in polls for what to call it, people would vote Blip out of it's stupidity.

[PeregrineFalcon]

On 4/30/2025 at 9:50 AM, GM Crumpet said:

I'm waiting on the Critical Drinker review

Oh wait! It gets better.

 

[BrandX]

The movie was good and it showed exactly how a fight of Superman vs Batman should go, when they don't give into bad writing because...it's batman.

[GM Crumpet]

3 hours ago, BrandX said:

The movie was good and it showed exactly how a fight of Superman vs Batman should go, when they don't give into bad writing because...it's batman.

I might be blasé but I found the first hour quite boring.

Spoiler

The fight with Sentry was good, the fact he just stood there and nothing touched him was comic accurate, as was the suit and hair which I found amusing as it really looked awful.

 

All in all I'd give it a c+ and recommend watching on streaming. I'm at the point now with movies in general that I'm happy with a "That wasn't too bad". The days of "That was amazing" are now few and far between. I think the last movie I watched that was actually incredible was Everything, Everywhere, All at once. I enjoyed Eternals and Shang Chi far more than Thunderbolts.

Edited Saturday at 08:00 AM by GM Crumpet

[Ghost]

45 minutes ago, GM Crumpet said:

I might be blasé but I found the first hour quite boring.

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The fight with Sentry was good, the fact he just stood there and nothing touched him was comic accurate, as was the suit and hair which I found amusing as it really looked awful.

 

All in all I'd give it a c+ and recommend watching on streaming. I'm at the point now with movies in general that I'm happy with a "That wasn't too bad". The days of "That was amazing" are now few and far between. I think the last movie I watched that was actually incredible was Everything, Everywhere, All at once. I enjoyed Eternals and Shang Chi far more than Thunderbolts.

That’s worrisome.

Once “it’s wasn’t too bad” becomes the acceptable norm, we are screwed as moviegoers.