Thunderbolts*

And, just like that, Phase 5 of the MCU comes to an end.

17 years, endless discourse, 36 films, 13 TV shows, the ‘death of the superhero film’, the ‘death of the cinema’, strikes and a pandemic.

Not only is the MCU still going strong after all of that but Phase 6 has never seemed more exciting.

Thunderbolts* is a large part of the reasoning for that and brings the batting average of this Phase up a notch.

I suppose, broadly speaking, the remit of Phase 5 has been to bring the MCU 'back to its roots' somewhat and start to get those audience figures back up.

We got another Ant-Man sequel, the final Guardians, a team up film in The Marvels that actually referenced the ongoing TV wing of the universe and, most prominently, Deadpool’s MCU debut and the new Captain America.

Despite that mixed bag it is Thunderbolts*, a film once derided as ‘Marvel’s Suicide Squad’, that finally wrestles the MCU back into some sort of tangible order, offering real stakes, real momentum, lots of characters we’ve been waiting to see and, most importantly, some quality filmmaking.

It feels like a ‘peak era’ Marvel film. A genuinely fun and funny, breezy but meaningful action film that has surprises, shocks and just enjoys being in this superhero sandbox.

After the absence of most of that in Brave New World, this really does feel like a breath of fresh air.

The actual significance of the film, and Marvel’s seeming realisation that, yes, we are allowed to have some of our characters meet and we’re also allowed to steer this great big ship forward after so many projects, launches us into the next few years where we’ll finally get another film with ‘Avengers’ in the title.

Ok, a couple of middlingly negative points before concluding: getting the characters together and the plot in general is a tad ‘convenient’ and any haters or sceptics may pick holes with that but it’s too damn fun for that to be a real criticism.

Likewise, the ‘dark’ colour palette and tone doesn’t make for great visuals all the way through but does make it stylistically different to the rest of the MCU.

I also definitely don’t like the idea of spoiling the ending (and that titular asterisk) so soon after the film’s release with the new marketing material but clearly that’s a ploy to sell more cinema tickets so that shouldn’t mark the film down too much.

Let’s instead celebrate yet another Marvel triumph and, alongside Guardians 3, comfortably one of the best recent movies.

Marvel doing what they do best, long may it continue.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️