Thunderbolts is Great! ...And Also, Every Other Franchise Choice Isn't MCU-Inspired

Plus, the Back to the Future experience at Universal Fan Fest Nights is truly amazing.

Thunderbolts* is now in theaters and it’s great! As a lifelong Marvel Comics reader, I’m an unabashed fan of the MCU, and while I think, yes, they’ve had some shaky times in recent years, with more ups and downs than before, I also have enjoyed plenty they’ve given us (even as the likes of Secret Invasion and Quantumania were…. far less enjoyable). Still, I feel like Thunderbolts* is the best “regular” MCU movie in quite awhile.

Which is to say, it’s not the extra special event that a big “team-up we never thought we’d get” movie like Spider-Man: No Way Home or Deadpool & Wolverine were, nor the end of an era trilogy capper like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. By being relatively smaller scale and simply delivering a really strong, empathetic and well acted story about lesser known characters, it’s notably satisfying and emotional.

And you can check out my full review below:

As much as I love the MCU and know I’ll never be tired of it continuing on (because I haven’t grown tired of Marvel characters since the 1980s), I also totally get that these movies won’t be for everyone and that some folks have gotten their full at this point and either were never into it or just aren’t anymore. And I agree that studios chasing the hope of creating the next MCU has had some bad ramifications both in terms of poorly thought out attempts to replicate a shared universe and an even greater struggle for non-franchise movies to get attention (and to be made at all) in the way they deserve.

That being said, I do find it funny/annoying when pretty much any random criticism of modern cinema gets viewed through the lens of “MCU bad” and experienced that firsthand when a tweet of mine recently went viral.