S04E02: Feeling whelmed by the MCU lately? Not overwhelmed, not underwhelmed... just... whelmed? You're not alone. Let's talk about the latest case study in Marvel's creative fatigue: Thunderbolts*.

We were promised a gritty, grounded, street-level story about a team of tarnished heroes. What we got was another giant swirl of sugary candy floss. It looks impressive, but once it's over, you're just left with ennui and a vague sense of creative diabetes.

In this video, I analyse why a film with so much promise went so very wrong. We were promised a gritty, street-level story with a team of flawed antiheroes – Yelena, Ghost, Bucky, Red Guardian – forced to confront their trauma. But what happens when a film can't quite decide what it wants to be?

I explore the film's fundamental identity crisis, which pits our very human heroes against a threat that feels... mismatched, to say the least. I look at how this core confusion leads to some truly squandered potential, sidelining fascinating characters and robbing their personal journeys of any real flavour or consequence.

And as for that climax? I break down why the film's final moments feel so utterly unearned, delivering a resolution that left me less with a sense of catharsis and more with a single, burning question: "WTF just happened?" The need to service the wider MCU machine casts a long shadow here, and we need to talk about it.

So, what did you think of Thunderbolts*? Am I being too harsh, or did you also feel the flavour was missing? Let me know your full thoughts in the comments below!

And if you enjoyed this (slightly pained) analysis, giving the video a 'Like' would be amazing. Thanks for watching!

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