After what many may call a slog of dull MCU movies and shows, “Thunderbolts*” has become yet another one of the rare diamond-in-the-rough movies that has brought Marvel back into the mainstream, grossing $76 million in the box office on its first weekend, and gaining a fairly positive roundup of reviews online. While some may doubt, this movie absolutely deserves it.

To get the flaws of this movie straight out of the way, my biggest problems were the pacing of the movie, as well as its usage of the characters at points.

Taskmaster’s death and lack of inclusion is a large disappointment for the character. Many were excited to see the adaptation of the character in “Black Widow,” but her character and moves left a lot to be desired, as in the comics, Taskmaster was a villain who could mimic the movesets of the Avengers and any other hero or villain. In the movie, the character starts as a brainwashed pawn by that movie’s villain, uses her mimicking abilities a scarce amount of times, and eventually breaks free from being controlled and moves on. For fans, it was a very disappointing way to go about her character.

Unfortunately, as I have already said, any eventual development in the “Thunderbolts*” is cut completely short within the first ten minutes of the movie, due to her death at the hands of U.S. Agent. Many fans had speculated that her roll within this movie would be very minimal, due to how she turned out to be in “Black Widow.” Looking at some of the behind the scenes art that has released, she seemed to have been a lot bigger of a role within the script than she actually did in the movie, as her character was going to actually portray the mimicking powers that the original Taskmaster had.

But alas, her character was taken out very quickly, and only had a few mentions within the entire movie.

Bucky and Ghost also do leave more to be desired from their characters. Ghost does have her time to shine in the beginning, but she slowly becomes more of a background help for the rest of the crew. Bucky also starts interesting, being a new political figure within the U.S. government, but there is not much to him other than being the final force that brings all of our heroes together. His dynamic with Yelena can be very interesting at short points, though.

The pacing overall is pretty airtight, but around the end of the movie it left a lot to be desired. By the time the fight between Bob and the Thunderbolts is done, the movie wraps itself up with a short resolution. While it does reveal the twist that the entire movie was an “Avengers” film, and gives us a little bit of satisfaction for our characters, as well as seeing how they have won against Valentina, it goes by way t0o quickly for the viewer to fully process before the credits begin to roll.

Overall though, the movie maintains a solid progression, despite the ending. The beginning does run a little slow, but I do think it sets up our characters well, as well as the overall dynamic between them.

The rest of the cast is fantastic through and through, the absolute highlights of this movie being Yelena and Bob, or Sentry.

Yelena gets a lot of needed development and closure to her arc through Phase Three and Four of the MCU as her character in “Black Widow” and “Hawkeye” was very interesting, but stuck within some of the lower quality sides of the recent Marvel works. Here though, she is practically the main character. Her arc follows her grief for her now dead sister Black Widow, and the guilt she feels for the past deeds she has done to others in her life. By the end of the movie, she gains closure on those things, most likely moving on with the rest of her team as a New Avenger.

Then there’s Bob, Sentry, and the Void, who are all technically the same character. The movie does a fantastic job at introducing Sentry as the villain of this movie, as well as bringing his story to life, even if it has to merely allude to the darker aspects of his origin. A lot of his character arc deals with his mental instability, seeing him become the godlike hero that is Sentry, only to fully lose control, and have to have the Thunderbolts stop him and regain his sense of humanity. Near the end of the movie, he becomes the character that ties everyone back together, in a surprisingly emotional climax to the third act.

The Red Guardian and U.S. Agent also were great comedic roles, but the movie was also able to give their characters some depth at points that made them a lot more interesting. Red Guardian specifically has such a sweet dynamic with Yelena in this movie.

With those two characters and more, “Thunderbolts*” is not only refreshing with its character-driven plot, but also with its comedy. While yes, a lot of the bits the show revolves around are similar to what we have seen within Marvel movies, they feel much more refined and earned, rather than feeling cheap, or worse, expected easily. It also has fantastic action, with Sentry’s fight scene easily being the highlight of this film, showing his nearly impossible moveset against every single character. While it only lasts for a short time, it is one of the best scenes in the entire movie.

Overall, I see “Thunderbolts*” to be a lot more of a character-driven comedy and drama, rather than it just being an action movie, but that is what makes it so great compared to the recent movies from Marvel that have been released. It feels like something we would see within Phase 3, with a quality mix of all three of these aspects I have mentioned. It may be surprising to some that this was the Marvel movie to bring back some of its fans, but it absolutely deserves the hype. We can only hope that things go up from here with “Fantastic Four” coming out in July, but we will have to see then. For now, I will give “Thunderbolts*” an eight out of ten.