‘Thunderbolts*’ in 4K delivers comic book grit without the bloated visual effects baggage

Yet another ragtag, superpowered team of antiheroes was forced to work together, this time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in a gritty movie appreciated by critics but which underperformed at the box office earlier this year.

Now available in the 4K format and encased in metal, the Thunderbolts*: Steelbook Edition (Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, rated PG-13, 2.39:1 and 1.78:1 aspect ratio, 126 minutes, $44.99), showcases some quirky and lesser-known comic book characters, not to be confused with DC Comics’ similar and much nastier team, The Suicide Squad.

After enduring some of Marvel Studios’ more recent heroic flops to fall from the screen, I am thrilled to report that the sequential art team that has been around in various pulp iterations since 1997 actually delivered an entertaining, inaugural onscreen adventure.

The story quickly finds mercenaries Yelena Belova aka Black Widow (Florence Pugh), John Walker aka U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell) and Ava Starr aka Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) sent on a suicide mission to kill one another by corrupt CIA Director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus).

The three characters meet the mysterious research subject Bob (Lewis Pullman) in a booby-trapped covert OXE facility, and he sacrifices himself to allow the trio to escape.

In pursuit by Ms. Allegra de Fontaine’s agents, the group gets help from Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian (David Harbour), only to all get captured by Congressman Bucky Barnes aka Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) and told to testify against Ms. Allegra de Fontaine for an impeachment hearing.

However, Robert “Bob” Reynolds has survived and is actually part of the Sentry superhuman project created by Ms. Allegra de Fontaine.

She persuades Bob to embrace his near god-like powers and terminate the newly named Thunderbolts team before these “antisocial tragedies in human form” cause her any more issues.

Now the Sentry, in full costume, nearly kills them, but the former drug addict also has a very dark side nicknamed the Void, and that entity attempts to capture and torture the minds of New York City’s entire population through mental imprisonment to relive the worst parts of their lives.

It’s up to those fledgling Thunderbolts to stop the Void and rescue a guy once simply named Bob and survive Ms. Allegra de Fontaine’s latest public relations scheme tied to that asterisk in their, soon to be, old name.

Despite a two-hour run time, director Jake Schreier’s first attempt at a superhero film feels half that long as it briskly moves through a fairly emotional and entertaining character-driven plot.

It manages to back off the often bloated visual effects scenes of most MCU movies and instead centers on Yelena searching for a meaning to her violent life while evolving with help from her new outcast friends.

Additionally, the introduction of the Sentry, a character with a Superman level of powers, was a welcomed addition for comic book fans, remaining fairly consistent to the source material, including incorporating the shape-shifting, dark matter telepath, the Void.

4K in action: With the lack of large-scale effects scenes, viewers get to focus, through an ultra-high definition presentation culled from 6.5K digital camera and 4K intermediate source, on such finer details and muted colors such as the battle-worn costuming of the beaten Thunderbolts.

Equally impressive are the Void’s jet-black pall engulfing the city, the Winter Soldier’s metallic arm and the Sentry’s shiny golden yellow-and-blue garb.

The one big scene in the film that arrives in frightening clarity is an out-of-control helicopter crashing into a crane above the cityscape that comes tumbling down to the New York streets.

The scene shows the helicopter realistically cascading into the sides of buildings in its path, as well as the collateral damage to street-level vehicles.

Best extras: Certainly, a great starting point is listening to an optional commentary track with the director, recorded the day of the movie’s release and after a long day of talking to the press.

Mr. Schreier sounds a bit mellow and tired, yet he still manages to talk nearly nonstop, really dissecting the production.

His topics include touching on the opening shot of Yelena jumping off a building; creating a world without the Avengers; shooting on locations in Atlanta; prioritizing the textures of reality versus using visual effects; the rationale behind the unexpected death of a character; using items from the Marvel vault for the museum scene; detailing character motivations; and exploring script refinements while all the time being very complimentary of the cast and their performances.

The director absolutely makes a case for enjoying his fairly non-superhero style movie.

Viewers also get a trio of featurettes starting with a 10-minute, brief overview of Miss Pugh jumping off the Merdeka 118 building in Kuala Lumpur, the second tallest skyscraper on Earth.

Next, 14 minutes on dissecting the emotional weight and baggage of each character gets discussed by the actors and director.

Finally, a 10-minute segment explores the origin of Bob, the Sentry and Void, bringing him from comics to the screen with a look at Mr. Pullman diving into the role, the character’s motivations, and even the golden costume design.

The attractive SteelBook packaging shines starting with a full color front looking like a possible comic book cover as six hands, some holding weapons and representing the Thunderbolts, points towards a yellow spray painted asterisk sign dead center and all in front of a grainy black background.

The back cover offers a group portrait of the six members — Red Guardian, Ghost, Bob, Winter Soldier, U.S. Agent and Black Widow in the middle — and spray painted above them in yellow is their rebranded name as “*The New Avengers.”

The full color, inside center spread crams the team members together like they were stuck in a restrictive box highlighted by Ghost climbing on top of Red Guardian and Winter Soldier’s machine gun magazine poking at a wincing Bob’s cheek.