Thunderbolts* review: Marvels most entertaining movie in ages

Running time: 126 minutes.Rated PG-13 (strong violence, language, thematic elements, and some suggestive and drug references).

In theaters.Oh, the joys of watching a Marvel movie that doesn’t feel like just another Marvel movie.Lately, the best of the 36-film-strong Marvel Cinematic Universe are the entries that blaze their own unique path, like Sony’s teen-angst “Spider-Man” series, the filthy “Deadpool & Wolverine” and now the darkly comic “Thunderbolts*.”A funny-but-tortured femme-fatale performance from Florence Pugh as Russian assassin Yelena Belova, brutal and tactile fights and a merciful lack of confusing backstory makes for the most enjoyable MCU entry in a while.Far from the all-powerful Eternals (dreadful movie) or generally successful Avengers, the Thunderbolts* are, well, Yelena puts it better than I could.“Oh my God.We suck,” she says.Most of the time, she’s dead right.

For these complicated antiheroes, getting the job done is strenuous, sweaty work.A stark contrast from Tony Stark, they’re a Poor Man’s Everybody.Yelena, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Red Guardian (David Harbour) and John Walker (Wyatt Russell) comprise a scrappy crew of misfit toys who, while talented, are not too talented.Against their will, the whiny pack is crammed together in a locked vault when shady CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) separately assigns them to kill each other — a lethal move to wipe away her misdeeds as well as her dangerous plan to bioengineer a super soldier.Most of the mercenaries survive, and they band together to defeat Val, who Dreyfus chomps on like an evil Selina Meyer from “Veep.” They also must contend with the seemingly harmless but uneasy Bob (Lewis Pullman, freaky).A lot of these characters have appeared in other MCU films or TV shows before, but, for once, you don’t have to know anything about them to like and understand “Thunderbolts*.” They’r...