Debuting in 1997, the Thunderbolts were created for Marvel Comics by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley. The idea was a cool one – a team of antiheroes/supervillains taking on missions in their search for something resembling redemption. To no surprise they’ve seen several iterations over the years. Creatives Warren Ellis and Mike Deadato Jr. delivered my favorite which came in the wake of “Civil War” and saw none other than Norman Osborn take the reins.

Now the Thunderbolts have found their way into the Marvel Cinematic Universe through a movie that feels much more in tune with the current MCU product than the comic book source material. Directed by Jake Schreier, “Thunderbolts*” features a handful of MCU leftovers who lack the drawing power to headline their own show or movie. Aside from Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes, all are post-Endgame second and third stringers who range from moderately interesting to mostly forgettable.

In many ways “Thunderbolts*” is yet another superhero team-up movie with many of the same tricks and tropes we’re accustomed to. But Schreier, along with screenwriters Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo, attempt to add some originality by taking the story into some darker directions. Aside from the obligatory action and another uneven MCU villain (more on him in a second), “Thunderbolts*” could easily be considered a two-hour superhero therapy session where a group of damaged misfits semi-wrestle with issues such as trauma, loss, depression, and loneliness.

But sadly the movie’s silliness too often clashes with the seriousness. We get a lot of petty arguing and forgettable banter meant to add layers of humor to the story. At the same time, the filmmakers want to say something serious, relying on fairly obvious metaphors and emotionally wrought flashbacks to present its heavier themes. Unfortunately neither are all that effective, mostly because the characters and their relationships fail to resonate as they’re meant to.

At this juncture in the MCU’s ever-changing timeline, embattled CIA Director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) finds herself facing impeachment for ordering a series of unsanctioned operations. In an effort to clean up any incriminating evidence, de Fontaine individually dispatches her top covert operatives to a secret mountaintop bunker. Each are given their own mission and are left in the dark about the others.

Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) surprise each other at the bunker and begin fighting it out. Taskmaster is quickly killed with little effort and even less fanfare, further emphasizing how badly Marvel Studios botched this great character. But with the help of Bob (Lewis Pullman), a mysterious man who suddenly appears in the bunker with them, the group realizes they are the evidence de Fontaine means to clean up.

The five are forced to work together in order to escape as de Fontaine and her forces converge on the bunker. Of course the experience quickly and inorganically develops them into a team, especially after they’re joined by Bucky, who is now serving as a freshman congressman, and Red Guardian (David Harbour), Yelena’s estranged father who’s mainly around for comic relief. Meanwhile de Fontaine sets her sights on the troubled Bob who we learn is extremely powerful even if he doesn’t fully realize it.

That’s the main story in a nutshell – a ragtag team going after de Fontaine with Bob caught in the middle. Again, the movie attempts to deal with weightier issues involving mental health, putting the bulk of its focus on the two characters it loves the most. But it never digs deep enough to say much. As for the characters, Pugh is clearly positioned as the lead but at times looks bored and struggles to mine personality out of Yelena. The rest of the team barely register on their own, even Stan’s grumpy Bucky who’s easily the most established of the bunch.

“Thunderbolts*” tries hard but it can’t pull the MCU out of the rut it has been stuck in for some time. It’s a very familiar movie that works hard to be unfamiliar. But the list of nagging issues gets pretty long. The team’s camaraderie often feels more fabricated than natural. Characters get shortchanged. Certain plot developments crumble. And the action tops out at lukewarm. Even its big ending is as shamelessly unremarkable as the asterisk in the film’s title. It left me longing for the MCU’s better days, when heroes were super, action was thrilling, and phases could be remembered without a Wikipedia visit.

VERDICT – 2 STARS