Now that 'Thunderbolts*' has arrived, is Sentry the most compelling MCU villain in years — or did the film squander its best asset?

• RK

  Riley K.1d ago

  The post-credits scene changes EVERYTHING and I will not be elaborating further for spoiler reasons but if you know you know and if you don't go watch the movie immediately and come back to this thread

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• T

  Taylor3d ago

  The Void sequence in the third act is the most genuinely unnerving thing the MCU has done since... honestly I can't remember. Lewis Pullman carried that movie on his back and I don't think people are giving him nearly enough credit. The way he plays the dissociation between Bob and the Void is subtle in a way Marvel usually doesn't allow.

  187Reply
• T

  Theo2d ago

  The film is fine. People keep saying it proves the MCU is back but it's a B+ movie at best. Well-crafted, emotionally coherent, better than most of Phase 4, but let's not pretend it's a masterpiece because the bar got buried underground for a while. Adjusted expectations are doing a lot of work here.

  177Reply
• JR

  Jordan R.2d ago

  I work in mental health and I had mixed feelings walking out. On one hand, representing severe dissociation and psychosis on a blockbuster screen at all is something. On the other hand, framing it as 'the darkness inside him becomes a literal supervillain' still leans into the dangerous trope that mental illness equals violence. It's complicated and I'm not sure the film earns the complexity it reaches for.

  163Reply
• Y9

  Yuki 921d ago

  The thing that actually got me was that the movie doesn't redeem Bob in a clean way. He's still dangerous at the end. He's still not okay. The team doesn't fix him — they just agree to stay close to him. That's a more honest portrayal of recovery than most prestige dramas manage and it's sitting inside a Marvel blockbuster. Make it make sense.

  156Reply
• Q

  Quinn1d ago

  it's good but it ain't all that. yall been starving so long you're calling a decent meal a feast. i remember when marvel was dropping bangers every single year and we didn't have to hold a parade because one film had a coherent second act

  148Reply
• M

  Maya3d ago

  Squandered. Completely squandered. They had a character who in the comics is essentially a walking meditation on mental illness, trauma, and unchecked power, and they turned it into another third-act CGI punch-fest in the sky. I left the theater genuinely disappointed and I went in with low expectations.

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• F2

  Feli 212d ago

  The Void is literally just the MCU's version of Gorr or Wenwu — a villain who gets one good scene of genuine menace and then gets nerfed for the finale. Marvel cannot help itself. They are physically incapable of letting a villain win or even feel truly dangerous for more than four minutes.

  131Reply
• R

  Reese2d ago

  This is the first MCU film in years where I actually felt something by the end. Not excitement, not spectacle, something closer to sadness. That's rare for a superhero movie. I don't care if it was messy — messy and sincere beats polished and empty every time.

  119Reply
• T

  Theo2d ago

  The Sentry has THE POWER OF ONE MILLION EXPLODING SUNS and he basically just... stands there looking sad and then gets talked down. I'm laughing typing this. Marvel really looked at one of comics' most terrifying characters and said 'let's give him a therapy arc.' I'm not even mad. I'm just in awe of the cowardice.

  109Reply
• C

  Casey2d ago

  ok but nobody is talking about how good Yelena was in this?? Florence Pugh basically steals every single scene she's in and her comedic timing is immaculate. The scene with the group therapy vibe in the holding room had me actually laughing out loud. She deserves her own film yesterday.

  98Reply
• J

  Jamie1d ago

  counter take: the therapy arc IS the interesting choice. The comics Sentry has been done. We've seen unstoppable god-tier destruction. What we haven't seen is a film genuinely grapple with why someone with infinite power would be the most broken person in the room. That's a more interesting question than 'who hits hardest.'

  95Reply
• KM

  Kofi M.2d ago

  My teenage son dragged me to this because I hadn't seen a Marvel movie since Endgame and I genuinely had no idea who half these people were. But I didn't need to. It worked on its own. Bob's story hit harder than I expected sitting next to my kid, who also had zero context. Sometimes simple emotional storytelling just works.

  88Reply
• NM

  Nina M.1d ago

  Thunderbolts is proof that constraints breed creativity. Small stakes, grounded characters, no infinity stones or multiverse nonsense. Just a bunch of broken people who kind of accidentally stop being broken together. That's a superhero movie. That's what the genre is supposed to be about and forgot for a decade.

  84Reply
• F

  Feli1d ago

  Honestly? Ghost's arc. That's what I'll remember. Hannah John-Kamen has been given almost nothing across two films and somehow made me care more about Ava than characters who had entire trilogies. The quiet scene between her and Yelena near the end was the most human moment in the whole runtime. If you blinked you missed it but it landed.

  79Reply
• L

  Liam2d ago

  Sentry is literally the most powerful being in the Marvel universe in the comics. He has the power of a million exploding suns. The MCU made him a sad boy with daddy issues and a glowing chest. Respectfully, what are we doing.

  74Reply
• N

  Nina1d ago

  My main issue is the tonal whiplash. It genuinely doesn't know if it wants to be a comedy, a psychological horror film, or an emotional drama and it bounces between all three every twenty minutes. I respect the ambition but a film that's trying to be three things at once often ends up fully being none of them.

  72Reply
• D

  Drew1d ago

  I thought Bucky's arc was the quiet emotional center of the whole thing and I don't see enough people discussing it. He's been this tragic figure across like five projects and this film finally let him just... be a person for a few scenes. Sebastian Stan does more with a look than most actors do with a monologue.

  67Reply
• OM

  Omar M.1d ago

  Can we acknowledge that Marvel finally cast a villain who actually looks physically threatening. Like Lewis Pullman as the Void has a presence that most MCU antagonists just don't. Half of it is the costume design and half of it is just him. When he tilts his head and smiles in that hallway scene I physically tensed up.

  61Reply
• F

  Feli2d ago

  calling it now: Lewis Pullman gets an Oscar nomination within the next three years for something else entirely and everyone will say 'oh he was in that Marvel movie' like it was a throwaway. Dude is genuinely one of the best young actors working. Thunderbolts was the proof of concept.

  56Reply
• FM

  Feli M.2d ago

  Genuinely don't understand the hype. Watched it with three friends who are massive Marvel fans and two of them admitted they were bored through the second act. The pacing completely falls apart after the first Void appearance. The editing feels like they cut 25 minutes and some of it really needed to be there.

  43Reply

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