While Marvel’s quality has dropped significantly over the last several years, “Thunderbolts,” the latest entry in the Marvel MCU, is a breath of fresh air. Walking into the theater, I thought this would be another “Suicide Squad,” just with different characters. But “Thunderbolts” was a pleasant surprise. Directed by Jake Schreier and released on May 2, the movie debuted with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 88%.

“Thunderbolts” is a superhero action film seasoned with themes of, surprisingly, mental health. A lot of the conflict consists of arguing between Russian assassin Yelena (Florence Pugh) and her father, Red Guardian (both characters introduced in 2021’s “Black Widow”) as they debate the tensions and scars from her flawed upbringing. Joining some other superhero misfits, Bucky (Sebastian Stan, reprising his role as the Winter Soldier) has his own scars from having been mentally programmed by the Nazis as an assassin, yet he plays the role of the group’s leader of sorts.

Then there’s Bob, a regular guy who turns into a villain with his own mental scars.  A lot of the plot revolves around the “Void,” which comes from Bob’s inner darkness and trauma; it’s like his other half that he can’t control. The government wants to research Bob and see what his Void powers are capable of, but they want a team they can easily manipulate to oversee him. So they form a rag-tag group of people who have no innate powers, and call them the Thunderbolts. Through a series of events, the Thunderbolts find out that the government (surprise) has hidden plans, and the real conflict begins.

While “Thunderbolts” is a fresh take on the superhero genre, it is not all sunshine and rainbows for this movie. The character designs are rather generic; it feels like it’s a string of back stories of one character after another, all strung together without a cohesive plot. The cinematography is kind of dark, not at all like the iconic bright colors of other Marvel films. The comedy in this movie is also very dry; it does have a couple of good laughs, but most of the jokes fall flat.

Still, I’d give “Thunderbolts” an 8/10. Despite its flaws, it gives off a “John Wick” vibe; not a lot of action scenes, but the ones it does have are very satisfying to watch, plus it’s such an improvement on Marvel’s last several films. Here’s hoping Marvel will continue to make more movies like this one. You can find “Thunderbolts” currently showing in theaters.