Marvel Studios are in cinemas again this week, with the release of Jake Shreier’s Thunderbolts*. For viewers keeping count it is the 36th film overall in the extended Marvel Cinematic Universe, and sees a team assembled out of a variety of mercenaries, assassins, and disgraced former superheroes.

On the one hand it is a new title with a fresh direction, but it is built out of characters from pre-existing Marvel productions. While it is by no means necessary to do your homework before heading into the theatre, more dedicated viewers may wish to refresh themselves with Black Widow (2021) in particular. Thunderbolts* places a fairly heavy emphasis on that film’s characters Ylena Belova (Florence Pugh) and Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour), and finally follows up on its post-credits teaser. Joining Alexei and Ylena are returning characters U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) from streaming series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) from Black Widow, and Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) from Ant Man and the Wasp (2018). While it is not necessary to have seen these productions, it does make Thunderbolts* feel rather messy.

The story here is kicked into gear by former CIA director Valentina Allegra De Fontaine (Julia Louis Dreyfus), who has been using this assortment of operatives for undercover and illegal operations for years. When her activities come under scrutiny by Congress, she rushes to tie up loose ends – and that means killing off those same operatives as soon as possible. Not only do Ylena and her associates survive De Fontaine’s machinations, they team up to fight back along with a mysterious amnesiac named Bob (Lewis Pullman) – who becomes more critical to their situation as time goes on.

There is some solid, well-framed action through the film, as well as a strong line in snarky dialogue, and some rather bleak psychological drama. It is sometimes an uneven mixture, but to its credit it works more often than it does not. Certainly it feels a modest improvement over this year’s first Marvel production Captain America: Brave New World, which suffered several of same key flaws.

It is interesting how much of this film leans on Florence Pugh for both its drama and comedy. She is a superb actor, and continues to do great work in establishing Ylena is a markedly different Black Widow to her predecessor. She is dramatic, funny, and an excellent viewpoint with whom the audience can engage. Without her, I am not sure Thunderbolts* would work at all.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus is also excellent, in a role that both exploits her comic talents and gives her a little more dramatic heft than she usually receives on-screen. It is also worth praising Geraldine Viswanathan as De Fontaine’s personal assistant Mel: she was the most valuable component of 2018’s Blockers, and it has been a pleasure to see her in roles ever since.

Other characters are less well served. Lewis Pullman is good as the mononymous “Bob”, and by this stage I feel Sebastian Stan could play Bucky Barnes quite comfortably in his sleep. David Harbour is giving his all as the entrepreneurial Alexei, but in all honesty his one-note comic character felt close to played out in Black Widow. Ghost feels somewhat thin, while there is no reason for Taskmaster to appear in the film at all.

There are a lot of flaws here, and in terms of ‘villains form a super-team’ stories it is a long draw behind James Gunn’s underrated The Suicide Squad (2021). Pugh and Louis-Dreyfus in particular iron over a lot of the wrinkles, and certainly events conclude in an interesting place for next year’s much anticipated Avengers: Doomsday. Flawed? Yes. Enjoyable? Also yes.

A note to the die-hards: one mid-credit and one post-credit scene – both better than the usual.