Latest news with #SonLux
Gizmodo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
The ‘Fantastic Four: First Steps' Theme Is Expectedly Excellent
The Fantastic Four: First Steps doesn't just look unlike any other mainstream superhero movie in recent years, it's also got an unusual sound to match. Following tickets going on sale for the movie, Marvel released the full track for the film's main theme, created by longtime film composer Michael Giacchino. There've been snippets of the theme present in trailers and the IMAX pre-roll for Thunderbolts*, so we already knew it would sound as 1960s as the world the heroes live in. But hearing the full thing really underlines the importance of a composer that vibes with the material and wants to make a score that's exciting and memorable music. For the most part, this is something Marvel's not really done well at, save for works composed by Alan Silvestri or Ludwig Göransson or Son Lux's more recent work on Thunderbolts*. But having memorable music is what Giacchino's always been good at—his scores for the most recent Star Trek movies are still sublime, and his Fantastic Four: First Steps work sounds like some of his best for Marvel specifically. (Starting with the first Doctor Strange, he's composed for the MCU Spider-Man trilogy, Thor: Love & Thunder, and Werewolf by Night, the latter of which he also directed.) Like everything else from this movie, the score is sounding promising, and we can't wait to hear all of it, ditto seeing the punny titles Giacchino has undoubtedly come up with for each track. Fantastic Four: First Steps comes to theaters July 25.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Marvel's ‘Thunderbolts' — instant Oscar predictions
With Thunderbolts, Marvel is on the comeback. The new movie from Jake Schreier (Beef) has garnered some of the best reviews for a Marvel movie since Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021, signaling a modest return to form for the Marvel Cinematic Universe after recent misfires like Captan America: Brave New World, The Marvels, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. More from GoldDerby 'Buena Vista Social Club,' 'Death Becomes Her,' 'Maybe Happy Ending' lead 2025 Tony Awards nominations - see the full list 'Genius: MLK/X,' 'Out of My Mind,' and 4 other shows win at the 2025 Television Academy Honors Ruth Negga will submit in lead at the Emmys for 'Presumed Innocent' - see the show's entries in 19 categories The expectation is that Thunderbolts, with its cast led by Florence Pugh, David Harbour, and Sebastian Stan, will dominate the box office this weekend, and — at the very least — reinvigorate the MCU fanbase before The Fantastic Four: First Steps kick starts a new Marvel franchise in July. However, as with any Marvel movie, there's also the potential for Thunderbolts to factor into next year's Oscars race. While the movie is unlikely to garner recognition for its above-the-line contributors, it could find itself competitive in several craft categories — especially if awards voters buy into the Letterboxd bona fides of Thunderbolts, which Marvel touted by releasing an 'absolute cinema' teaser earlier this year. Ahead, some instant Oscar predictions for Marvel's Thunderbolts. Best Score Among the notable artisans who worked on Thunderbolts are composers Son Lux, a trio of musicians fresh off an Oscar nomination for the score to Everything Everywhere All at Once. 'The score by experimental group Son Lux is a welcome shift away from orchestral bombast into more nuanced territory,' wrote David Rooney in his positive review of the movie for The Hollywood Reporter. While Best Score is traditionally highly competitive, and the argument could be made that Son Lux was carried to an Oscar nomination in 2023 because Everything Everywhere All at Once was such a phenomenon, the unique nature of the score could stand out. 'Any trepidation came from not knowing how we would fit into this world because the MCU is perhaps one of the most established things in cinema,' Rafiq Bhatia, one of the three members of Son Lux, told NME. 'But we soon discovered that Marvel and Jake wanted to do something different with this movie. We were just really excited about embarking on a journey of exploring what that different thing could be. Now that we're nearing the finish line, it's been a really rewarding experience.' If Son Lux ends up nominated, they would be only the second group of composers nominated for a Marvel movie; Ludwig Goransson, who won for Black Panther, is the only Marvel composer nominated in the category in MCU history. Best Casting No disrespect to Kevin Feige, but it's possible that few people have had more to do with the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe than Sarah Halley Finn. The veteran casting director has cast every Marvel movie, except for The Incredible Hulk, and has also cast multiple Marvel television shows. (She's received Emmy nominations for casting WandaVision and the Star Wars series The Mandalorian.) Thunderbolts brings together multiple Marvel franchises and also finds room for new stars, like Lewis Pullman and Geraldine Viswanathan, and could put the casting legend in contention for the inaugural Best Casting Oscar, unless Finn loses out on a potential nomination to herself. She also put together the cast of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which includes Pedro Pascal, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Julia Garner. Best Visual Effects In the end, the most obvious spot for Thunderbolts to compete for Academy recognition next year is Best Visual Effects. Of the 27 nominations Marvel has received in its lifespan, 14 have come in the effects category. However, one of the big selling points of Thunderbolts is that it's a smaller-scale adventure. So if any Marvel movie might continue the franchise's success in Best Visual Effects, it'll probably be The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Still, at this stage, it's safe to count Thunderbolts as one of the contenders for Best Visual Effects, even if it ultimately falls short next year. Best of GoldDerby All 35 Marvel Cinematic Universe movies ranked, ahead of 'Thunderbolts' debut Wes Anderson movies: All 11 films ranked worst to best Penelope Cruz movies: 16 greatest films ranked worst to best Click here to read the full article.
Gulf Today
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
‘Thunderbolts' is Marvel, and Florence Pugh, in high gear
New York: As they so often do in Marvel Land, worlds collide in 'Thunderbolts.' But in this refreshingly earthbound iteration of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the collision isn't a matter of interplanetary strife. 'Thunderbolts' has been touted as the unlikely meeting of two of the dominant forces in 21st century American movies: Marvel and A24. This isn't a co-production, but much of the creative team and many of the stars have ties to the indie studio. 'Thunderbolts' is directed by Jake Schreier, who has directed many episodes of the A24 series 'Beef,' and was written by Joanna Calo (also a 'Beef' veteran) and Eric Pearson (a Marvel veteran). The connections go further: cinematographer Andrew Droz Palermo ('A Ghost Story,' 'The Green Knight'), editor Harry Yoon ('Minari') and a score by the band Son Lux ('Everything Everywhere All At Once'). Some trailers for 'Thunderbolts' have highlighted these connections, perhaps in hopes of a little A24 auteur cool rubbing off on Hollywood's superhero factory. It's also a sign of how rough things have gotten for Marvel that, after a string of misfires, it's leaning on the studio behind 'Swiss Army Man' for its latest would-be blockbuster. Does that make 'Thunderbolts' a hipper superhero movie? Can you expect 'Babygirl'-like scenes of Black Widow drinking a glass of milk? The answer, of course, is that 'Thunderbolts' has no more indie cred than 'Avatar.' What it is, though, is the best Marvel movie in years. 'Thunderbolts,' about a group of MCU rejects who band together after CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) tries to erase them and their covert program, is both a return to form for Marvel and something a little different. While there's plenty of franchise building going on, 'Thunderbolts' — the title of which bears an asterisk — is pleasantly stand-alone, and its spurts of spectacle more deftly proceed out of an tenderly told story. If there's an influence on 'Thunderbolts,' it's less A24 than James Gunn. It borrows a little of the misfit irreverence of 'Guardians of the Galaxy' and 'The Suicide Squad.' But Schreier's film is leaner and less antic than those movies, and it serves as an IMAX-sized platform for the increasingly obvious movie-star talents of Florence Pugh. In the opening moments of 'Thunderbolts,' Pugh's Yelena Belova, a veteran of the Soviet assassin Black Widow programme, melancholily stands atop a skyscraper. 'There's something wrong with me,' she says. 'An emptiness.' She drops, a parachute opens, and her narration continues. 'Or maybe I'm just bored.' It's a telling opening for a film that wrestles sometimes earnestly, sometimes a little glibly, with malaise and depression. Yelena is searching for meaning in her life, dragged down by guilt and shame from her past, a pain that even her relentlessly chipper father Alexei, the self-proclaimed Red Guardian (David Harbour, magnificent), can't quell. When Yelena, on a mission, brutalizes a hallway full of armed guards - a shot that, as I critic, am contractually obligated to note is styled after the famous one from Park Chan-wook's 'Oldboy' — Schreier films it from overhead in a shadowy ballet. Shadows and death drape 'Thunderbolts.' When Yelena is dispatched on what she says will be her last job, she's surprised to encounter others like her — include the disgraced John Walker (Wyatt Russell) and the fight-mimicking Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) — sent to the same location. After some initial tussling, they realise they — like the protagonists of 'Toy Story 3' — are standing inside of an incinerator. Adding to the confusion of their predicament is a guy with no apparent powers who simply introduces himself as 'Bob' (Lewis Pullman, bringing a sensitivity rarely found in these movies). They aren't quite a bizarro Avengers, but they — including Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes, who joins later — are all the products of dubious government programs that instill less patriotism than their more plainly heroic counterparts. As a group, they're plagued by doubt and uncertainty, and they're more inclined to bicker than give rousing speeches. Associated Press
San Francisco Chronicle
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Movie Review: 'Thunderbolts' is Marvel, and Florence Pugh, in high gear
As they so often do in Marvel Land, worlds collide in 'Thunderbolts.' But in this refreshingly earthbound iteration of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the collision isn't a matter of interplanetary strife. 'Thunderbolts' has been touted as the unlikely meeting of two of the dominant forces in 21st century American movies: Marvel and A24. This isn't a co-production, but much of the creative team and many of the stars have ties to the indie studio. 'Thunderbolts' is directed by Jake Schreier, who has directed many episodes of the A24 series 'Beef,' and was written by Joanna Calo (also a 'Beef' veteran) and Eric Pearson (a Marvel veteran). The connections go further: cinematographer Andrew Droz Palermo ('A Ghost Story,' 'The Green Knight'), editor Harry Yoon ('Minari') and a score by the band Son Lux ('Everything Everywhere All At Once'). Some trailers for 'Thunderbolts' have highlighted these connections, perhaps in hopes of a little A24 auteur cool rubbing off on Hollywood's superhero factory. It's also a sign of how rough things have gotten for Marvel that, after a string of misfires, it's leaning on the studio behind 'Swiss Army Man' for its latest would-be blockbuster. Does that make 'Thunderbolts' a hipper superhero movie? Can you expect 'Babygirl'-like scenes of Black Widow drinking a glass of milk? The answer, of course, is that 'Thunderbolts' has no more indie cred than 'Avatar.' What it is, though, is the best Marvel movie in years. 'Thunderbolts,' about a group of MCU rejects who band together after CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine ( Julia Louis-Dreyfus ) tries to erase them and their covert program, is both a return to form for Marvel and something a little different. While there's plenty of franchise building going on, 'Thunderbolts' — the title of which bears an asterisk — is pleasantly stand-alone, and its spurts of spectacle more deftly proceed out of an tenderly told story. If there's an influence on 'Thunderbolts,' it's less A24 than James Gunn. It borrows a little of the misfit irreverence of 'Guardians of the Galaxy' and 'The Suicide Squad.' But Schreier's film is leaner and less antic than those movies, and it serves as an IMAX-sized platform for the increasingly obvious movie-star talents of Florence Pugh. In the opening moments of 'Thunderbolts,' Pugh's Yelena Belova, a veteran of the Soviet assassin Black Widow program, melancholily stands atop a skyscraper. 'There's something wrong with me,' she says. 'An emptiness.' She drops, a parachute opens, and her narration continues. 'Or maybe I'm just bored.' It's a telling opening for a film that wrestles sometimes earnestly, sometimes a little glibly, with malaise and depression. Yelena is searching for meaning in her life, dragged down by guilt and shame from her past, a pain that even her relentlessly chipper father Alexei, the self-proclaimed Red Guardian (David Harbour, magnificent), can't quell. When Yelena, on a mission, brutalizes a hallway full of armed guards — a shot that, as I critic, am contractually obligated to note is styled after the famous one from Park Chan-wook's 'Oldboy' — Schreier films it from overhead in a shadowy ballet. Shadows and death drape 'Thunderbolts.' When Yelena is dispatched on what she says will be her last job, she's surprised to encounter others like her — include the disgraced John Walker (Wyatt Russell) and the fight-mimicking Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) — sent to the same location. After some initial tussling, they realize they — like the protagonists of 'Toy Story 3' — are standing inside of an incinerator. Adding to the confusion of their predicament is a guy with no apparent powers who simply introduces himself as 'Bob' (Lewis Pullman, bringing a sensitivity rarely found in these movies). They aren't quite a bizarro Avengers, but they — including Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes, who joins later — are all the products of dubious government programs that instill less patriotism than their more plainly heroic counterparts. As a group, they're plagued by doubt and uncertainty, and they're more inclined to bicker than give rousing speeches. And whenever anyone brushes too closely with Bob, they drift back into the darkest chapters of their own pasts that pull them like a deadweight toward suicidal thoughts. Who, exactly, Bob turns out to be furthers this theme in 'Thunderbolts,' which never feels like it's lurching from one action set piece to another. That the final act of the movie is essentially set in a headspace, rather than above a threatened metropolis, is a testament to the interiority (not a word that often comes up in Marvel movies) of 'Thunderbolts,' a film that finds vivid comic-book imagery to render authentic real-life emotions. That's always been the promise of a good comic book, but it's fair to say that the Marvel movies have recently found that tone elusive. When Louis-Dreyfus, looking just as home in Washington, D.C., as she was in 'Veep,' as De Fontaine declares, 'The Avengers are not walking through that door,' it's an acknowledgment — like then-Celtics coach Rick Pitino once vowed of Larry Bird — that 'Thunderbolts' is here to make the most of what it's got. Of course, that there are, in fact, more 'Avengers' films on the way slightly diminishes the sentiment. But they won't be missed in 'Thunderbolts.' All the assembled parts here, including an especially high-quality cast (even Wendell Pierce!) work together seamlessly in a way that Marvel hasn't in some time. Most of all, Pugh commands every bit of the movie. It's less a revelation than a big-budget confirmation of the screen power of an actor who also has gone from A24 ('Midsommar') to Marvel stardom with ease. 'Thunderbolts,' a Walt Disney Co. release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for strong violence, language, thematic elements, and some suggestive and drug references. Running time: 126 minutes. Three stars out of four.
Hamilton Spectator
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
Movie Review: ‘Thunderbolts' is Marvel, and Florence Pugh, in high gear
As they so often do in Marvel Land, worlds collide in 'Thunderbolts.' But in this refreshingly earthbound iteration of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the collision isn't a matter of interplanetary strife. 'Thunderbolts' has been touted as the unlikely meeting of two of the dominant forces in 21st century American movies: Marvel and A24. This isn't a co-production, but much of the creative team and many of the stars have ties to the indie studio. 'Thunderbolts' is directed by Jake Schreier, who has directed many episodes of the A24 series 'Beef,' and that show's showrunner, Lee Sung Jin, co-wrote 'Thunderbolts' with Joanna Calo and Eric Pearson. The connections go further: cinematographer Andrew Droz Palermo ('A Ghost Story,' 'The Green Knight'), editor Harry Yoon ('Minari') and a score by the band Son Lux ('Everything Everywhere All At Once'). Some trailers for 'Thunderbolts' have highlighted these connections, perhaps in hopes of a little A24 auteur cool rubbing off on Hollywood's superhero factory. It's also a sign of how rough things have gotten for Marvel that, after a string of misfires, it's leaning on the studio behind 'Swiss Army Man' for its latest would-be blockbuster. Does that make 'Thunderbolts' a hipper superhero movie? Can you expect 'Babygirl'-like scenes of Black Widow drinking a glass of milk? The answer, of course, is that 'Thunderbolts' has no more indie cred than 'Avatar.' What it is, though, is the best Marvel movie in years. 'Thunderbolts,' about a group of MCU rejects who band together after CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine ( Julia Louis-Dreyfus ) tries to erase them and their covert program, is both a return to form for Marvel and something a little different. While there's plenty of franchise building going on, 'Thunderbolts' is pleasantly stand-alone. If there's an influence on 'Thunderbolts,' it's less A24 than James Gunn . It borrows a little of the misfit irreverence of 'Guardians of the Galaxy' and 'The Suicide Squad.' But Schreier's film is leaner and less antic than those movies, and it serves as an IMAX-sized platform for the increasingly obvious movie-star talents of Florence Pugh . In the opening moments of 'Thunderbolts,' Pugh's Yelena Belova, a veteran of the Soviet assassin Black Widow program, melancholily stands atop a skyscraper. 'There's something wrong with me,' she says. 'An emptiness.' She drops, a parachute opens, and her narration continues. 'Or maybe I'm just bored.' It's a telling opening for a film that wrestles sometimes earnestly, sometimes a little glibly, with malaise and depression. Yelena is searching for meaning in her life, dragged down by guilt and shame from her past, a pain that even her relentlessly chipper father Alexei, the self-proclaimed Red Guardian (David Harbour, magnificent), can't quell. When Yelena, on a mission, brutalizes a hallway full of armed guards — a shot that, as I critic, am contractually obligated to note is styled after the famous one from Park Chan-wook's 'Oldboy' — Schreier films it from overhead in a shadowy ballet. Shadows and death drape 'Thunderbolts.' When Yelena is dispatched on what she says will be her last job, she's surprised to encounter others like her — include the disgraced John Walker (Wyatt Russell) and the fight-mimicking Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) — sent to the same location. After some initial tussling, they realize they — like the protagonists of 'Toy Story 3' — are standing inside of an incinerator. Adding to the confusion of their predicament is a guy with no apparent powers who simply introduces himself as 'Bob' (Lewis Pullman, who brings a sensitivity rarely found in these movies). They aren't quite a bizarro Avengers, but they — including Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes, who joins later — are all the products of dubious government programs that instill less patriotism than their more heroic counterparts. As a group, they're plagued by doubt and uncertainty, and they're more inclined to bicker than give rousing speeches. Whenever anyone brushes too closely with Bob, they also drift back into the darkest chapters of their own pasts that pull them like a deadweight toward suicidal thoughts. Who, exactly, Bob turns out to be furthers this theme in 'Thunderbolts,' which never feels like it's lurching from one action set piece to another. That the final act of the movie is essentially set in a headspace, rather than above a threatened metropolis, is a testament to the interiority (not a word that often comes up in Marvel movies) of 'Thunderbolts,' a film that finds vivid comic book imagery to render authentic real-life emotions. That's always been the promise of a good comic book, but it's fair to say that the Marvel movies have recently found that tone elusive. When Louis-Dreyfus, looking just as home in Washington, D.C., as she was in 'Veep,' as De Fontaine declares, 'The Avengers are not walking through that door,' it's an acknowledgment — like then-Celtics coach Rick Pitino once vowed of Larry Bird — that 'Thunderbolts' is here to make the most of what it's got. Of course, that there are, in fact, more 'Avengers' films on the way slightly diminishes the sentiment. But they won't be missed in 'Thunderbolts.' All the assembled parts here, including an especially high-quality cast (even Wendell Pierce!) work together seamlessly in a way that Marvel hasn't in some time. Most of all, Pugh commands every bit of the movie. It's less a revelation than a big-budget confirmation of the screen power of an actor who also has gone from A24 ('Midsommar') to Marvel stardom with ease. 'Thunderbolts,' a Walt Disney Co. release, is rated by the Motion Picture Association for strong violence, language, thematic elements, and some suggestive and drug references. Running time: 126 minutes. Three stars out of four.
