A:

Thunderbolts was a cheap movie, but not cheap in the way that it was a small budget film, but cheap because they had so much money to make it great, yet it still fall into the traps of the whole cliche, double-standard, “hero” or “anti-hero” whatever they call it narratives. The movie follows pretty much the exact same storytelling template that was written in Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat. There are typically 15 beats in the storytelling template he created / summarized, which is also one of the most popular templates in Hollywood for writing commercial, crowd-pleasing scripts, especially in superhero and blockbuster genres.

The 15 beats are as follows:

#1 Opening Image: The very first image that shows the protagonist’s current world, in this case, is Yelena working in Malaysia and finds work and life not fulfilling.

#2 Theme Stated: A character will state the story’s theme, as Yelena says, it’s about “mental health”, and being overworked and finding no meaning in life.

#3: Set-Up: Introduce characters, flaws, goals, and the world they live in. This is when Yelena goes to see her dad, the two have a conversation about how they no longer have their old glory, and everything felt like a dream. They are left with the remains of the old days, working day after day, and it was no longer the same.

#4: Catalyst: The life-changing incident that disrupts the status quo. This is when Yelena goes to finish her “last job”, only to realize she’s been set up for failure, and she’s supposed to get eliminated.

#5: Debate: The hero struggles with the decision to change or not. The Thunderbolts struggles to decide if they want to work together against Val. They work together to get out of the vault, a new team is formed.

#6: Break into Two: The hero makes a choice and enters the “new world” (Act 2 starts). Thunderbolts decides to join forces, escapes successfully with the help of Yelena’s dad.

#7: B Story: A subplot begins (often romance or friendship) that supports the main plot. Winter Soldier joins, and plans to them all to the court to testify against Val.

#8: Fun and Games: The section that delivers on the movie’s promise—action, humor, spectacle. There was a short break when Winter Soldier talks to Thunderbolts about their mission, weather they should testify, or just go ape shit on Val.

#9: Midpoint: A major twist or false victory/defeat that raises the stakes. This is when Sentry enters the story, Thunderbolts realizes what they are against.

#10: Bad Guys Close In: Everything gets worse, both externally and internally. In this case, is Void.

#11: All Is Lost: The hero hits rock bottom; everything seems hopeless. The Void takes over NYC downtown, leaving Thunderbolts stranded. They feel like they are losers, Yelena and the rest not sure what to do, they feel they have lost.

#12: Dark Night of the Soul: A reflective moment where the hero has to find inner strength. Yelena’s dad gives her a speech, they talk about how hard it has been, and how Yelena needed him. Yelena finds her strength, and embraces the darkness.

#13: Break into Three: A new plan or revelation propels the story into Act 3. The rest of Thunderbolts join the darkness, fights for Yelena and Bob.

#14: Finale: The big climax. The hero faces the antagonist and resolves the main conflict. Thunderbolts tries to help Bob with the Void, but they all get pinned to the wall. Yelena is the only one breaks free, saves Bob, saves the day. Thunderbolts win, on the ruins of NYC streets, Val brings them out to cover her own ass.

#15: Final Image: Reflecting the hero’s transformation and how their world has changed. Thunderbolts now take the old Avengers building, Bob sitting in a chair reading “The Creative Act: The Art of Being", final images closes.

B: You see, it follows the exact structure of the Hollywood template, mixing all the “in” elements, such as mental health, feminism, depression, bipolar, but applied in the most straight-forward, not very well-thought-out ways at all. They have everything taken at face value: feminism, so we will literally have Florence Pugh save Bobby. Mental health, so we will combine bipolar, depression and dissociative personality disorder, describing them in the most blatant way possible, regardless of how people / patients feel about it. Depression is also explained in the most black-and-white, linear way possible. The heart of it all is to use minimal effort, underpaying artists, even the director of Beef Lee Sung Jin (Sonny) who probably wanted to take this film way more seriously, and make it more appropriate to audience when it comes to mental health, and at least do the topic its justice, didn’t want to be credited for the film. I could understand… When your work is picked apart like that, you don’t want to be the one be known by the person that made it anymore (this reminds me of something happened with kids in college, when I didn’t want to be credited either - Annie Song, Steven Lao, I’m talking about you two).