It’s not every film that can merge the philosophy of Kierkegaard, “Terminator” references and the world of pee-wee soccer, but if we’ve learned anything from the all-encompassing pop culture takeover of the Marvel Cinematic Universe by now, it’s that a movie like “Thunderbolts*” can succeed more as a happy accident and deliberate collection of odds and ends than its predecessors’ more straightforward approach.

Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) is making a killing in covert operation assignments, yet the little sister of the Black Widow could not be more dissatisfied with her work.

Murder this person, blow up this building — yawn.

When she is promised one final job in exchange for a release from this exhausting lifestyle, Yelena assumes it will be no more difficult than any of the other entries on an endless list of diabolical missions.

However, upon infiltrating a top-secret facility, she learns she’s not the only one who’s been hired, finding herself in a melee with fellow shady characters US Agent (Wyatt Rusell), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), none of whom are pulling any punches.

Realizing they’ve all been set up by their employer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) as a way to tie up some loose ends, the newfound group of allies reluctantly joins forces — with an amnesiac man named Bob (Lewis Pullman) in tow — hoping to live to kill another day.

Maybe it’s because she has a more light-hearted character than Scarlett Johansson ever did, but Pugh holds center stage with aplomb as a lifelong assassin who’s starting to question why she’s let other people determine her path while also being too jaded by familial developments to truly care.

She may not have much regard for people, but a rescue of a laboratory guinea pig shows she’s got far more heart than she cares to admit.

Still, Yelena can stand toe to toe with anyone, be it a disgraced Army Ranger with Super Soldier Serum in his veins and divorced dad vibes or a World War II veteran turned sleeper agent turned Congressman, and Russell and Sebastian Stan battle it out for who’s the most upset that they didn’t get to be the new Captain America.

The former is far more likable on the big screen as newly humbled but still largely arrogant John Walker — first appearing in the knockoff red, white and blue costume and dollar store shield in the limited series “The Falcon and the Winter Solider” — while the latter gives his best showing yet as the disheartened Bucky Barnes, who’s still fighting the good fight after all his ups and downs of the past decade of MCU appearances.

Didn’t know I needed to know his bionic arm is dishwasher-safe, but a little extra knowledge never hurts…

As two of the least developed villains in the Marvel canon, John-Kamen and Kurylenko at least get more of an opportunity to shine — neither of whom is used as well as they deserve — but in their stead, it’s hard to complain about getting more of David Harbour as the bombastic, downright deluded Red Guardian, Yelena’s adoptive father and long-forgotten Soviet icon who had the misfortune of representing Mother Russia just as it was shifting into a new era of capitalism.

But you’ll never hear him complain! No matter how close his limo business is to total collapse…

In a story where all the main players are an offshoot of Natasha Romanoff or Steve Rogers — or both — we get glimpses of the best contender yet for the new string-puller — a mix of Tony Stark’s resources and Nick Fury’s inherent autonomy — in the form of CIA Director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, perfectly played by Louis-Dreyfus as the kind of megalomaniac you love to hate.

Whereas our beloved Tony used himself as a test subject to eventually become a superhero and the messiah of the world, Valentina has that same quippy, arrogant personality with an eagerness to let someone else — hell, everybody else — take the brunt of the physical and mental anguish of saving the world.

Or ruling it, whichever pays better.

The character may just be Selina Meyer with highlights, but ever since her first pop-in — and she’s made a few if you’ve been paying attention — it’s become apparent that she’s not going anywhere.

With the swing and a miss of “Captain America: Brave New World” — “Gee, do you think if we show nearly the entire climax in the trailers, people will still turn up to watch?” — and an oversaturation of projects on Disney+, it’s become painfully apparent that we are 17 years into this franchise, which arguably peaked in 2019.

It’s not that MCU’s Phase Five has been lacking in quality, but there’s bound to be wear and tear on display after three dozen films, multiple TV shows and several necessary pivots when it comes to the big picture.

Looking at you, Jonathan Majors.

The latest string of movies that began with “Ant-Man: Quantumania” all share the common theme of looking every direction but forward, some successfully and others not — and the future seems to be dead-set on do-overs — yet the most devoted readers of Marvel Comics know that backstory always counts for something.

What could easily be misconstrued as nothing more than the MCU’s answer to DC’s “Suicide Squad” — which it absolutely is, minus the phenomenon that is Harley Quinn — benefits greatly from an approach that puts character development, relationships and genuine emotion at the forefront and builds CGI mayhem and brawling action sequences around that.

Yes, it’s a big dumb fighting movie that follows countless other big dumb fighting movies, but it will strike a chord with those who feel like broken people in a broken world that keeps shattering further. We’re past the shared tragedy of The Snap, now we’re focused on the scaled-back, collective self-loathing of the rejects — the screw-ups, the imitators, the used, the forgotten, the unremarkable.

None of these characters has any business being the star, but as an assortment of nuts in the chaos of an unregulated snack bowl, somehow they all offset each other correctly.

It’s the inverse of the original “Avengers” feature that has the (un?)fortunate benefit of hindsight as producer Kevin Feige seems content to admit that there have been mistakes made in building this empire both onscreen and otherwise, and manufactured heroism has its downfalls.

You could have been less painfully literal in the depiction of the final boss of this installment, but kudos for the honesty.

It’s not the visual splendor of “Guardians of the Galaxy” — How could it be? — the let’s-break-every-rule sense of “Deadpool” — Why should it be? — and certainly not the epic grandeur of “Endgame,” and if you need it to be any of those things, you’ve missed the point entirely.

“Thunderbolts*” serves as an acknowledgement of reality in a fantasy world, an emotional bombshell wrapped in a nihilistic coating, and a much-needed, albeit brief, palate cleanser for the soul as Marvel heads right onto the next course of this seemingly unending saga for which most of us — myself included — are still willing participants, despite all our gripes.

And yes, I’ll let the asterisk slide this time, Feige…