Movie Review - Marvel's Thunderbolts*

Everyone deserves a second shot.

Thunderbolts* is a 2025 superhero film directed by Jake Schreier, written by Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo, produced by Marvel Studios, and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is based off of various Thunderbolts comics by Marvel Comics. The film stars Florence Pugh and Lewis Pullman. This is the thirty-sixth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was preceded by Captain America: Brave New World, Black Widow, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Ant-Man and the Wasp, and will be followed by The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Avengers: Doomsday.

"Being the hero, there is no higher calling." - Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian

Plot

When CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine discovers an experiment that she once thought failed succeeded, a group of unlikely heroes assembles to face a very dangerous and very personal threat.

The Sweet

All of the reviews have been saying this, but Thunderbolts* is exactly what the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been missing throughout the entire Multiverse Saga.

If you look at the thirteen films released in the Multiverse Saga thus far, you can kind of see the problems. Black Widow almost doesn't count, because it takes place before Infinity War. Shang-Chi and Eternals feel entirely separate from anything taking place in the mainline MCU. Love and Thunder, Brave New World, Quantumania, Multiverse of Madness, and The Marvels were all sequels that were either disappointing or just downright bad. As much fun as both Deadpool & Wolverine and No Way Home are, they have the gimmick of the multiverse and the cameos. And, while Guardians 3 is a great movie, it also feels like a separate thing from the main MCU.

Thunderbolts* feels like the first film since Endgame that is a great movie while also feeling like it moves the story of the Multiverse Saga forward. It can be a self-contained story with actual plot, characters, and emotion, but it also feels like a bigger piece in the wider MCU. If you look at a film like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it's a great movie on its own. It has great characters, a thrilling story, and fantastic action. But it also has these huge implications for the MCU. Cap loses trust in modern government, which informs his actions in Civil War. That leads to the Avengers breaking apart and thus not being prepared when Thanos comes. Winter Soldier is a great movie by itself, but it also has this domino effect that leads all the way to Infinity War. Thunderbolts* feels like that. If you take it on its own, it works, but we finally have some momentum towards Avengers: Doomsday.

The key thing that makes this movie great is its characters. Yelena is our lead here, and she solidifies herself as the best post-Endgame MCU character. It's easy to forget that she has yet to actually lead a movie because she feels like she's been so prominent in both Black Widow and Hawkeye, but we've never actually had her as the protagonist. She works just as well as you'd think she would. Florence Pugh is one of the biggest movie stars working today, and she is just great at capturing the charismatic sarcasm that Yelena has while also pushing forth some heavy emotions and truly giving us a look into who she is as a person. She has an actual character arc that feels impactful and moving. These are things that the recent MCU has just really failed to deliver on, so it was so refreshing to see Thunderbolts* hit those notes.

On top of that, our side characters here are all great. They all serve a different purpose, and it works really well. Although Ghost doesn't have a lot of screen time, she is just a fun presence to have around. Hannah John-Kamen holds her own against Florence Pugh and Wyatt Russell. Red Guardian is both fantastic comedic relief and a good emotional pole for Yelena to lean on. U.S. Agent is so much fun as this completely insecure jerk who is dealing with his own set of problems. And the cherry on top is Bucky, who (although we will get into later) does work as a nice mentor / leadership presence amongst the rest of the team. And, no, Taskmaster is not a big part of the movie. You'll see what goes on with her character. It's not that surprising or interesting.

Probably my favorite character, however, was Bob. For those who don't know, Bob is Robert Reynolds, aka Sentry, and is such a fun and interesting character. Lewis Pullman is so good at being funny but also heartfelt. He got some of the biggest laughs and the most emotional moments in the entire film, and that's because we got this great, sympathetic performance from Pullman. On top of that, Bob's entire story relates to the theme of the movie, which also tied in nicely to Yelena's arc. It was just a really good, well-written, fun character that I am excited to see more of.

The thing that seems to be catching most people off guard is how deep this movie actually is. Thunderbolts* is a really fantastic and powerful exploration of mental health and depression, and it really uses that theme as the revolving point for the rest of the story. All of the characters are dealing with loneliness and frustrations from the past, and the threat they have to confront is a metaphor for the inner turmoil that they are facing. The way that these themes of depression tie into Yelena's and Bob's stories in particular was just so well done. I think they did a fantastic job of building this story around a theme to have it actually say something instead of feeling like this big, pointless, CGI noise-fest (like a lot of recent MCU has felt like).

This movie also does something very different with its third act that I can see being very controversial. Me personally, I was a huge fan of it. As I just said, I am tired of watching the big CGI noise-fests. Action feels like it has no weight if there are not interesting characters behind it. The final battles in so many of the Infinity Saga movies are great because the fights tie into character arcs and payoff. Thunderbolts* takes a different approach entirely. It doesn't do a big CGI battle. Instead, it does this very unique, interesting fight that has exciting action but really delivers on character moments and visuals. I don't know who Jake Schreier is, but I would like to see him direct more stuff, because this was such an interesting and different third act.

I also loved the group dynamic here. Whenever you have Florence Pugh leading a convoy, it's going to be good, because she's a great actress. But the rest of the actors have fantastic chemistry. David Harbour is most famous for his dramatic side because of Stranger Things, but he is just so funny and so good at playing off these other characters for laughs. Wyatt Russell and Hannah John-Kamen don't have many of the big moments, but their banter with the group and with each other just makes them fun additions. As I said, Sebastian Stan works as a great veteran presence. And then I've already raved about Lewis Pullman, but what he adds to the group is just so fun.

This is just the exact type of movie that I want from the MCU. It doesn't have the weight of the world on its shoulders. It's not about saving the galaxy from some inter-dimensional threat. We don't have any multiverse. We don't have some big cameo surprise. There aren't a bunch of easter eggs that try to force connections to other MCU properties. This is just a really good, entertaining, emotional blockbuster that also helps us bridge the gap between where we are and where we are going. This is what the MCU used to be. This feels like a prime Phase Two or Phase Three movie, and I mean that in the best way possible. If Fantastic Four: First Steps is as good as Thunderbolts*, maybe there's a slight chance that we could recapture some of that Infinity War and Endgame excitement.

The Sour

I don't have a ton of real negatives, but there are a few things that bothered me about this movie.

First off, as much as I will always enjoy Bucky anytime he shows up, his role in this movie did feel a little strange. When the Thunderbolts assemble for the first time, he is not there. He joins up with them about halfway through the movie, and, because of that, he always kind of felt like an outlier. He's doing his own (slightly uninteresting) thing for the first half of the movie, and then once he joins the group, he just feels a bit out of place. I buy that the rest of them are working as this sort of found-family, but I don't buy that Bucky is in that with them. I think part of it is because we don't know Yelena and Ghost and Red Guardian as well as we know Bucky. Bucky is one of our oldest MCU characters, so to see him here with a team like this just feels slightly off.

I also think that the movie ends really, really abruptly. Now, I actually think that what they did was really good. I like the note they ended on. It's a confusing note, and it's intended to be that way, because it creates a question that will most definitely be a major plot point of Avengers: Doomsday. I just think we could've had a bit more build-up to this ending. There's a reason it has to be so abrupt, but I really feel like it could've been written a bit tighter to give us time to breathe before leaving us on this note. Likewise, the post-credits scene takes place a significant amount of time after this ending, and that creates even more questions in your mind. It feels like there needs to be something between the ending and the after-credits to bridge the gap and help us understand what this means for the wider MCU. I know I'm talking in very broad terms, but that's because I want to avoid spoilers to the best of my ability.

Finally, I think the movie could've used another fifteen or so minutes to just breathe. This is a very fast-paced film, and I think there could've been some time to slow down and let us catch up with the story and characters. There are certain beats that feel rushed and certain characters that don't get as much screen time as I would like. I also think some of the Bucky and Val stuff could've been exchanged for some more focus on someone like Ghost. This is not a major criticism, because Thunderbolts* is a great movie, but I feel like if we had a bit more time to just let everything slow down a bit, we may have had an even better film.

Final Thoughts and Score

Thunderbolts* is the return to form that the MCU has been looking for. If Fantastic Four is as good as the trailers have teased, we may be looking at a really exciting lead-up to what is hopefully a great conclusion to a mediocre era of Marvel movies.

I am going Sweet here. Age range is 12+.

SWEET N' SOUR SCALE

Sweet (Great) Savory (Good)

Sour (Bad) Moldy (Terrible)

"Thunderbolts*"

Fun Factor: 9/10

Acting: 8/10

Story: 8.5/10

Characters: 8.5/10

Quality: 8.5/10

Directed by Jake Schreier

Rated PG-13 for moderate violence and action, language, disturbing themes and images, thematic elements

Released on May 2, 2025

2 hours and 6 minutes

Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova / Black Widow

Lewis Pullman as Robert Reynolds / Sentry

David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian

Wyatt Russell as John Walker / U.S. Agent

Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr / Ghost

Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier

Olga Kurylenko as Antonia Dreykov / Taskmaster

Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine

Geraldine Viswanathan as Mel