Thunderbolts* Review
Does this save the MCU?
Marvel's newest superhero team-up of outcasts, Thunderbolts*, is a fond reminder of what happens when you try to be genuine. When you take the time to give your characters time to be realized and seen as real people instead of constantly being run through what I like to call the 'Marvel Slop Industrial Complex,' a term I use to describe the formulaic and sometimes rushed production of Marvel films, it can be an unbelievably refreshing movie-going experience. Florence Pugh is acting her ass off in this one, along with several other lonely and depressed thrown-away misfits that lead to authentic chemistry between the team. Oh, and a Marvel film with a villain I was attached to emotionally? Color me shocked. There are your typical issues here with any Marvel film. Still, many audiences will be pleasantly surprised at the authenticity on display and that the film is adding something or pushing towards something in whatever the MCU has become.
Thunderbolts* features Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) teaming up with Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Red Guardian (David Harbour), and Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) to stop evil CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine's (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) plot to take power. At the same time, they all try to confront their past and learn what matters most.
Florence Pugh is a lucky gift that Marvel drunkenly stumbled into. She does so much heavy lifting in Thunderbolts*, lifting the rest of the cast tremendously. She is hilarious, fierce, and vulnerable. She is paired so well with a newcomer to the MCU, Bob (Lewis Pullman), whose chemistry together on screen is magnetic. It's hard to discuss Pullman in the film without giving away spoilers, but 1. He looks so much like his Dad in the movie. 2. He's giving such an awkward but cool performance here that you can feel the weight of his past and trauma throughout the movie, and it's great. Wyatt Russell's character is also given some close attention, and he made a redemptive character arc that I'm stunned that I felt worked after being such an awful person in his television series, Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Those three were given the most attention. In contrast, Sebastian Stan felt as though he was going through the motions a bit which is a shame since he gave two of the best performances in 2024 with The Apprentice and A Different Man. Still, he's been in the Marvel grindhouse for over a decade, so the fatigue setting makes sense.
The film does try to tackle serious themes of abuse, self-harm, depression, and mental health, which at first can feel like a baby's first time seeing a serious movie, where it all feels pretty surface-level. Still, the authenticity with which it's executed worked well for the most part. This is not the first Marvel film to try to get in touch with its darker, more emotional side. When handled with a goofier set of hands, it could come off as very unserious, but I believe that with the help of Florence Pugh and the company, it feels like a genuine attempt to tap into something earnest. There are some fine action sequences, the most memorable being the team confronting the big bad late in the film, and seeing just how overmatched they are to the sheer power of the threat was honestly quite sick. Outside of that, there are some decent hand-to-hand combat fights, but we land into the smudgy Marvel CGI and dumb quips that feel so weightless that they continue to be an annoying trend in this universe it can't escape. It looks better than most Marvel films, but that's not saying much.
My general thoughts on Thunderbolts* is that it is a step up from the post-endgame slop that we've been fed as a poor British child in Dickens’ Novels, but does that make it a great film? Not really, but it's pretty good! A step in the right direction that features a squad of suicidal mercenaries who find love in their hearts amongst insurmountable odds in an incredible one-off mission that has real stakes in the upcoming MCU film universe. Florence Pugh, you continue to have all the juice.
Final Score: 7/10
Written by Kevin J. Pettit
I also think it was a bit telling of his character arc at the moment.
A note I didn’t include in my posted review is that:
We’re also reintroduced to Bucky at time when, he’s no longer a soldier, a POW, nor following in the shadow of Steve Rogers. Instead, we find him playing nice with the suits, reading “packets”, and trying to do some good from within the system. Then, all of a sudden, it’s up to him to literally wrangle up and lead, if not guide and mentor, this ragtag group of “scrappy antiheroes”.
As someone who spent over a decade in various management and leadership roles, who by all accounts, was never the most “technically” or traditionally qualified, this is exactly how I would expect his character (Bucky) and performance (Stan) to look.
But that’s just my opinion. Great review! 😎🤙🏼 (meant to put this in the comments section 😆)
Red Guardian is the reason why I want to see it.