3.5 out of 5 stars

The Marvel Studios logo drains of colour as its famous fanfare fades into silence. It feels like an apt self-critique of the brand, as even the most hardened fans know the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has been struggling to stay relevant in recent years. Throwing a bunch of misfits together for Thunderbolts*, who mostly come from half-forgotten sequels or Disney+ series some won’t have seen, feels like a perilous proposition. Maybe producer Kevin Feige felt it was worth a shot with the more guaranteed hit of Fantastic Four: First Steps mere weeks away, but was he right?

Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), super-assassin sister of the late Black Widow, is miserable and going through the motions working for CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who in turn faces impeachment for her conduct and thus hatches a plot to destroy all evidence of her wrongdoing by sending Yelena to a secret facility under false pretences. Once there, Yelena meets more of Valentina’s hoodwinked operatives—John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ava Starr/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko)—and all soon realise they’re just lambs sent to slaughter. So they unexpectedly work together to escape and survive with the help of a mysterious man called Robert “Bob” Reynolds (Lewis Pullman).

Perhaps it helps that expectations for MCU blockbusters are low these days, but Thunderbolts* manages to overcome its obvious weaknesses. Nobody was clamouring to see more of Ghost, the villain from Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), and the existence of a bearded reject “Captain America” from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021) miniseries feels like a COVID fever dream. Yelena is arguably the only character who’s made a positive and lasting impression of the bunch, after being introduced in Black Widow (2021), but I don’t know how many casual filmgoers saw her in Hawkeye that same year. It’s a far cry from how mass audiences went into The Avengers (2012), coming off a run of successful solo movies that setup each of the characters assembling for a big pay-off.

But it just about works. Partly this is because the MCU seems to finally be in conversation with itself over its poor recent track record and the long journey we’ve been on. It’s astonishing to realise some teenagers have now gone through high school since Avengers: Endgame (2019) came out, so the heyday of the MCU is something they only associate with literal childhood. One sequence in Thunderbolts* takes place at a memorial for ‘The Battle of New York’, treating that moment like it was a distant memory and moment of greatness, with a character who mentions how young she was when it happened.

Thunderbolts* is the first time the MCU has paused to reflect on its own history in such a way, and might have worked even better as the first movie back from its extended break instead of Captain America: Brave New World (2025). It’s not a hard reset, but it feels like a moment of reflection and an attempt to nudge audiences into remembering the good times.

To continue the thought, a big action sequence where the Thunderbolts are being pursued by enemy vehicles ends with Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) racing to the rescue on his motorbike, and his arrival is treated by the other characters like he’s an awe-inspiring mythic figure. Which makes sense. We’ve mostly been following the adventures of The Avengers, either together or in their separate adventures, so we rarely get the perspective from others on the outside. Even if “the outsiders” include an estranged associate of Bucky’s and the family of Black Widow. But it’s enough to have audiences considering the MCU as a nostalgic thing, with its key players elevated as legendary figures, by seeing the characters of this film behave that way towards them.

To focus on Thunderbolts* specifically, the film mostly works because it doesn’t feel like they had a handful of VFX set pieces already in mind and just hired a pliable director to get us from point A, to B, to C. Honestly, the action in the film isn’t terrible, but it’s nothing spectacular. It’s more down-to-earth than feels normal for the MCU, as it often tries to always outdo itself, but where can you really go once the universe has been under threat a few times? The fact the Thunderbolts team contains two highly-trained humans, one human with a special gadget that means she can phase through solid objects, and two “super soldiers” who still have limits to their abilities, ensures everything is kept relatively sedate. Which means the emergence of a truly super-powered villain actually feels like a worthy threat to them. I also appreciated moments when the Thunderbolts saved ordinary people from falling debit and crashing cars, as it suddenly dawned on me that we rarely see Marvel heroes helping everyday folk. They’re usually fighting each other, or up against other super-powered beings. It felt oddly emotional to see them helping elderly people to shelter, or little girls from being squashed by masonry.

There are also some decent themes running through the film. The primary one is the healing power of friendship and the benefits of teamwork, as everyone starts the film as a lone wolf operative. Yelena and Walker, in particular, are broken people who found themselves working for Valentina because they have skills she needs, and what’s the alternative for them? But they’ve always worked alone, so over the course of the film everyone learns to share their problems and cooperate in order to solve the problems they face, and actually help their own mental health by opening up and letting others in.

This theme is nicely fed by the second, about mental health in general. Everyone here is damaged in some way by their past, struggling to come to terms with tragedies and other negative but influential moments from their past that shaped who they are today. Yelena was trained to be an emotionless assassin as a child, where “lessons” involved letting those you’ve formed a bond with be killed, for instance. But it’s Bob, the mystery man they find inside a secret archive, who most obviously represents the damage that can be done to someone’s psyche if negative thoughts aren’t worked through, or if loneliness gets on top of you. Not to spoil things, but suffice to say Bob becomes a Jekyll & Hyde-esque example of someone having “good days” and “bad days”—in a way that also reminded me of The Boys TV series, in how Valentina’s basically the architect of a terrible “Homelander”-style personality, but one balanced by the potential for a more Superman-coded hero struggling to dominate.

Thunderbolts* isn’t a truly deep and intellectual movie, of course, but for the MCU it certainly felt more nuanced than usual. The story’s climax isn’t about preventing an action-packed world-ending event, it doesn’t feature a blue light beaming into the sky, nor is there a colossal monster tearing up the place… it’s a group of dysfunctional people trying to help their new friend work through the demons they recognise in themselves. Only writ large.

In terms of performances, everyone does well, even if the dialogue mostly leans into that self-deprecating and snarky tone the MCU’s stuck with after it worked so well with Tony Stark. There are moments when a quip works, or an irreverent sentiment is appreciated so things don’t get swallowed up by too much seriousness, but the screenplay by Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo (Black Widow) is at its best with the overall storyline and clarity of its themes. Florence Pugh is the standout, cementing her star-power credibility after stealing the show from Scarlett Johansson in her own film with Black Widow, and David Harbour remains amusing in quick bursts.

I really enjoyed Wyatt Russell more than I expected to, partly because he sounds so much like his father these days, Kurt Russell, that he seems to imbue John Walker with a vibe similar to heroes Kurt played in the ’80s. Father and son share a laidback, sardonic tone that’s entertaining to watch. Lewis Pullman (another child of a famous actor, as the son of Bill Pullman) also gives us a very different villain than we’ve seen before, given the intriguing duality of the role, and anything going against the norm is good after nearly 20 years. Sebastian Stan, meanwhile, as the elderly statesman of the group and direct link to the MCU’s glory days, looks increasingly well-worn and like he’d rather be plying his acting skills elsewhere for possible awards contention. And coming off dramatic successes in A Different Man (2024) and The Apprentice (2024), who can blame him?

Director Jake Schreier is another of the MCU’s left-field choices to helm a $180M blockbuster, coming from indie film (Robot & Frank) and straightforward drama (Beef), but the choice works because Thunderbolts* is much less of an epic superhero action spectacle than we’ve seen in recent years. It feels smaller and more intimate with the focus on the characters and their slowly warming interpersonal dynamics. My only gripe comes from the cinematography, by Andrew Droz Palermo (You’re Next), which is once again so dull and dreary for the most part. There’s a lot of black and brown which never seems to go away, when it would surely make more thematic sense if the film communicated the emotional highs and lows through the colour grading. Palermo did wonders on The Green Knight (2021), having also worked on most of David Lowery’s other films, but Thunderbolts* came across as visually hazy without much sparkle and colour. Even the daylight scenes set in the desert looked drab!

Overall, Thunderbolts* ends Phase Five of the MCU’s ongoing multi-movie project on an unexpected high considering how much was stacked against it. We may be dealing with third-tier heroes and deep-cut Marvel enemies, but it just goes to show that having a firm grasp on the story, with something specific you want to communicate to audiences about people (which they can relate to), can make enough of an impression for most flaws to be ignored. I enjoyed my time and it’s undoubtedly one of MCU’s best outings in a long time, even if the tease more from this oddball group doesn’t entirely fill me with glee. But it works here.

USA | 2025 | 126 MINUTES | 2.39:1 • 1.90:1 | COLOUR | ENGLISH

Cast & Crew

director: Jake Schreier.
writers: Eric Pearson & Joanna Calo (story by Eric Pearson; based on ‘Marvel Comics’).
starring: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, Chris Bauer, Wendell Pierce, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen & Julia Louis-Dreyfus.