**This review contains spoilers**

Back with another Marvel movie! Unlike some recent entries into the MCU canon, I would say that Thunderbolts* was pretty highly anticipated. Maybe it was the top-tier marketing campaign that worked on people. From the get go, they really leaned into the asterisk in the title, piquing fans’ interest on what it could mean for the story (more on that later). Then, they released what became known as “the A24 trailer”. For those who don’t know, A24 is an independent studio that has gained a reputation in pop culture as the go-to studio for stylish, edgy, and emotionally resonant storytelling. Movies like Hereditary, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Past Lives, Uncut Gems, Babygirl, and more. Basically describing a movie as “A24” has become shorthand for saying it’s cool. Something that Marvel hasn’t really been in a while. In this trailer, set to a dance/electronic song, the film is touted as being from “the stars of Midsommar, A Different Man, and You Hurt My Feelings” (Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus), “the writers & director of Beef” (Director Jake Schreier and writers Joanna Calo and Lee Sung Jin), “the cinematographer of The Green Knight” (Andrew Droz Palermo), “the production designer of Hereditary” (Grace Yun), “the editor of Minari” (Harry Yoon), and “the composers of Everything Everywhere All At Once” (Son Lux). All titles produced by A24. The trailer was part joke, a witty attempt to seem hip and trendy with tangential ties to the popular studio, and part real, a signal to audiences that Marvel is trying. They’re trying to work with new and interesting creators to push their productions in refreshing directions, moving away from the lackluster recent releases. And, in my opinion, it worked. Thunderbolts* both felt like a return to form for the MCU and the start of an exciting new chapter. 

The Thunderbolts, the name* of our leading team of antiheroes, is comprised of Black Widow agent Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Bucky Barnes, a.k.a. the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Russian super soldier and Yelena’s adopted dad, Red Guardian (David Harbour), the disgraced former Captain America, John Walker (Wyatt Russell), and the invisible spy Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen). Their handler, or what Nick Fury is to the Avengers, is Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). These characters have all popped up in past MCU projects in various ways before. Yelena and Red Guardian are first introduced in Black Widow (2021), John Walker in the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021), and Ghost in Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018). Valentina has made appearances across many titles, slowly recruiting outcasts with special skills and powers to work for her. Now, in this film, she needs them all gone so inquiries into her from a congressional hearing (did I mention she’s now the director of the CIA?) don’t reveal any wrongdoing. Like, for example, all the hits she’s made these people commit for her personal gain. But when she sets a trap for them all to kill each other, they wind up working together to escape. I’m always a sucker for the “villains who hate each other turn unlikely heroes” trope. Suicide Squad is probably the most obvious example, but Thunderbolts* is more in line with Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy than DC’s squad of antiheroes. 

The real key to a successful team-up movie is that all of the component members work. The lead of the film is Florence Pugh as Yelena Bulova. I adore Florence and I have adored Yelena since her first appearance in Black Widow (she really steals that movie and I went back to rewatch it after seeing Thunderbolts* because I needed to spend more time with her). The movie starts with Yelena jumping off the top of a building and Florence actually did that herself. She jumped off the Merdeka skyscraper in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia which is 118 stories, 2,227 ft tall, making it the second tallest building in the world. She’s fearless. Oh, and she has a perfect face. Something I noted multiple times in close-up shots of her. Florence is just such a talented and committed actor who stars in Oscar-nominated, prestige films yet will still give her all to a Marvel movie. Her performance is funny but also moving. Yelena’s relationship with her “dad”, played by David Harbour (also incredibly funny and entertaining in this role. The major comedic element comes from his antics), is one of the emotional cruxes of the film. They’re “superheroes”, sure, but they’re also just like every father and daughter. He embarrasses her in front of her friends, she gets annoyed at him, but, at the end of the day, he loves her and believes in her with his whole heart and can pick her up when she’s down. Florence said of her character, “…even when she is feeling low, she is loving. And I love that about her.” Yelena can be snarky and cold, but she still has so much heart. Florence Pugh can really do no wrong in my book so I was already inclined to like this movie with her at the helm. 

Sebastian Stan is back again as Bucky Barnes. Another Oscar-nominee, prestige actor showing up for a Marvel movie. In Sebastian’s case, though, it’s even more surprising considering how often he’s showing up for Marvel these days when he’s been so active in pushing his more artistic work to new heights and critical acclaim. Personally, I think it’s great. It shows you really can do both commercial and indie films in successful ways. But just unexpected because I don’t think many actors find crossover between those two spheres. And just like Florence, he gives his all every time he appears in the MCU. Not only that but, as Sean Fennessey said on The Big Picture podcast recap of the film, “Sebastian Stan is barely even trying but somehow blowing everyone else off the screen”. He’s such an effortlessly talented actor but has also been playing this role for so long it feels completely lived in and real for him. It also doesn’t seem like the Bucky Barnes arc will be ending any time soon as he becomes the experienced mentor to Yelena’s newly minted leader of the group. I was also left with questions about Bucky’s relationship with Sam Wilson given the post-credits scene in the movie where a rift is alluded to when we just saw them as close friends in Captain America: Brave New World which came out 3 months earlier.

As for the rest of the group, Wyatt Russell as John Walker/U.S. Agent stood out to me as being particularly good in this movie. Better and more likable than his first run on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Like many of these figures, the character rehab done in this film for much of the crew is impressive. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is always entertaining but sometimes I feel like her energy doesn’t match with the rest of the movie. Not even just this movie but the world of the MCU. It has been pointed out that she is pretty much just playing Selina Meyer (her character from Veep) but maybe with more intentional malice. The film ends with this team, briefly known as “The Thunderbolts”, being branded “The New Avengers”. There are a lot of questions for what this will actually mean both in the future of this world and in the future of the real-world MCU but I’m very curious to see where it goes. 

You can’t create a “New Avengers” without thinking about the original “Avengers”. And this movie does a lot to make us think about that. Most obviously, key scenes take place in the old Avengers Tower which eventually ends up being repurposed as the New Avengers headquarters. The pivotal “battle scene” of the film is set in front of Grand Central Station in NYC, the same location as the climactic battle and “Avengers, assemble” moment of the first The Avengers film from 2012 (I know they don’t actually say “Avengers, assemble” here but the Avengers do assemble for the first time). There are also more subtle references, like when Sentry “poofs” people into blackness, it is similar to Thanos’s snap. And the memory trap Sentry induces is comparable to Wanda’s (Scarlet Witch) powers, culminating in the team traveling through different memories (“shame rooms” as the director called them) inside their own consciousnesses like Wanda did towards the end of WandaVision. Are all of these references intentional? Maybe not every single one. But Thunderbolts* definitely wants us to be thinking about the original Avengers. What’s the same and what’s different this time? 

The biggest difference for me is the message at the heart of the film. Lewis Pullman as Bob/Sentry/Void is set up as the villain of the movie. But really the villain here is depression. A summer blockbuster about mental health? Who would’ve thought? But it not only works as a plot point but also works to set Thunderbolts* apart and pave a new lane for the superhero movie. The film finds all of its characters at a low point in their lives. They’re yearning for purpose and direction. I really liked that the motivation for their team-up wasn’t just a sudden desire to be “good” and save the world. It’s more like needing a way out of a dark hole and connection being the answer, which is much more realistic and relatable to everyone. It holds together better than something like Suicide Squad. Bob/Sentry/Void’s powers force them all to confront, and subsequently defeat, the darkest parts of themselves. Bob/Sentry/Void himself is both a superhero and a supervillain within one person. We all have different parts and sides, some of which are more dangerous than others. I found it truly fascinating that this movie was about defeating your own mental health, darkness, and negative thoughts. It makes the film genuinely unique. There’s not just a villain who’s evil for the sake of being evil or there to set up a big bad that looms over many movies to come. This movie literally ends with a group hug saving the day. Violence doesn’t work. It won’t work. It has to be internal resolution and love. Definitely corny but I still liked it. There’s tons of real heart and emotion and a level of relatability that can often be hard to find in comic book movies.

I don’t think Thunderbolts* is perfect. And it definitely doesn’t reach the cultural relevance that MCU movies once had. But I really enjoyed it and it felt like a good step on the path to righting the ship. The theater I saw it in was laughing often, the action was really good, the visuals were grittier and richer than the oversaturated, CGI-fest we’ve gotten used to, and the movie gives enough exposition inside it that broader audiences can understand without doing the usual course of Marvel homework. As I touched on earlier, the asterisk in the title was a huge part of the marketing campaign. Fans wondered if there was a real title to be revealed later. And they were correct. Right after opening weekend, the movie was virtually rebranded as “The New Avengers”. Marvel made a big deal of it. I thought it was a cool and innovative concept though I’m not entirely sure it was successful. I usually see these films the day they’re released to prevent being spoiled but I couldn’t get to this one in time to avoid the name change so, personally, I was a little bothered by it. But I like where Marvel’s head is at on a lot of the elements of Thunderbolts*. Actually trying new things and pushing the envelope. It definitely reinvigorates my interest in the franchise which had been slowly waning.

2025 Count: 32 movies, 21 seasons of television, 3 specials