“Thunderbolts*” (2025) is the thirty-sixth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is the sequel to films like “Black Widow” (2021), “Ant-Man and the Wasp” (2018) and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (2022) and television series like “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” and “Hawkeye.” It also feels like a mirror image of “The Avengers” (2012). It starts soon after “Captain America: Brave New World” (2025) with Bucky in DC trying to make a difference as a freshman Congressman. After visiting her “dad,” Red Guardian (David Harbour), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), “sister” of Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), aka Black Widow, accepts one last black-ops mission from CIA Director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis Dreyfuss). Yelena crosses paths with John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Taskmaster (Olga Kuylenko), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and Bob (Lewis Pullman). Will they be able to work as a team or stay in an isolated hell? This installment has good ingredients and a laudable message but ultimately feels forced and lacks pacing. Not everyone can be James Gunn.
Pugh may be the strongest actor in the MCU, which includes Oscar award winner Robert Downey Jr. Yelena is the most normal character in the MCU despite her tragic, abusive history as a child recruited into a super soldier program and robbed of free will so starting her on a depressing note is suppressing what makes her memorable though it ties in with the theme of “Thunderbolts*.” Yelena usually enjoys being relatively free to explore the world, but her trip to Malaysia does nothing for her except check another box on her kill list. She is the protagonist because at least she is not in denial about her condition and is the most credible character who would be willing to work for Yelena, but really desires a higher calling to disrupt her adventurous, death-defying, but monotonous life
All these characters are going through the motions, are living in self-condemnation over their past misdeeds and suffer from depression though the D word is not used that often. Wallker seems to have regressed since he was introduced in “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” so he fits into the theme but does not play such an essential role that his absence would be noticeable. Was anyone begging for an update on how Walker is doing? Russell does a solid job playing a raging jerk who needs to be in charge but fails to instill confidence His fight scenes were impressive, which made Walker feel more welcome because he delivers spectacle. He wants to be respected in public again, but his problem was always living for the Gram so the “Thunderbolts*” does not offer a good antidote to his issues and actually feels like a dealer giving the next fix to a junkie. It feels like a step back in terms of Walker’s character development.
Ghost was a character that I wanted to revisit, but like Walker, it feels as if “Thunderbolts*” is counting on moviegoers remembering her enough to want to see her display her fighting prowess, but not enough to ask awkward questions like why she is no longer with Bill Foster (Laurence Foster) and/or the Ant-Man crew. Not in this movie, but MCU mid-credits scenes are beginning to write checks that they cannot cash, and Ghost is one of them. She had a team, and now she does not, but no information is provided to explain how she ended up here. She disappears for huge swaths of the film, and she deserved a better showcase. It would have been better to leave her out of the mix, let this installation be Yelena’s movie and give a separate movie to Ghost before they teamed up.
Do you remember Taskmaster, another former Black Widow? She wears a mask. Did Kurylenko anger someone? Does she need a new agent? She is a solid actor, but she keeps getting terrible gigs in successful franchises. She was a Bond girl in the worst Daniel Craig as James Bond cycle, “Quantum of Solace” (2008). She does her best, but she has nothing to work with.
Bucky Barnes is the most famous character in “Thunderbolts*,” yet he remains a supporting character in scenes with any character unless he is actively fighting, which is the point. Being a congressman is not what he hoped it would be, and he is itching to get out into the field. He gets one awesome action solo scene and one hilarious line. Dear MCU, Anthony Mackie without Stan and Stan without Mackie are stiff and lackluster, but put them together, and the chemistry lights up the screen. Stop separating this buddy duo. While Bucky could work as a mentor figure since he is the only member of the team who knows how to do the hero schtick and has come the furthest in terms of reconciling his past with who he is in the present, but instead of playing the wise old mentor, he functions as an air head, bubbling idiot in the crew. Yelena is the one who guides the group through its darkness thus making him redundant. Bucky deserved better.
Bob has amnesia, wears scrubs and compared to everyone else, seems unimposing. He feels a kinship to Yelena, who is determined to protect him, but he also wants to be respected as someone capable with ideas and can contribute. He has some connection to Valentina, but you will have to see “Thunderbolts*” to get more details because it is the entire movie, and this review is spoiler free. With Pullman joining the ranks, he is nepo baby #2, son of Bill, whom he resembles, along with Russell, son of Kurt and Goldie Hawn. Nepo babies with talent are always welcome, and Pullman makes a better impression here than he did in “Salem’s Lot” (2024). Pullman is more of a character actor who plays normal looking characters who seem sympathetic but also have serious flaws and could be more dangerous than they appear like in “The Starling Girl” (2023) and “Bad Times at the El Royale” (2018). If you are expecting a love match between Yelena and Bob, keep moving. They’re kinship is more like two people who hit it off in group therapy.
“Thunderbolts*” has laudable goals but moved too quickly to bring a group together and lay the groundwork for future movies than getting the audience to get invested in these characters and want to see more of them. “Guardians of the Galaxy” already succeeded in getting a group of misfits together and making them seem like soulmates who belong together. It feels forced here, and the chemistry just is not there. This movie feels like homework but is also in a catch 22 situation. If you do not already know the characters, everyone gets introduced too quickly and are not individually winning enough to get clueless fans invested in anyone but the protagonist, Red Guardian and maybe Bucky. If you are familiar with the characters, then it feels like a cheat for them to discard their earlier redemption arcs just to end up here.
Yelena and Red Guardian work with Red Guardian as comic relief because father and daughter shenanigans need no introduction. The movie is funny, but it suffers from a pacing problem and eventually becomes grating thus wearing out its welcome. Before you can finish laughing, the movie steps on its joke and then it feels as forced as this group. Being meta within the narrative of making them the New Avengers does not alleviate the desperation in the real world that is palpable. The Avengers took their time to form, and if they wanted to make this group seem plausible, it may have been the better road to travel. The MCU has hits, but they move on to the next shiny object before developing what works. Does anyone care about the actual phases as much as the characters and stories? Shang-Chi, Spider-Man and Doctor Strange work and so could everyone else, but the worlds do not seem interconnected in terms of relationships though they exist in the same universe.
There are a couple of possible human villains, but the MCU is taking the Black Panther approach to conflict: no real villains just broken people who need understanding, which is a great textured lesson to teach moviegoers, but makes the narrative lack tension. The Big Bad, the Void, feels like “Brightburn” (2019) meets “The Boys” though less profane and rapey. He is basically unstoppable and can reduce people into resembling shadows burnt into a wall after a nuclear blast. The real villain may be Valentina, and it is nice to see Dreyfuss play a competent, rich, shady figure while still retaining her comedic chops from “Veep.” She even gets to throw hands a bit…more of that please; however, no one is going to a blockbuster movie to find out about a government official unless Harrison Ford is playing the character. Her assistant, Mel (Geraldine Viswanathan), is supposed to straddle the line and need soul saving, but more characters is not what an already overstuffed “Thunderbolts*” needs.
Director Jack Schreier has more television than film experience, but he delivered in terms of capturing the action completely with camera choreography instead of over editing and multiple cameras that cut the action up so much that it becomes an indiscernible mess (looking at you, “A Working Man”). A hallway fight shot from above and Yelena doing one of her characteristic run through space while executing impossible gymnastic moves in a laboratory dodging objects. Yes, please. He has a talent for making spaces feel occupied instead of feeling like sets. There are multiple group fight and epic international skyline stunt shots. It looks good. Cowriters Eric Pearson is responsible for some of the best that the MCU has to offer such as four of the five Marvel One-Shot short videos, the flawless television series “Agent Carter” that should have never been cancelled and “Thor: Ragnarok” (2017), which is an indisputable fave, but he also did the forgettable “Black Widow” (2021) so maybe he hit the wall. Pearson should not be counted out because he also made “Godzilla vs. Kong” (2021), which is decent for the MonsterVerse, but not the best in the bunch. Cowriter Joanna Calo has no film experience, but plenty of prestige television series under her belt. They have an ambitious, meaningful goal but they tried to squeeze a season of information into a movie, which never works.
The real villain is depression, and if “Thunderbolts*” is worth watching, it is so audiences will seek help after watching indomitable people fight such a common issue and almost fail. While the solution is pat, it has a kernel of truth. People streaming movies at home and isolated in their phone will resonate with feeling alone and trapped in their heads, but a collective trip to the movies may help for the runtime yet is not a cure. A group hug may make nice optics, but when the hug comes from strangers who do not know you, it does feel a little empty like this movie.
