I feel like this is the boilerplate text I need to put here. Marvel is in a box office slump. The novelty of Deadpool & Wolverine was a fluke driven by the Fox nostalgia. Captain America: Brave New World is so unwatchable I turned it off. The low gross for Thunderbolts* may be the new normal. That’s me addressing the discourse. We good?
Good. Got that out of the way because Thunderbolts* deserves much better than dissection as a part of the MCU’s decline. It turns out, a movie with a clear vision fronted by a bunch of really good actors actually makes for a great time. This is a movie with uncommon texture and genuine ideas worth discussing. It’s a movie that has actually resonated hard with people I know struggling with depression. That’s much better than just franchise trash.
The premise is simple: A group of black ops members of the universe are sent to take out what they think is a rogue asset. Actually, they’re there to kill each other. Then things go haywire and this unlikely team bands together to get revenge. It’s a Cannon Films setup with a cast that’s a step above.
The funny thing is how not oversimplified that plot is. Thunderbolts* is a movie about that basic. Sure, there’s the added wrinkle of secret weapon Bob (a movie stealing Lewis Pullman) who helps give the movie the epic climax a Marvel movie needs. But really this is a very small scale story. A key portion of the film basically takes place in a warehouse and another section in the desert.
So why is this so much more satisfying than Deadpool & Wolverine? Well, a big plus is how character driven the film is. Florence Pugh violently resists getting wasted again as Yelena Belova, a dramatically more interesting character than the comic version. She’s hysterical and moving as a trauma victim with an edge. Wyatt Russell brings a wonderful edge as John Walker, who was meant to be the new Captain America but let his rage take over. David Harbour is lovably well-meaning as Red Guardian. Sebastian Stan is great as usual as Bucky. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is deliciously evil as the villain, a corrupt businesswoman running the CIA. And as noted, Pullman steals as a very Daryl Zero type character. Honestly, only Hannah John-Kamen feels underused as Ghost, giving a good but one note turn.
The film benefits too from a core idea. This is a movie about people who haven’t lived up to what they want to be and hate themselves. They’re tired of being black ops less because it’s evil and more because it’s degrading. They’re aware how low they are. It’s not the first or best time Marvel played here, as the Guardians trilogy showed. But it’s a better idea than whatever the last few were.
Part of this may be having a director who actually has something to say. Jake Schrier isn’t new to mental illness as a subject, as Paper Towns and Robot and Frank showed. He’s a real director with an interesting voice, and he takes what could be a “been there, done that” movie and really lets the character scenes play. I actually saw this in D-BOX, and it was kind of funny how often the movie pulled back to just be still.
He and his writing team also seem very aware of what’s going on in the universe on a meta level. This is a movie about how the party is definitely over, and it’s not restarting. The C-listers are what’s left, and the movie seems at peace with the reality this movie would lose a lot of money. It’s a weirdly honest vibe that gives the film a charge that ironically, the bloated and self-satisfied Deadpool lacked.
I’ll say this, too. The movie actually does have better action than a lot of recent CBMs. That’s where I really felt the Cannon influence. These are mostly ordinary people, so it’s a lot of fist fights and shooting. It’s not flashy, but I loved it way more than the CGI fests of late. I could actually see what was going on.
That said, the movie is still an MCU movie. We’re setting up for the future. The post-credits spoils Fantastic Four. The movie is still hardly inventively shot. Reshoots are obvious. It’s a good product, but it’s a product. I saw Sinners the week before, and that’s obviously a real movie in comparison. This hits the release date on the calendar.
But if that’s what this is, then fine. This is great at being what it is. It’s a solid action movie with good performances. That’s enough for me.
Watch the trailer right here.
All images via Disney.
Directed by Jake Schreier
Screenplay by Eric Pearson, Joanna Calo, from the Marvel Comics
Produced by Kevin Feige
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
Premiere Date: April 22, 2025
Running Time: 126 minutes
Cinema from the Spectrum 
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