Posted in: Kaitlyn Booth, Marvel Studios, Movies, Review | Tagged: thunderbolts

Thunderbolts* Review: A Messy Start Leads to a Stellar End

Thunderbolts* starts off weak and is only held together by the sheer talent of its cast, but the third act is where the movie truly shines.

Thunderbolts* is a bit messy initially, but thanks to the cast's natural chemistry and stellar third act, it ends up being one of the most emotionally impactful Marvel movies in a long time.

Director:  Jake Schreier
Summary: After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap, an unconventional team of antiheroes must embark on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts.

Thunderbolts* Takes A Messy Road To Get To A Great Third Act

Marvel Studios has been floundering a bit in the last couple of years. They managed to stick an almost impossible landing with Avengers: Endgame, but everything that followed hasn't really had the same impact. There have been some outliers and good moments in messy movies, but in general, it feels like a lot of the MCU is lost in its own desperate need to set up another Thanos-level threat instead of letting it happen in the background, organically, like they did the first time. 2025 didn't exactly get off to a strong start for the MCU as Captain America: Brave New World walked away with pretty mediocre reviews and a box office that seemed to reflect that people could be over this entire thing. There was hype around The Fantastic Four: First Steps, but everyone wondered where Thunderbolts* would fit into this entire thing.

Unfortunately, Thunderbolts* is another messy Marvel movie, and it's for the same reason that a lot of these movies are messy: they are so caught up in dropping exposition and lore and sneaking in little hints for the future that they forget we're here to see a movie. So, the first and a decent portion of the second act of the film are a lot of floundering around and trying to get all of the pieces together in a way that doesn't feel organic. We keep jumping from the Thunderbolts themselves, to Valentina and what she is trying to accomplish, to Bucky doing something that government officials rarely do (making a genuine effort to Get Shit Done and actually making progress, 10/10 would vote for him again) that the pacing suffers.

What Thunderbolts* has that previous other Marvel movies don't is a cast with a bunch of genuine chemistry and a bunch of deadpan humor delivered exceptionally well. This is a group of fundamentally broken people with blood on their hands, and the way they come together is what fans of team dynamics dream of. Florence Pugh as Yelena is so dynamic to watch, and we have seen her character get put through the wringer. The movie starts with her talking about how something is wrong with her and walking off the side of a building. It's framed in a way that, for a moment, you think she might be attempting to kill herself, and Pugh sells that as much as she sells the deadpan comment when she pulls the ripcord.

While Yelena and her absolutely dysfunctional relationship with Alexei (David Harbour) provide some of the bigger laughs in the film, the emotional center of this film is not the person you expect it to be at all. Lewis Pullman came into Thunderbolts* a bit late in the game after Steven Yeun had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. As someone utterly unfamiliar with the character of Sentry, Pullman's performance immediately drew you to him, and it became very obvious why Yelena felt compelled to protect him about 5 seconds after she met him. The final act and certain revelations about The Void are all varying degrees of spoilers, but when they reveal what is going on with Bob and all of the cards with him are on the table, it is when the movie comes together as well. The third act of this film works because you're invested in Bob.

The rest of the cast keeps this thing together as well. We didn't get to see a lot of Ghost in Ant-Man and the Wasp, but this version of Ava is a bit more put together and able to get through the day without as much chronic pain driving her a bit out of her mind. John Walker continues to be a walking red flag as to why he was the last person who should have been Captain America, but he's self-aware enough that he doesn't spend the entire runtime walking around and pretending he's one of the good guys among this band of assassins. MCU VIP Sebastian Stan does what he can with what might be the most boring version of Bucky we've seen so far. Despite being the most experienced fighter there, Thunderbolts* doesn't even toy with the idea of letting Bucky be the leader. He takes charge a few times but isn't front and center. Harbour is great as comedic relief, but a scene between him and Pugh is enough to punch you in the gut. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, is hamming it up in the background, but she's a lot of fun to watch.

Bitches Love Team Dynamics (I'm Bitches)

Thunderbolts* starts off weak and is only held together by the sheer talent of its cast, but the third act is where the movie truly shines. However, it's also a bunch of massive spoilers and double that for people who don't know any comic lore, so we can't really talk about it. There has been talk about "what good are the Thunderbolts against Sentry," regarding the final act, and how the movie answers that question is really well executed. We have seen nothing but massive firework shows and fights with wonky VFX for years, but Thunderbolts* is a movie built around a group of people who fundamentally aren't built for that kind of battle.

When the metaphorical dust settles, you're left with one of the most emotionally satisfying endings to a Marvel movie since at least Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. After starting off on the wrong foot with Captain America: Brave New World, despite its flaws, it feels like Thunderbolts* is the right kind of course correction to get us back to what made this a billion dollar franchise; characters we are invested in on every level.

Thunderbolts*

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Review by Kaitlyn Booth

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8/10

Thunderbolts* starts off weak and is only held together by the sheer talent of its cast, but the third act is where the movie truly shines.

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