May 5, 2025 · Watch the official trailer
Sometimes the best thing a blockbuster film can do is let high quality actors do their thing and get out of the way.
Often filmmakers get into trouble when they try to do too much and make the spectacle be the movie rather than give a performer opportunities to showcase their talents, hiding them behind heavy computer-generated images or forcing them to act in front of green screens in a way that takes audiences out of the experience.
Despite seemingly endless attempts to reinvigorate a dying film franchise, Marvel Studios may soon be on the verge of a comeback with their latest film “Thunderbolts*,” the 36th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) that might give audiences some hope of a way forward after languishing in subpar underdeveloped money grabs for the better part of five years.
The film follows several key Marvel antagonists tasked with killing each other, only to team up for a dangerous mission that forces them to confront the darkest corners of their past.
Though having extensive knowledge of the history of the MCU will be beneficial to a movie-going experience for “Thunderbolts*,” casual audiences don't need to have seen every single frame of Marvel content prior to heading to theaters as director Jake Schreier and screenwriters Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo do a solid job of brute forcing the necessary exposition to get audiences brought up to speed in the film's first act.
Those wanting to have some of the MCU's more pertinent filmography fresh on their minds would do well to revisit 2021’s “Black Widow” and the Disney+ series “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” before heading to the big screen.
Without question much of Marvel's future lies heavily on the shoulders of Oscar nominee Florence Pugh, who continues the run she started in “Black Widow” as Red Room assassin Yelena Belova, a snarky loner anti-hero reeling from the death of her sister after the events of “Avengers: Endgame” and looking for her way in the world.
Pugh is undisputedly the anchor of “Thunderbolts*” in a key part of rebuilding audience trust with Marvel as a franchise as her Yelena is one of the most dynamic heroes Marvel has introduced since its initial Avengers run in the mid 2000s. The layers of character work Pugh is able to infuse Yelena with far exceed a typical Marvel film and her ability to pivot between empathy, frustration, and snark make her one of the most entertaining, easy to root for characters in the entire MCU history.
Her chemistry with David Harbour as the Russian version of Captain America, Red Guardian, is the catalyst for much of the film’s comedic and dramatic core and “Thunderbolts*” shows its truest potential once Pugh and Harbour are paired on screen together.
Films about unlikely allies forced to work together for a common goal are a dime a dozen in comic book franchises as audiences have seen similar tales play out with “Guardians of the Galaxy” and DC's “Suicide Squad.” And although the dynamic chemistry between the whole group of “Thunderbolts*” isn't quite to the same level that James Gunn and his team developed for the original “Guardians” film, Pugh and Harbour do such terrific work in their roles that one might seem to find hope in Marvel’s vision for the future again.
Audiences will likely be unfamiliar with Wyatt Russell's US Agent, Hannah John-Kamen's Ghost or Olga Kurylenko’s Taskmaster if they have not seen every moment of Marvel's canon and while Lewis Pullman does a terrific job as the as newcomer Bob, the entire film is truly a showcase for Pugh to emerge as a cornerstone of the MCU.
Structurally, “Thunderbolts*” aims for a different tone as it's unusual for a Marvel film to pivot a way from intricate action heavy set pieces. Schreier’s emphasis on grounded drama with true emotions, driving the narrative forward are a refreshing change of pace for a studio that seems overly obsessed with spectacle for the sake of spectacle.
The cinematography of “Thunderbolts*” truly stands out in the final act of the film with innovative techniques director of photography Andrew Droz Palermo use to create the world of the void are visual highlights in recent Marvel cinematic history that is worth the price of admission alone.
Because it seems like a foregone conclusion to compare every MCU entry to the comic book and cinematic highs of the final “Avengers” movies, “Thunderbolts*” doesn't rise to this level.
However, it is by far the strongest showing of an MCU movie since 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” even those not particularly inspired to seek out a comic book movie might do well to take a chance on “Thunderbolts*” either on the big screen or later when it hits Disney+ this summer.
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