Thunderbolts* Review: What Makes a Hero

Thunderbolts* feels like a return to the early days of the MCU, and is proof of what can be achieved when a movie remembers to put its characters first.

But if you thought that good Marvel storytelling was over, think again. Thunderbolts* has come to remind us why we used to love these movies, and to prove that any franchise can be rescued if its storytellers remember to put their characters first.

Thunderbolts* opens with a disillusioned Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh, of Black Widow), now a freelance assassin, completing a mission in Malaysia, the last in a string of assignments that have been making her feel unhappy and directionless. Yelena decides to pay a visit to her estranged father, who doesn’t seem to be doing much better. Desperate to get back to his Red Guardian days, Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour) is now a limousine driver, in a similar state of mind as his daughter’s.

Yelena realizes she’s ready to leave the life on the field behind and calls her boss, CIA Director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), to ask for an office job instead. The latter complies, with only one request in return: she needs Yelena to go on a final mission, an “easy” assignment before she can be promoted to a safer position. Of course, the mission is not as easy as Yelena thought it would be, but then again, de Fontaine is in the middle of an impeachment trial connected to the OXE Group, a holding company that’s being accused of criminal activities including illegal experiments on humans.

Facing de Fontaine in court are Congressman Gary (Wendell Pierce) and our very own Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), former Winter Soldier and newly elected congressman. The trial ends with a win for Gary and Barnes, as the court decides to conduct an investigation on OXE Group, and de Fontaine immediately instructs her assistant Mel (Geraldine Viswanathan, of Drive-Away Dolls) to get rid of all remaining proof. Yelena’s final assignment is part of that proof – only, not in the way our former Red Room assassin thinks. Sent to a secure OXE facility to track down whoever leaked some classified documents, Yelena soon discovers that de Fontaine intends to get rid of Yelena instead, as our superhero is living proof of some of the OXE Group’s activities.

And so, Yelena finds herself locked in the OXE Vault, but she’s not alone. About to suffer her same fate are some familiar faces, including “one-time Captain America” John Walker (Wyatt Russell), whom we last saw in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, and Ant-Man and the Wasp‘s Ava Starr/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), who all know a little too much about Valentina’s activities. But someone else is locked in the Vault with them, about to be burned alive, and nobody knows who he is, including the stranger himself. All he knows is that his name is Bob (Lewis Pullman, of Top Gun: Maverick), but he can’t seem to remember how he got there, and he doesn’t seem to be doing too good mental-health-wise. Still, Bob would appear to be harmless enough, and this, combined with some unusual abilities that are only just starting to manifest, makes him a part of the team.

It’s a team that shouldn’t really work, given that Yelena, Ghost and John Walker – as well as Red Guardian and Bucky Barnes, who’d later join them in some capacity – are self-declared “losers,” underdogs who are used to working alone and whose only apparent commonalities are the trauma that shaped their lives and the emptiness they feel. Yet somehow, our self-appointed “Thunderbolts” manage to find a balance of sorts and eventually team up, against all odds, intent on, well, either taking down their former boss or escaping far enough for her to never be able to find them again.

What happens next is best left unspoiled, as even if it’s not revolutionary storytelling-wise, I was surprised by how much of it I didn’t see coming. Thunderbolts* tells a pretty straightforward story that’s not unlike that of the Avengers: underdogs assemble to form a team that shouldn’t work and yet it does, as our unlikely heroes manage to defeat the threat and restore the peace. Yet it’s also one of those stories where your eyes are glued to the screen throughout its entire duration. Each scene leads seamlessly into the next, and spending time with these characters is so enjoyable that not only do you you never for one second perceive the movie’s two-hour runtime, but you also never want it to end.

Despite a rocky start and some pacing issues at the end, Thunderbolts* is a film that feels like the early days of the MCU, when what brought us to the movies over and over again wasn’t just the stories themselves, but also – and mainly – how much we loved a group of characters that we saw evolve over the years, and that never lost their humanity no matter how much they grew. Here, director Jake Schreier (Beef) and writers Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo, adapting a story from the 1997 Marvel graphic novels, find interesting ways of putting us into their characters’ heads, knowing exactly how much of their past to show us to shine a much-needed spotlight on their past trauma and current state.

As a result, Thunderbolts* feels like the Yelena Belova origin story that we never got in Black Widow, and Florence Pugh delivers her best MCU work to date with a stunning performance that will have you rooting for her character at all times. David Harbour, who clearly had so much fun making the movie, is superb as Red Guardian; in charge of most of the comic relief, he will have you in fits of laughter throughout and he even channels his inner Hopper (Stranger Things) from time to time, but there’s so much more depth to Alexei Shostakov as well, and you’ll feel genuine affection for his character.

Sebastian Stan shows us a Bucky Barnes like we’ve never seen before – one who has grown so much since we last saw him, who knows exactly who he is, and who rightly takes his place as the leader of our team. Even if he has slightly less screen time than his co-stars, Stan takes advantage of every single minute, making each scene memorable and demanding your attention from start to end. Hannah John-Kamen and Wyatt Russell, who play Ghost and John Walker, are fantastic too, but the other standout of the film is Lewis Pullman as Bob, a.k.a Sentry, a.k.a. The Void – three characters that you either know a lot or nothing about, depending on your knowledge of the comics, and who are all made believable and intriguing by Pullman’s raw, multilayered portrayal.

The cinematography is also impressive in Thunderbolts*, where DOP Andrew Droz Palermo (The Green Knight) and his team manage to recreate the feel of a graphic novel. Especially from the moment The Void appears, we are treated to a series of stunning sequences that feel like you could reach out a hand and touch them. The editing, from Angela M. Catanzaro and Harry Yoon, makes every scene all the more gripping, especially during the action scenes, and the costumes (Sanja Hays) and makeup help give the film the realism it needed to always feel grounded in reality despite its sci-fi elements.

Thunderbolts* is a film about superheroes saving the day, but it’s also about so much more, from processing trauma to the nature of a hero and even the meaning of life itself. In the best MCU tradition, it contains plenty of nostalgia and references to previous entries, as well as setting up the future of the franchise (look out for that second post-credit scene!), but its focus on mental health also allow it to explore deeper, darker themes. Not all battles take place in the battlefield, and some of the threats our protagonists face are within, in a movie that isn’t afraid to delve into loneliness and depression, letting the Void (quite literally) take over and showing us how hard it can be to overcome it.

With superb performances and cinematography, the right attention to character development, and impressive control of themes and tones, Thunderbolts* is a standout entry of post-Endgame MCU that has us excited about the future of the franchise.

Thunderbolts* will be available to watch in US theaters, in UK & Irish cinemas, and globally in theaters on May 2, 2025.