Boldly, I will say that Thunderbolts* essentially worked for me: it took place in actual locations, featuring people talking to each other in the same room, and had action set pieces that made sense for the story. That’s where we’re at with the Marvel Cinematic Universe these days. I hate to damn things with faint praise, but this is definitely the Marvel movie I’ve enjoyed and understood the most since Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
As always, let’s break down where everyone is coming from. Nihilistic Yelena (Florence Pugh, too good for this stuff but I’m so glad she’s here) is Natasha Romanoff’s sister, who we met in Black Widow (2021) and also saw in the Hawkeye show (also 2021). She works for Valentina (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, giving a TV performance), whom we met in the TV show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier along with fake Captain America John Walker (Wyatt Russell, who is great). Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen, who gets a ‘with’ credit despite being no one) was the sympathetic villain from Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), while Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) and Red Guardian (David Harbour) also came from Black Widow (2021). Bucky (Sebastian Stan) has been in every single movie due to white slavery, so we all know him. Got it?
Anyway: these second stringers have all been tricked by Valentina into trying to kill each other in her attempt to hide all the illegal stuff she’s been doing. They figure it out and team up to take her out, while also protecting this weird guy named Bob (Lewis Pullman) they found in this secret vault. Bob is the result of the “Sentry” program, an attempt to make a new superhero now that the Avengers have died or left the planet. It’s been years in-universe since Endgame and the Avengers still haven’t reassembled? Lazy bones! Of course, as expected from the asterisk in the title, we’re watching the birth of a new, dysfunctional but competent, Avengers team.
Thunderbolts*/The New Avengers picks up right where Captain America: Brave New World left off, making it feel like a comic book event where one series actually leads into the next. Unlike that film, I didn’t want to die as CGI crud flew at my face. Yelena, Walker, and Ghost have to deal with situations and scenarios that people with superpowers can blast through during an ad break or a montage. A big part of this film is just them trying to get out of the vault they’ve been tricked into! The Thunderbolts also protect normal citizens for the first time in years in one of these things, which is always appreciated. The film hits enough notes on my checklist to keep it from feeling like a disgusting trudge through IP that it depresses me to know the next few movies are just going back to the Russo well of hell. The post-credits scene was clearly filmed last week, and feels so tonally different from the preceding film that it gave me whiplash. My friends the Thunderbolts are about to get dragged through the mud!
At this point, the MCU is a lumbering beast that can even turn good things sour. Even if you like Thunderbolts*, which I did, there’s no guarantee that these characters are coming back for an adventure of similar quality anytime soon. Sure, we’ll see these guys in Avengers: Doomsday, but that thing is going to be a disaster. We can only pray that Fantastic Four is a fun standalone movie before they’re sucked into the churn as well.
Thunderbolts*
2025
dir. Jake Schreier
126 min
In theaters now!
