Review: Thunderbolts* (2025)

Thunderbolts*

Rating

Director

Jake Schreier

Screenplay

Eric Pearson, Joanna Calo

Length

2h 07m

Starring

Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lewis Pullman, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Hannah John-Kamen, Olga Kurylenko, Geraldine Viswanathan, Wendell Pierce

MPAA Rating

PG-13

Original Preview

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Review

Another group of misfits are turned into a hero team but the twist? These aren’t the good guys…or at least they weren’t. Thunderbolts* takes its cues from Guardians of the Galaxy but not where it matters.

After the death of her “sister,” Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) has found her way into mercenary work. Working for CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine’s (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) to help destroy all evidence of de Fontaine’s work with O.X.E. Group and their “Project Sentry,” she finds herself and four other mercs caught in a death trap from which three of them emerge alongside an experiment whose purpose and power aren’t revealed until the second act.

Pulling in characters from various Marvel properties, including movies and TV shows, Yelena is joined by John Walker (Wyatt Russell) from The Falcon and Winter Soldier, Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) from Ant-Man and the Wasp, Bob (Lewis Pullman), and later by Red Guardian (David Harbour) from Black Widow, and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) who was the antagonist of Captain America: Winter Solider and a protagonist throughout, from the first Captain America film to the present. It is certainly a motley crew and one that bickers more than works together, but grudgingly coalesce in an effort of self-preservation.

While many of the characters receive a lore dump thanks to Bob’s powers, much of it is given to Yelena who didn’t get nearly as much from her appearances in Black Widow and Hawkeye to satisfy fans. Unlike the tacky wringer Black Widow was put through in that film, Yelena is given far more nuanced story details that don’t sound like retrograde male-gaze feminism from the 1990s. Credit for that is the screenplay written by Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo who found ways to humanize potentially unlikable characters. Unfortunately, in service to the narrative beats, the film feels overlong and tries multiple times to elicit emotional responses from the audiences that work modestly well until the realization of manipulation dawns on the viewer.

Director Jake Schreier spent most of the time between his theatrical releases 2015’s Paper Towns and this film working in television and music videos with little expansive work to his credit. That pacing problem with the screenplay could have been fixed by a more experienced director who swings for big moments but fouls his way off the field. There’s a mid-film encounter that at first echoes the excitement of the original Avengers and then devolves into a copy of Avengers: Infinity War. If Schreier took his copycat inspirations from JJ Abrams, it wouldn’t be a surprise.

Where Thunderbolts* succeeds is in its first act where the action is breezy, the story beats move well, and the performances establish terrific characters with relatable backstories. This is thanks to having skilled actors like Pugh, Pullman, John-Kamen, Stan, Harbour, and Russell on board. They pull the viewer into the situation even as outlandish as it can be. This is also where it best compares to Guardians of the Galaxy. Unfortunately, it’s that film’s creative energy that is sorely lacking from this production where most of the sets, characters, and locations look as generic and unexceptional as possible.

Louis-Dreyfus had such promise when she was first introduced in her three earlier appearances (The Falcon and Winter Soldier, Black Widow, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) but rather than making a more fitting appearance in Captain America: Brave New World, they hold her back for the events of this film. In Thunderbolts*, she puts forward two wildly divergent performances. One is before the congressional committee investigating her activities as CIA director and one as the calculating politician manipulating events to her benefit. Before the committee, she presents her character as stiff and oily but superficially so. Once the film’s main twist occurs in the wreckage of Avengers Tower, she finally delivers on that promise with a convincing performance. Based on Louis-Dreyfus’ history, this seems an issue with the direction rather than the actor herself.

Thunderbolts* is a decent team-building introduction with some fun moments and strong central performances but it meanders in its final moments, taking far more time to rally to its conclusion than should have been necessary. It’s a film that holds some promise for what Avengers: Doomsday could be while also foreshadowing a potential train wreck as even more characters are thrown into the mix whose introductions and mediocre through lines will coalesce into something full of sound and fury and signifying nothing.