Thunderbolts (2025)

 

Thunderbolts (2025)

6/10

Starring

Florence Pugh

Sebastian Stan

Wyatt Russell

Olga Kurylenko

 

Directed by Jake Schreier

 

The talent in this movie alone, acting-wise, is outstanding, and it would be a waste of a review if I spent too much time delving into how each actor held their own. It would overcrowd the other factors in this movie, so take my word for it, the acting here is amazing, and Florence Pugh was just a character to love, be amazed by, and long to see on screen often.

The movie did use enough effects to deliver its story, but as a friend said, I couldn't shake off the feeling that I was watching another Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).

I think what I liked most about the movie’s story is the feeling that each character wants something more than their present situation — and that, in a way, resonated with me. The characters in this movie, other than Yelena (Pugh), that are key to the story are de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), a CIA director facing the threat of losing her job and doing everything she can to make sure that doesn’t happen. We have Red Guardian, Bucky/Winter Soldier, Ava (Ghost from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)), Bob (Sentry/The Void), and Wyatt (the guy meant to be the new Captain America before losing it to Falcon in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier series).

De Fontaine has been using the others (except Bucky) to do covert operations to keep her name in the clear. When she’s done, she decides to do the smart thing and just kill all the operatives she’s been using by sending them on a final mission, which neither knew at the time was against one another. It’s there we get this alliance of operatives who survive the setup.

Now they are on a new directive, to stop de Fontaine (kind of revenge) when Bob gets captured, and somehow, he joins side with de Fontaine. The group now joined by Bucky and Red Guardian, are going to try and save Bob, who we discover is someone de Fontaine has experimented on and is a very strong superhuman, which can take down even the avengers on his own.

I didn’t like the clumsy slow start, the overhanging effort to paint de Fontaine as evil, and the very annoying, disjointed links that bring everyone together to form this group. It’s chaotic and just way too convenient — something that could’ve been avoided with better writing. The movie, though, begs intrigue. The moment Bob, Ava, Yelena, and Wyatt escape getting killed by de Fontaine, there’s a strong intrigue that captures your attention, and you wonder how they’ll link up with Winter Soldier. You can already predict (which is also not a good thing, but a result of bad writing) how Red Guardian will join the group, so the wait wasn’t bad.

In the end, the movie was fun. I felt the excitement when Bucky joined the group, and for me, the movie may not be the best I’ve seen, but it’s a warm welcome to something that opens the door to better Marvel movies. I believe this movie is better grounded than Captain America: Brave New World (2025), and the jokes are actually funny here and not out-of-the-way annoying or out of place. Will I watch this movie again? I believe so. And I think if you like superhero movies, or once did, you’ll like this one too.