It’s been some time since I wrote a Marvel movie review. In fact, it has been some time since I felt motivated enough to go see a Marvel movie in theaters on opening night. I did see Deadpool and Wolverine on opening night, but that was in the middle of San Diego Comic Con coverage so I didn’t have time to get a review up for that one.
I can’t say what about Thunderbolts* had me more excited to see it than other recent Marvel movies. Perhaps it was the big screen debut of one of my favorite comic characters, John Walker/USAgent played by Wyatt Russell. We first saw Russell play Walker in the Disney+ Falcon And The Winter Soldier series which I mostly enjoyed, but we only saw him as USAgent in the final minutes of the final episode of the series. I am happy to say Walker has a much bigger role in this movie and i thought he did a good job with the character.
Before we go more into that, let’s back up a bit and talk about the synopsis of the movie which focuses on a group of anti-heroes each of whom worked at some point for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. We have seen Fontaine pop up in the MCU before, but this movie gives us the most in-depth look at the character who is the acting Director of the CIA.
Fontaine finds her self in a bit of hot water with Congress over the Sentry project which causes her to start tying loose ends including the anti-heroes Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) and the aforementioned John Walker. During this process, the anti-heroes discover Bob (Lewis Pullman) who over the course of the movie they discover to be a mystery wrapped up in an enigma. Most of you probably already know who Bob is, but just in case I won’t spoil it for you here.
Suffice to say, much action ensues and later the group are joined by Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) and Red Guardian/Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour) which make up the group who call themselves the Thunderbolts. Well OK its mostly Alexei that calls them that.
I should note Stan’s character picks up from where we last saw him in Captain America: Brave New World where he is now a junior congressman.
I think the interactions between all the characters are pretty good in this movie which has a similar feel to the original Avengers movie in that way. Yelena is definitely the linchpin of the team, and I think Pugh does a good job of making the Yelena character interesting and more than just a Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) clone.
I also found the Bob character to be very interesting and felt Pullman did a good job of portraying the different aspects of that character. Going in, I wasn’t really sure if I was going to like him or not.
Another reason I like this movie, and perhaps the most important one, is because it’s the first time since Avengers: Endgame where I truly start to feel like the MCU as a whole has a purpose again and that we finally are building up to something important coming. That is a trend I hope continues with the next movie which will be Fantastic Four in July. In fact, I will say there is something in this movie that happens that actually has me looking even more forward to that one.
I don’t know exactly where I would rank this movie out of all the MCU movies, but I will say that other than perhaps Deadpool and Wolverine, this is the best MCU movie I have seen since Avengers: Endgame.
The movie has a mid-credit and end-credit scene, and the end one is definitely worth waiting for.
Grade: A-
JohnF -
2025-05-06 @ 4:34 pm
On 5/6/2025 at 7:02 PM, Lord_Scareglow said:Yup it's an aggressive tactic to make you rush out opening weekend to see the movie, they want you to feel like you need to go now, or it;s gonna be ruined. And they are not wrong...
Honestly it works, I MUST go see a Marvel movie opening weekend, because of exactly this fear, I think the only Marvel movie to date I didn't see within 2-4 days of being released in theatres was Captain America BNW, which I actually waited almost 2 weeks to see.....everything else has been a mad dash to see.
Yeah unfortunately that's exactly what it's like.
On 5/6/2025 at 11:58 AM, JohnF said:They do that often with their movies. It's like if you don't go see the movie the first weekend you're doomed to get spoilers from Marvel themselves.
Yup it's an aggressive tactic to make you rush out opening weekend to see the movie, they want you to feel like you need to go now, or it;s gonna be ruined. And they are not wrong...
Honestly it works, I MUST go see a Marvel movie opening weekend, because of exactly this fear, I think the only Marvel movie to date I didn't see within 2-4 days of being released in theatres was Captain America BNW, which I actually waited almost 2 weeks to see.....everything else has been a mad dash to see.
JohnF -
2025-05-06 @ 3:58 pm
On 5/6/2025 at 6:01 PM, Lord_Scareglow said:Yeah today I woke up to see the title spoiler literally everywhere, like why do that so early? seems silly, but it's likely a good marketing tool, since you put the words New and Avengers, it's going to entice people to see the movie, but a cheap move none the less.
Also I totally agree, this feels a lot like the new GOTG.
They do that often with their movies. It's like if you don't go see the movie the first weekend you're doomed to get spoilers from Marvel themselves.
On 5/6/2025 at 8:44 AM, JohnF said:I won't say much and it absolutely sucks that Marvel has already spoiled the movie's title, but I loved it. Great movie, I don't really have anything bad to say about it. Maybe it's just the excitement, but it feels like this era's Guardians of the Galaxy movie.
Yeah today I woke up to see the title spoiler literally everywhere, like why do that so early? seems silly, but it's likely a good marketing tool, since you put the words New and Avengers, it's going to entice people to see the movie, but a cheap move none the less.
Also I totally agree, this feels a lot like the new GOTG.
JohnF -
2025-05-06 @ 12:44 pm
I won't say much and it absolutely sucks that Marvel has already spoiled the movie's title, but I loved it. Great movie, I don't really have anything bad to say about it. Maybe it's just the excitement, but it feels like this era's Guardians of the Galaxy movie.
I'll check it out when it hits D+. Doesn't excite me enough to get a movie ticket for.
Just got back from seeing this now, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, I had high hopes and it did not disappoint, All of the characters worked wonderfully together, and everyone was great, most importantly Yelena, RG and US Agent, but everyone worked so well together and they had a great group dynamic, Bob was also such a nicely done character, with good layers, it was funny at times, really serious, moments of darkness and full of humility, I really liked it, I hope to see these characters all again in more MCU stuff in the future because they all have charming personality.
I've seen the flick so it's not spoiled for me, but seriously they should give things more then a week before they start plastering spoilers all over the place
Great flick. Though they telegraphed the hell out of the surprise in the opening.
AndyL -
2025-05-05 @ 1:42 pm
On 5/4/2025 at 11:37 AM, Hordak Rules said:Saw it last night and loved it. Helps that I also am a huge USAgent fan and also a long time Thunderbolts reader. Yelena, Bob and Walker probably get the most character building. They probably could have done a bit more with Ghost. They did Taskmaster dirty again but maybe it will mean we get the actual one in the future. I think Marvel is getting it right with the quality over quantity thing.
Me too. I was planning on getting to see it earlier but my family obligations got in the way. LOL. Actually I found quite a few people to tag along with me. Anyway this is just what the MCU needed. Just good fun. A decent storyboard. Pretty good characters. And some darn cool action. Not perfect by any means but compared to some of the recent MCU outings this was aces. Mostly non political and non preachy and that's they way it should be. I was very pleased with Lewis Pullman as Bob but I think they OP'd Sentry. I hope Marvel doesn't do that thing that they do and change the comic version to match the movie version. But they probably will. Which is funny to me because in my mind it seems like a downright admission that the movie writers are far superior to the comic writers. Which they are. Hope that's not considered a spoiler. And I'm very satisfied with the Taskmaster situation. To me it was an actual service to the tradition of the character and yes maybe they'll manage to get him right. Again, hope it's not it's not too much of a spoiler. But admittedly the costume was a thousand times better than the previous one. I do like Florence Pugh in general but I never liked her as Yelena and I sure never liked her as Natasha's eventual replacement but she's growing on me. At least she looks a lot better in her fight scenes than she had is her previous movie. Maybe they had a better stunt coordinator but I really don't care enough to check on that. Just pleased with the results. Harbour as Alexi once again proves he is one of the most versatile active actors in Hollywood right now. Walker my man! Yes, finally some development worthy of the character. Again not perfect but at least he wasn't just an afterthought like he was in TFATWS. I really hope they understand what a great resource they have available with this character and continue to focus a lot more on him. A dedicated movie would not be a bad idea. Considering it's done correctly of course. Never liked Ghost. Still don't like Ghost. By far the most boring member of the team. But if she was the worst part of this movie I will take it. Whooooo! Val is really fleshing out to be an Amanda Waller type D-Bag. I already hate her. And I'm glad Marvel/Disney did not try and totally kill the similarities between the two like they did between Aquaman and Namor. They are basically the same person but the challenge should be in who did it better. Amanda still edges Val out by a little but she's had a bit more screen time than Val and there's still some space for her to do something as heinous as offing her entire War Room staff in cold blood. Give it some time. I hope this movie makes bunches and bunches of money and helps Feige to understand what they were doing wasn't working. This works. This was good. And not just the type of good as in it didn't suck as much as most recent MCU projects. This was genuinely good. I still fully expect Feige to pursue the whole Kids Avengers plotline because they've already created too much build up but I hope with an eventual clash between these two government sponsored teams the cream will rise to the top. To quote the late great Macho Man Randy Savage. After this I am crossing my fingers that FF continues this rise and the MCU gets back to it's former state of glory. 4 out of 5 stars!
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