Film Review: THUNDERBOLTS* (2025): Marvel Assembles Some Heroic Misfit Characters for an Energetic, Fun Movie
Thunderbolts* Review
Thunderbolts* (2025) Film Review, a movie directed by Jake Schreier, written by Eric Pearson, Joanna Calo and Kurt Busiek and starring Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lewis Pullman, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Hannah John-Kamen, Olga Kurylenko, Geraldine Viswanathan, Wendell Pierce, Chris Bauer, Violet McGraw, Alexa Swinton, Eric Lange, Chiara Stella, Stefano Carannante, Gianfranco Terrin and Georgui Kasaev.
Filmmaker Jake Schreier’s Thunderbolts* owes a lot to 2021’s Black Widow which helped create the essence of some of the characters that dominate this new movie. There’s one scene in the new picture which absolutely stands out from the rest of the sequences in the film. It has our ordinary Marvel heroes climbing up a very long tunnel that goes upwards vertically. Our “Thunderbolts” achieve this by combining their bodies together and walking up a wall almost as one. This sequence plays very creatively in a movie that takes risks and succeeds because of that fact. Florence Pugh returns to the Marvel series by playing Yelena Belova yet again. Yelena jumps off a building at the very beginning of the film, but don’t worry, it’s not suicide. It’s her latest mission to defeat some folks that her employer has pitted against her. Pugh carries much of the weight of Thunderbolts* which isn’t surprising given the potency of some of her past recent performances.
This movie is essentially about the heroes referred to in the movie’s title. They are the less heroic Avengers, so to say, but they’re just as unique and fascinating to watch as their superhero counterparts were. Julia Louis-Dreyfus portrays Valentina Allegra de Fontaine again, and it seems like this is one of the actress’s most substantial parts in the Marvel franchise even if the actress gets outshone by other talents on board the film. Valentina is out to get the Thunderbolts and will stop at nothing to do so as one may expect. The cast of quirky would-be heroes get their name from a soccer team which Yelena once played for when she was a kid (Violet McGraw). When the plans of Valentina to stop our heroes go awry, our reluctant superheroes are forced to work together against all odds, and the film expertly pairs action sequences with humorous ones successfully.
Lewis Pullman’s Robert Reynolds (AKA Bob) eventually turns out to be Valentina’s biggest possible barrier to success for the Avengers wannabees, the Thunderbolts. Bob appears out of thin air while everybody else is trying to bump another one off. Bob turns out to have a troubled situation occurring that the movie deals with sufficiently. Wyatt Russell’s Captain America knockoff, John Walker (not to be confused with Johnny Walker, the drink), also suffers from a painful past, but as the movie goes on, the character of Walker becomes more and more pivotal to the action as do the other Thunderbolts as well.
Also along for the ride are Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Ava Starr (an enjoyable turn by Hannah John-Kamen) and Yelena’s dad, Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour). That latter character is also known as the Red Guardian to all you familiar with these Marvel pictures. While those characters are well-cast, there is an unfortunate disappointment here in the casting of the versatile Geraldine Viswanathan as Mel, Valentina’s ambitious personal assistant who gets Valentina great coffee despite lacking other skill sets that could benefit Valentina more. Viswanathan’s performance feels like she took the role to have a hit under her belt rather than for the quality of the part itself. This is one of the young actress’s least well-performed roles to date.
There’s a road-set chase scene where the Red Guardian tries to escape Valentina’s goons with his somewhat bulletproof car that makes for some exciting action within the picture. This film ultimately settles in New York City for a bit as Bob tries to control the situation with the new powers he possesses under Valentina’s reign. Can the Thunderbolts make “Bob” good again or will he and Valentina wipe out the Thunderbolts for good before they make it into the public eye in order to get the respect these heroes so rightfully deserve?
Pugh’s character deals with a lot of the scenarios here as she is prominently front and center in the action at almost all times. She nails all her physically demanding scenes and has a heroic quality about her even when she awkwardly brings up Dr. Phil in a key moment of the picture. Wyatt Russell also gets a fair amount of time to develop his offbeat character as well. As Louis-Dreyfus chews scenery, Harbour steals more scenes than “Seinfeld” alumni, Louis-Dreyfus ultimately does. Harbour gets the most laughs as he talks about the potential for the Thunderbolts to be on a Wheaties box and a whole lot more.
Hannah John-Kamen gets to have fun with her role, but the movie doesn’t enhance this character’s superpower to disappear any more than it needs to. Thunderbolts* is at its best when it sprinkles in Marvel movie tidbits for fans who have seen mostly all the films and can find the parallels between this movie and the studio’s other films. Lewis Pullman is perfectly cast and becomes the bad guy you’ll love to hate and hate to love simultaneously.
Thunderbolts* will please Marvel fans and then some. This film balances comedy and action scenes unevenly at times, but will appeal mostly to audiences who have seen the underappreciated Black Widow from 2021. While Thunderbolts* doesn’t always play fair with its many major plot twists, this movie is still a good time to watch as its misfit characters come together to fight Valentina against the odds and become the heroes they’ve always meant to be, but just didn’t know they were. Pugh certainly relishes her funny dialogue although when she references Dr. Phil, the movie may be reaching a bit too far as it ultimately becomes too broad for its own good at times. But at least it reaches. Fewer and fewer movies today do.
Rating: 7.5/10
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