Thunderbolts*: Impeccably Imperfect, and Wonderfully Fun (Also I Cried A Lot)

Thunderbolts, directed by Marvel newcomer Jake Schreier, is an action-packed emotional ride that feels like being a 7-year-old finally tall enough to ride the roller coaster: you won’t want to get off, and chances are you’ll get right back in line once the workers pull you off against your will.

My opinion (that you didn’t ask for): Screen it. It’s worth the price of the movie ticket to get the full Marvel movie experience.

But before I go any further...

Spoiler warning: This review contains spoilers. If you’re spoiler-averse, check out the two-minute spoiler-free version on my TikTok (@uninvited.reviewer) or Instagram (@uninvited_reviewer). You've been warned.

Marvel has dominated the superhero genre for almost two decades, quickly becoming a cinematic tentpole. Building an empire that currently spans 51 movies and TV shows, it's safe to say the MCU has been busy.

However, it’s been clear since the end of Phase Three in 2019 that Marvel would need new blood to replace the core cast members who left after Endgame—namely Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, and Chadwick Boseman. With over half of the original Avengers gone, their replacements had to be characters we could truly root for—just like we did with the originals. We applauded Steve for FINALLY doing something mildly selfish, cried at the deeply unfair death of Natasha Romanoff (NO FUNERAL, MARVEL?! SHE SAVED THE UNIVERSE), cried again when Tony Stark died (WE ALL CRIED. ADMIT IT AND MOVE ON), and then cried again when we heard about Chadwick Boseman (SO MANY TEARS. JUST A RIVER OF EMOTION).

Whether Marvel has succeeded in that task is still up for debate. Thanks to the introduction of the multiverse and a broader storytelling scope, we’ve met a veritable buffet of new characters—we just don’t know which ones to focus on quite yet.

While I heavily disagree with the idea that Marvel hasn't produced good content post-Endgame (Spider-Man: No Way Home, Ms. Marvel, Multiverse of Madness, Wakanda Forever—come on, doubters...), many recent movies and shows (Quantumania, Secret Invasion, Love and Thunder, and the movie Marvel most wants us to forget: Eternals) haven’t lived up to the earlier Marvel standard.

So, where does Marvel’s most recent adaptation stack up?

Honestly?

High.

Like, it do be up there among the best, in my humble opinion that you can take or leave at your leisure.

The anti-hero genre has been explored countless times—with notable success in projects like DC's Birds of Prey, and The Suicide Squad, Marvel’s Loki, Deadpool, and Scarlet Witch’s arc. On the flip side, it’s also seen some spectacular failures, such as DC’s Suicide Squad (the first one, for clarity), Morbius, Venom (because no amount of box office money can fix a terrible movie), and Kraven the Hunter,  a film that bravely asked, ‘What if we made a movie and no one came?’ and absolutely nailed it.

Thankfully, Thunderbolts builds on the foundation laid by its predecessors and pushes it forward in all the right ways.

At the center of this movie, we (finally!) get more of Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova. From the very first moment (literally starting with her voiceover), Pugh gives a powerful performance, portraying a Yelena grappling with depression and hardcore PTSD—something she doesn't fully understand (unsurprising, given her upbringing as a brainwashed assassin new to her own free will).

One especially heartbreaking line delivered early in the film captures Yelena’s signature mix of humor, honesty, sarcasm, and naivete:

"There's something... wrong with me. An emptiness. I thought it started when my sister died, but now it feels like something bigger. Just a... void. Or maybe I'm just bored."

That single line sets up the emotional infrastructure for the rest of the characters—and the movie as a whole. And it hits hard.

We’re quickly reintroduced to now-Congressman Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, last seen in Wakanda Forever), Alexei Shostakov (aka Red Guardian, aka David Harbour), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), and a deep cut pull in Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost, last seen in 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp.

Walker, Ghost, Yelena, and a very short-lived cameo from Antonia Dreykov’s Taskmaster (played briefly by Olga Kurylenko) are thrown together as Allegra de Fontaine tries to tie up some damning loose ends—by having her "super-special assassins" off each other before roasting the survivors in what amounts to basically the world’s largest oven.

But, as everyone except Allegra sees coming, the four manage to work together to escape the vault of death—with the help of a new friend named Bob (Marvel newcomer Lewis Pullman), a seemingly regular guy who has no idea how he ended up there but is happy to go with the flow.

It’s during these 30 minutes of physically fighting, arguing, and eventually cooperating that the team dynamic sparks to life. On the surface, they believe the only thing they have in common is their ability to fight and kill really really really really (really) well. In reality, their commonalities are much deeper and more emotional than they all realize. Because it turns out that they’re just really bad at emotions in general. Yelena may speak at the beginnning about how she’s feeling, but when asked what to do about her uncomfortable emotions, she unironically advises to “Push them down. Like deep down.” Their shared history of following orders, committing horrible crimes, and living in the wreckage of lives they never consciously chose is taking it’s toll. They’re all like a young Black Widow—haunted by blood-soaked ledgers that they don't know how to clean.

Except for Red Guardian, whose unending enthusiasm and blinding faith in his daughter brings the right amount of levity and fun in this mostly depressing landscape. He’s the second jolliest guy in a big red suit for sure.

I won’t ever forget the scene of him driving his red limo to the rescue (?) in an amazingly played moment that gives us this gem of a scene:

     "Yelena Belova: [sees Alexei's limousine from afar while hiding in the middle of the desert, the limousine honks loudly] Oh no...

     John Walker: What? It's going right at us.

     Ava Starr: Who is that?

     Yelena Belova: [embarrassed, covering her face] It is no one, it's nothing.

[the limousine keeps honking then stops in the middle of the desert, Alexei gets out and screams]

     Yelena Belova: Oh God.

     Red Guardian: YELENA! IT'S YOUR DAD! DON'T GO IN THE VAULT! VALENTINA'S GONNA BURN YOU ALIVE! YELENA!"

But bonding unintentionally occurs as they fight (physical and emotional punches abound throughout the film). Trust builds as they hesitantly come through for each other, first by helping each other out of Allegra’s trap, then as they are thrown together again by Bucky’s hands to help take down Allegra for good.

Plans quickly change when it turns out that Bob is a secret super hero (so secret that he didn’t even realize it himself) and then becomes the Allegra de Fontaine unstable superhero puppet The Sentry.

And the Thunderbolts are officially formed. Reluctantly, warily, and with great suspicion (or unbridled joy if you’re the Red Guardian), but with the unified goal of saving Bob from Allegra, and the hope that came from Bucky saying from the depths of his soul and way too much experience “The Past Doesn’t Go Away. So You Can Either Live With It Forever…Or Do Something About It.”

Unfortunately for the newly formed band of reluctant heroes, The Sentry proves to be too powerful, causing a quick retreat and even quicker disbanding of the Thunderbolts as they each declare in their own way that they aren’t heroes and storm off. Yelena leads the charge, her perceived failures becoming too much for her, but as is often the case, it’s when she admits she’s in her brokenness (and with the help of her dad) that she starts to see the light again.

The scene’s dialogue doesn’t always land, (the exception being Alexei’s loving and truthful declaration “Yelena, When I Look At You, I Don't See Your Mistakes.") but Florence Pugh and David Harbour elevates it. (I’m not sure how. Chemistry? Skill? Witchcraft? Yeah, I’m going with witchcraft.)

Meanwhile, Allegra de Fontaine realizes she maybe shouldn’t dabble in the art of creation and attempts to tie up another loose end as we are treated to the line “Why would a god take orders from anyone at all?” Delivered so chillingly by Pullman that I may have gotten goosebumps.

A built in kill switch, triggered by Allegra’s faithful-ish assistant Mel (Geraldine Viswanathan) fails (this really isn’t Allegra’s day) and instead of killing Bob, his dark side literally becomes him and we get The Void, a truly chilling character that is Bob's darkest thoughts and feelings given physical form. He's also probably Marvel's most relateable supervillain to date. Because who among us hasn't, at some point or another, looked in the mirror and seen the worst of ourselves reflected back?

The whole movie is a fascinating and gut-wrenching look at regret, grief, PTSD, and depression. Much of the reason it all holds together so well is because of how real and sympathetic those emotions are portrayed on screen—a testament to each actor individually and to the ensemble as a whole.

As The Void takes over and darkness shrouds New York, the Thunderbolts find themselves again as they save as many as they can while in WAY over their heads. It’s giving original Avenger Battle of New York vibes, but on a much smaller scale.

As the darkness spreads, one of the movies most powerful moments unfolds as Yelena steps into the darkness and disappears. You can interpret her motivations how you wish (that’s the cool thing about art!), but for me personally, seeing Yelena look at The Void, close her eyes, and taking a breath before making the choice to step into the unknown represents her finally accepting her brokenness, and every single thing that comes with it, while starting to believe that no one has to stay broken forever. Her stepping into the darkness was an incredible act of courage, and it would have made Natasha proud.

As the movie reaches its climax, it’s from here that Marvel pivots away from it’s usual plan of the superhero beating the villain with their super special powers. Everything falls away and this gigantic movie becomes small, intimate, and infinitely more interesting. Because the heroes don’t save the day with a fight. They save it with acceptance. They all follow Yelena’s lead into the darkness and all have to confront their pasts to find one another again.

(BTW- Yelena asking Bucky if he’s alright and his line “Yeah, I had a great past, I’m fine.” Had me laughing so loudly I got stares from other people in the theatre. What can I say? Trauma based humor is my bread and butter).

Find one another they do, and through it all they manage to find Bob and the moment they need in order to stop The Void. And Marvel pivots again, because as Bob lays into his inky counterpart it isn’t triumph we see. There is no good prevailing over evil in this movie. Captain America doesn’t beat up Nazi’s, Iron Man doesn’t defeat terrorists. Instead, we see the consequences of giving into darker urges up close, as the more Bob beats up The Void, the darker he becomes as well.

It’s Yelena who first fights her way back to Bob after being restrained with the rest of the team by The Void. She spectacularly jumps, flips, and parkours her way to him in a display I genuinely REALLY hope a stunt performer got to do, because it’s freaking impressive and I don’t want it to be fake!

Yelena reaches Bob and…… Hugs him. She reassures him that she’s there, that she isn’t going anywhere, and she hugs him. It’s the most human thing a superhero has ever done in a Marvel movie, and it’s brilliant. Because the truth is you can’t attack that kind of darkness with violence. That just attracts more darkness, doesn’t it?

The two person hug quickly becomes a group hug as the rest of the Thunderbolts fight their way to Yelena and Bob, and I may or may not have started crying here. The Void retreats, not fully beaten, just beaten back, but it’s enough for now as New York and all the people who were pulled into it come back into the light.

It’s a gorgeous metaphor and a huge risk for Marvel to have taken. We, as an audience, have become used to the Marvel world of black and white. Good and evil. Clear lines that we can escape into because we live in a mostly gray world. But by giving us a bunch of hero’s who not only struggle with very normal issues (born from some admittedly abnormal circumstances), but use that new found sense of family born from those feelings, Marvel has given us hero’s that we can relate to in ways that we just couldn’t in our favorite first avenger, self sacrificing genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist, big green guy, black widow, or sharp shooter.

The New Avengers are impeccably imperfect, wonderfully human, perfectly freaking cast, and they saved the world with a group hug. Honestly, what’s not to like?