Thunderbolts* (2025)

Thunderbolts* has a lot to achieve coming just three months after Captain America: Brave New World stunk out cinemas and I was hoping that this would be where the Marvel films would start to get back on its feet after several years of mainly below average stories with the exception being the third Guardians film and the Deadpool & Wolverine film. The set up of the film is Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), John Walker (Wyatt Russell) and Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen) are sent separately to a bunker at the request of Valentina Allegra de Fontaine who is trying to survive an impeachment hearing and so in an attempt to get rid of any evidence she tries to kill them and along with Bob (Lewis Pullman) trying just survive. Bucky Barnes who is now a politician (briefly seen in Captain America: Brave New World) collects them in an attempt to testify against de Fontaine but they soon form a new avengers. Bob has been tested on and his dark side becomes the villain.

My worry about this film being pointless was unfounded because the film ends with a post end scene where the Fantastic Four ship appears with a MASSIVE ‘4’ symbol on it. The film does enough to set up future films while feeling like it's a standalone film which is something I liked a lot. Florence Pugh is very good as Yelena. Her character starts off as someone who is aimless and does jobs but never really seems to get any fulfillment from those jobs. There are moments of humour from her but her development over the course of the film is good to watch. David Harbour is the comic relief in a film which has more than a subtle Guardians vibe running through it. Harbour is funny and did get more than a couple of chuckles out of me. The dynamic between the two is quite charming and lovely to watch. I did quite like the character of Bob and thought that Lewis Pullman played him very well. The dark Bob might not have been the strongest villain but I thought that played against nice Bob he came across as perhaps the darkest villain in a Marvel film for quite some time.

There are some things that don't quite work. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is usually pretty reliable but here it does feel like de Fontaine is a placeholder villain and her character feels a bit of a weak link. Of course she isn't supposed to be the main focus of the film but it doesn't feel like we would miss anything if her character got cut from the film. Another issue was Hannah John-Kamen’s character who came across as particularly likeable and in those early stages when they are supposed to be snippy with each other, it just didn't come across as someone that we should care about. Even though she did mellow a bit as the film progressed I think she got forgotten about.

This is by far the best post-Endgame Marvel film although that is a pretty low bar to clear. Only Deadpool & Wolverine and Guardians of the Galaxy 3 have been anywhere near good and this is by far the best in terms of feeling like a solid Marvel film. The characters work well together, the villain is pretty decent by Marvel standards and the action scenes are so much better than the ones in Captain America it's scary they came out the same year. I don't know if this film means that Marvel are back to where they were in 2019 but a few more films like this and we could be back to good Marvel.