Thunderbolts* (2025) Review

Absolutely no one should be surprised to hear that Thunderbolts* is another film about broken people who must band together to save the world. That blueprint has been a fixture of pop cinema since at least The Dirty Dozen, and Marvel’s own Guardians of the Galaxy already gave us that formula with more colour, more charm, and arguably more dancing. But what Thunderbolts* manages to do, rather unexpectedly, is mine real emotional depth from a collection of second-stringers: characters largely remembered for filling out supporting casts in previous MCU entries.

Directed by Jake Schreier (Beef), Thunderbolts* brings together Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), along with the addition of Bob (Lewis Pullman), a quietly compelling figure who becomes something of a moral compass. They’re pulled into a morally murky black ops mission under the command of CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus with the kind of bone-dry menace you might expect if Veep’s Selina Meyer ever got access to drone strikes.

Where so many recent Marvel films have felt like content rather than cinema – bits of lore and set-up disguised as stories – Thunderbolts works hard to feel like a film first. It isn’t always successful. There’s still that inescapable MCU house style, and yes, a few too many moments feel like they’re auditioning for future spin-offs. But Schreier’s film at least makes an effort to have something to say. It’s a film about mental health, about grief, guilt, and the loneliness of being defined solely by what you’ve done wrong.

Florence Pugh remains the franchise’s most reliable post-Endgame star. Her Yelena, still reeling from the death of her sister, is given more emotional weight than the standard Marvel fare usually allows, and she runs with it. David Harbour’s Red Guardian is played with just enough pathos to keep him from descending into self-parody. Wyatt Russell gets a redemption arc that is more compelling than anything The Falcon and the Winter Soldier managed to offer. And Pullman’s Bob quietly steals the film, giving us a character who’s less super and more human, but not in the usual, wisecracking sense. His storyline carries genuine heart.

The action is serviceable, if not especially memorable. There’s no standout set piece, but the final confrontation veers intriguingly into the surreal, swerving away from the standard Marvel third act fireworks show. This is a welcome reprieve. If the film’s great villain is meant to be the system, or perhaps the cynicism baked into the MCU machine itself, then Bob, Yelena and their crew are the last-minute course correction.

Does it still have to service the wider franchise? Absolutely. But within those restrictions, Thunderbolts* finds some room to breathe. It remembers that character should come before canon, that not every beat needs a callback, and that sometimes you can say something meaningful without shouting. No, it doesn’t reinvent the wheel. But after years of spinning that wheel pointlessly, it finally feels like Marvel has found some direction again.

Movie Rating:

Thunderbolts* is out on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray™, DVD and Limited-Edition Steelbook® from 4th August

Thunderbolts* trailer