Quality over quantity: Thunderbolts kicks some serious ass-terisk!

Daily Maverick

23-05-2025

In a world without the Avengers, Marvel's most dysfunctional team assembles in Thunderbolts*. But can this ragtag group save both themselves and the MCU? With this emotionally grounded, chemistry driven effort, chances are good.
It's kind of ironic that Thunderbolts* has an asterisk in its title. Much has been made about the inclusion of this mysterious bit of punctuation — which, though clarified now, won't be spoiled here — and yet this feels like the first Marvel Cinematic Universe release in a while that shouldn't have it.
Even if you haven't been one to declare the franchise dead like some doomsayers, as of late if you described a Marvel Comics Universe (MCU) production as entertaining*, that little star indicated a footnote caveat about '*painfully rushed CGI', '*jarringly obvious reshoots', '*terrible miscasting', or some or other such clumsy misstep that brought down the overall experience. With Thunderbolts* though, there's no footnote needed. It's just really good.
I would be remiss not to mention that this is the first MCU big screen effort fully developed and produced since the Disney Powers-That-Be pivoted away from the previous regime's franchise maximising strategy to a much-appreciated 'quality over quantity' approach, and it shows. A lot of that success comes from the team Marvel boss Kevin Feige has assembled here.
Behind the camera, there's a surprising amount of critically acclaimed indie talent (so irreverently poked fun at in the film's own trailers) in the form of director Jake Schreier (Beef, Paper Towns), co-writer Joanna Calo (Beef, The Bear), and cinematographer Andrew Droz Palermo (The Green Knight, A Ghost Story), with the only big budget comic book experience coming from co-writer Eric Pearson (Thor: Ragnarok, Black Widow).
On screen, we have a ragtag group of B- and C-listers that, for the most part, were the leftovers of other bigger titles: Black Widow's little sister Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), the short-lived Captain America replacement John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ant-Man and the Wasp villain Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Black Widow antagonist Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), Yelena's over-the-hill surrogate father Red Guardian (David Harbour), and ex-Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan).
The result is a film that most starkly reminds of the first Guardians of the Galaxy, as we get a dysfunctional 'team' of relatively unknown and scrappy underdogs, thrust into a name-making story filled with far more emotional gravitas than all the funny hijinks would have you believe.
And it all kicks off when Yelena, Walker, Ghost, and Taskmaster — all of whom had been quietly performing various black ops missions for shady CIA string-puller Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss) — find themselves thrown together in a mysterious vault with conflicting orders that put them at each other's respective throats. Interrupting the ensuing melee, though, is the appearance of Bob (Lewis Pullman), the mild-mannered but troubled young man who seemingly appears out of nowhere and who has no idea how he got there.
Forced to work together (with much hilarious bickering) to get themselves and Bob out of a deadly trap, the group uncover a threat that pulls in both Bucky and Red Guardian as well. And with the Avengers no longer around, who else is there to step into the breach when this threat turns into a mass-murdering nightmare? That's if they can actually agree on anything, including what the name of their team should be!
If that sounds like an uproariously fun odd couple comic book adventure, it's because it is.
Wyatt Russell's dickish John Walker and David Harbour's cringe-dad Red Guardian bring the biggest laughs, but the entire cast shows off strong comic timing, bolstered by chemistry just exploding off the screen. That is, when the charismatic witticisms aren't being upstaged by the actual explosions.
Despite never having dabbled in the genre before, Schreier directs some fantastic action sequences. Yes, some of it goes for elaborate cool points instead of just simple efficacy. However, just like the recent Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts has taken a page from the franchise highlight Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
The editing and cinematography are purposefully restrained here, allowing the physically gifted performers to showcase some spectacular but remarkably grounded action choreography. Well, as grounded as a skull-faced mercenary brandishing a shield and sword fighting a gun-toting incorporeal techno-thief can be.
And even when events ramp up considerably in the film's back half, and the scariest baddie currently in the MCU starts tearing through the cityscape, Schreier and co never let you feel like you're just watching CGI rubber dolls slamming together on screen, or watching floating heads superimposed onto a digital landscape. It's all very tactile, very human.
In fact, it's exactly because Thunderbolts* keeps that tangible humanity so firmly in focus that it's elevated beyond being just a fun two-hour diversion. Schreier and his writers understand that this is a group of very broken people whose wildly spinning moral compasses have resulted in their personal isolations. At one point, Yelena jokes that none of them can fly, but how could they when they're being weighed down so much by the bloodshed and tragedies of their pasts? How do you save the world when you can't even save yourself from the gnawing void in your core? How do you punch your way out of a depression?
And it's here where the casting of Pugh shines. A dryly hilarious contrast to Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow, Pugh's take on Yelena has always been an acerbic delight. In every Marvel production she's shown up in, she's been a perennial scene-stealer. In Thunderbolts* though, you also get clearly reminded of why she's an Oscar-nominated dramatic actress with a mantlepiece filled with statues as she fully plumbs the depths of Yelena's emotions. It's some of the best character work the MCU has seen in a while. And she's not alone.
By now, most of you reading this would have already known who Lewis Pullman's 'Bob' really is, as Marvel hasn't been all that tightfisted with this secret. Even so, Schreier and Pullman's take on this comic book character is fantastic, running the full gamut from heartbreaking to horrifying, with the actor nailing it all. The rest of the cast are not far behind at all when it comes to thespian chops, with special mention for Julia Louis-Dreyfuss turning Valentina into a person you just love to hate.
It's that level of outstanding work to make you root for and want to spend more time with these characters, despite their cracks, that is truly the film's secret weapon.
Thunderbolts* is so good at it that if nobody had told you any different, you would swear that this is the start of an exciting new phase in the MCU. Instead, Fantastic Four: First Steps is just around the corner, kicking off the arc that will lead to the phase-ending Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
Whether that all climaxes in a widescale reboot of the MCU just like the comics is still up for debate, but whatever narrative direction Kevin Feige and his brain trust have decided on, it had better include the Thunderbolts*. DM