• Release year: 2025
• Director: Jake Schreier.
• Producers: Kevin Feige.
• Screenplay by: Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo.
• Cinematography by: Andrew Droz Palermo.
• Music by: Son Lux.

Shotgun Commentary: Lana Del Rey’s version of The Avengers (2012).

Review

Thunderbolts* is the latest instalment in the MCU. It serves as an introduction for a new group of superheroes that will take part in a bigger superhero collab in the coming years. While all the characters, minus Bob (Lewis Pullman), have been previously introduced, the team-up itself is new. A new flavour of superhero team that seems like the perfect evolution to the cynic times we live in. A team less vanilla than The Avengers, but significantly more well-adjusted than The Seven (The Boys, 2019 – present).

Familiar faces

The feature opens with the unofficial main character of the film, Yelena (Florence Pugh), having an existential crisis. The sequence follows a pattern that seems to have got some traction lately, generally used for all “nice killers”. Essentially, the killer will do small talk like everything is fine, until the audience is shown a brutal murder scene, and you learn that everything was, indeed, not fine. Just a few days ago, another film with the same character introduction was released, The Accountant 2 (2025).

After this cute but average intro, the movie moves on to introduce everyone else, including long-time fan-favourite James Buchanan Barnes, aka Bucky, aka The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan). Now, one wishes we could be shocked and confused at the fact that a clearly mentally-unstable man with a huge body count and zero ability to speak in public has made it to US congressman. But let’s be honest, there are currently worse people in the US government right now. Still, much like with everything else in this film, it’s better that you just roll with it, it’s not going to last long anyway.

Sh*ts and giggles: the movie

The rest of the characters are very efficiently introduced in a single scene that puts them all together in a death chamber trying to kill each other. Thus sparing you a painfully-long and pointless power struggle to figure out who is the best assassin. Overall, the story is quite practical, its goal is to introduce the characters, particularly Bob, and the new chaotic team-up. With this in mind, the film is great. Sadly, it does feel a lot like a long intro, leaving you confused and looking for a third, and potentially even second, act that never comes. Not to fear, though, they got their best comedians to distract you from that.

If this new instalment is anything, it is funny. There is nothing like watching a bunch of terminal assholes trying to get along, especially when they are self-aware. After the great success that Marvel experienced when they turned Drax (Guardians of the Galaxy, 2014) into a gradually more brainless comic relief in each instalment, the formula is being repeated with Red Guardian (David Harbour). The man started like a killing machine who doesn’t understand basic feelings and has lost his family, and he is now a brainless chunk of meat whose favourite pastime is to embarrass his teammates. Exactly, a human Drax.

A new ship sails

Still, not everything is lost in the character department. The rest of the teammates do seem to have a slow but interesting evolution, especially Yelena, who seems to be rising as a gen-Z Black Widow. Her character, while similar to the Widow portrayed by Scarlett Johansson, deals with her traumatic past vastly differently. Her ability to connect and express her feelings make her not only stray from becoming a cheap copy of Johansson’s character, but also get closer to Bob, with whom she connects over their “darkness”. And yes, this relationship is most definitely for every who is, or ever was, an intense teenager.

Bob itself is like a meta version of one of the most popular Marvel characters: Bucky. The “handsome and kind but also very broken and disturbing” archetype that has worked so well for the brand has finally found their ultimate product: Bob. Bob is essentially a nuclear warhead with the looks of a golden retriever puppy. His character is the ultimate expression of that superhero contradiction that sells so well. Is it a lost puppy? An even more golden version of Homelander? Pure darkness? Why choose when you can have Bob!

All in all, Thunderbolts* is definitely the funniest instalment of the MCU in years. Despite the frustrating feeling of watching an unfinished story, the feature proves that the MCU is getting wind of what sells and trying to do better with it. An experiment that works better or worse, but is still successful enough to keep fans wanting more.

Thanks to Disney for big-screen access! Thunderbolts* will be released the 1st of May.

Advice to take from this movie:

• There is nothing more easily relatable than a character that has no problem saying out loud what everybody is thinking.
• There IS such thing as too much gold.
• Beware the hairstyles of your characters. Get it wrong enough and your audience won’t be able to focus on anything else.

What’s your take? Have you watched Thunderbolts*? Don’t hesitate to let me know your thoughts in the comments section below, or leave a message in my contact page! For more reviews and cinema-related articles, check out the rest of my blog! 😀