Review: THUNDERBOLTS* Is Not Only a Great Marvel Movie, It's One of the Best Films of the Year!
Marvel’s Thunderbolts* is easily one of the best Marvel films to be released in a very long time, in fact, I’d say it’s easily one of the best films of the year! At least, I think it is! I walked out of the theater with that feeling I haven’t had in a long time from a Marvel film, I was in awe.
For me, this movie hit all the right notes. Great story, strong character development, an outstanding script, killer action sequences, and some of the best performances the MCU has delivered in years.
This is what top-tier Marvel storytelling looks like! Honestly, if you’ve been waiting for that spark to come back, the one we all felt during Marvel’s peak years, this is it.
I know a lot of people are already saying it’s the best Marvel movie since Avengers: Endgame, and I completely agree. But for me personally, Captain America: The Winter Soldier has always been my gold standard, and Thunderbolts* stands right alongside it. I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.
While the movie is packed with intense action and a ton of fun and comedic moments, what really pulled me in were the emotional layers built into each character. The film digs deep into who these characters are and what’s weighing on them.
There’s a heavy focus on mental health that felt genuine and honest, something that isn’t often handled with this much care in superhero movies. It made the story feel much more personal and meaningful.
Thunderbolts* spends time exploring trauma, how it shapes people, how it haunts them, and how they cope with it (or don’t). Every character is dealing with some kind of darkness, and the way the movie allows each of them to process that, sometimes ugly, sometimes inspiring, gave the whole thing a real emotional weight. It didn’t just ask me to root for them as heroes, it asked me to understand them as people.
It’s messy, it’s painful, and it’s handled with a surprising amount of care. Watching these characters try to pull themselves out of their own darkness made the story land even harder because you actually care about what's at stake for them personally.
Another thing I loved is how the movie kept things smaller in scale, but it felt big because of what the characters were dealing with emotionally. It’s not about saving the world from destruction, it’s about saving each other.
The villain, Bob (aka The Sentry, aka The Void), is handled in a way that feels completely fresh. Without giving anything away, it’s not the kind of climactic battle you’d expect from Marvel. It’s smarter, more psychological, and it made the story land even harder. It was a creative risk, and it absolutely paid off.
The story is set in a world without Avengers, there’s still a need for heroes... or at least something like them. Enter the Thunderbolts, Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, Red Guardian, Ghost, Taskmaster, and US Agent, a group of disillusioned misfits wrangled together by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.
After getting trapped in a brutal setup by Val herself, they’re forced onto a mission that challenges them to either destroy each other or find a way to build something better. It’s intense, entertaining, and filled with character moments that actually stick.
As for the cast, they knocked it out of the park. Florence Pugh gave her best Marvel performance yet as Yelena, really leaning into the emotional scars of her past. She was awesome in this movie!
Sebastian Stan was phenomenal as Bucky, David Harbour brought the big comedic moments, and Hannah John-Kamen, Wyatt Russell, Lewis Pullman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Olga Kurylenko all brought their A-game as well.
Director Jake Schreier and writers Eric Pearson and Kurt Busiek clearly poured a lot of heart into this film, and it shows. I applaud the creative team for giving us a Marvel movie that’s not just good… it’s freakin’ great!