Marvel’s ‘Thunderbolts*’ Review – The Bob-In-The-Box Club
Thunderbolts* is a strange superhero film: While its anti-hero dynamic puts a dysfunctional spin on the Guardians of the Galaxy/Suicide Squad-style narrative of ‘a bunch of outcasts find refuge and redemption by working together as a team’, what makes the film’s writing truly interesting is that fact that it doesn’t feature any traditional ‘group’ development.
Instead, what brings these band of Marvel black ops agents together is loss.
Directed by Jake Schreier (Netflix’s Beef, Showtime’s Kidding) based on a script from Eric Pearson (Transformers One, Black Widow) and Joanna Calo (The Bear, Bojack Horseman), Thunderbolts* documents the emptiness surrounding the newly christened White Widow, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), who still hasn’t recovered from her sister Natasha’s death and as such has found herself simply ‘going through the motions’ while working for the wetwork Ox Group, as led by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus).
Sick of killing people and performing villainous tasks for money, a fateful visit with her father figure Alexai Shostakov (David Harbour), a.k.a. the Red Guardian, inspires Yelena to go straight and attempt to be a hero.
Unfortunately for her, de Fontaine is currently being investigated by the government and is on the verge of being impeached, and unbeknownst to the fledgling hero, her last assignment is simply a trap meant to allow the Nick Fury hopeful to tie up all her loose ends and get rid of the evidence against her – including not only Yelena herself, but also U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), and a man plagued with memory loss named Bob (Lewis Pullman).
Of course, this unlikely band of brothers and sisters eventually join up to form the titular Thunderbolts – and while the film’s ‘unity in loss’ theme is interesting, the same cannot be said for its cast
In terms of individual losses, Yelena is searching for something to fill the emptiness inside of her. Alexei hasn’t been Red Guardian since the events of Black Widow and now drives a red limo for a job, having completely lost whatever remained of his already dwindling super-soldier status. Bucky (Sebastian Stan) has been dabbling in Congress, but he’s kind of floundered around since Sam Wilson became the new Captain America (and also not-so-secretly taking part in the de Fontaine impeachment investigation, searching for concrete evidence the only way The Winter Soldier can).
Speaking of, U.S. Agent is still in denial about being no longer the next in line to officially wield the shield, and as such starts the film masking his season ending loss of everything in Falcon and the Winter Soldier by walking around like he’s someone who has everything going for him. As for Ghost, she no longer struggles to control her powers or her molecular status, but she does struggle with finding a purpose in this film, as though she engages in some fighting and bickering with her teammates, none of it adds much to the film.
Meanwhile, de Fontaine is on the verge of losing everything she’s been trying to build. As for Bob, he’s always been alone, his failure to make friends leaving a void inside of him that quite literally becomes a plot device later in the film.
On the topic of Bob, in a reveal that is likely not difficult to figure out (especially thanks to Marvel Studios’ habit of leaking their own twists via merchandise listings), there’s more to him than Thunderbolts* lets on.
Without fully spoiling the direction in which the film takes his character, Bob possesses the power to see someone’s memories with physical touch. Unfortunately, while this ability allows for interesting reveals regarding certain characters’ pasts, Thunderbolts* never really goes too deep in exploring the consequences of his powers, even when Bob decides to share a bit more about what he’s gone through.
Notably, Bob’s power gives an Inception kind of element to the finale of Thunderbolts*, albeit with the mental battle being depicted more as a ‘battle with inner demons’ than it is an all out CGI slugfest, as the team crashes through various dreamscapes whose physics are altered every time the sequence’s perspective transitions to a new character (usually going back-and-forth between Yelena and Bob).
Ultimately, the film’s entertainment value is mostly centered on just how unlikely these shoehorned ‘heroes’ are to team-up and their attempts to navigate their rough edges after being trapped together in the same building, asking viewers to follow them as they initially start off being too stubborn to work together before eventually learning how flawed one another is and allowing themselves to work together as a decent team.
There isn’t a ton of depth to Thunderbolts*, but it’s fun for what it is and is much more enjoyable than Captain America: Brave New World (and interestingly, like Sam Wilson’s solo outing, this film also serves as set-up for a new Avengers-like team in the next phase of the MCU).
And at the end of the day, the film is purely worth seeing for Bob. The character has serious potential, and Lewis Pullman has a clueless charm in his performance that contrasts with his role one of the most powerful characters in the MCU.
Thunderbolts* is loaded with ass-kicking awesomeness. Florence Pugh is outstanding, and Bob is the coolest character to come along in the MCU in a long, long time. Let it be known Antiheroes are finally fun again.
Thunderbolts* (2025), Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
PROS
- Bob
- David Harbour's chemistry with Florence Pugh
- The Void sequences
- Bucky on a motorcycle
- The finale
CONS
- Swaps depth for darkness
- Some characters feel aimless
- Everyone seems to be trying to out anithero everybody else and it gets redundant
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