Thunderbolts* Movie Review

The Marvel Superhero Team With An Asterisk

First of all, let me tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed the Thunderbolts* movie. It is possibly the best MCU movie in several years. I’ll get into why I think that in a bit, but let me first explain the non-spoiler reasons first, just in case you have not seen the film yet.

By the way, the asterisk after the film name is actually part of the movie title. I’ll explain in the spoiler-filled second part of the review.

Thunderbolts* Movie Poster

Thoughts on the Thunderbolts* (mostly positive, plus a few negatives):

1. Anything with Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova is worth enjoying. There, I said it. I am a FloPugh fanboy.

2. The chemistry and interactions between Yelena (FloPugh) and her “dad” Red Guardian (David Harbour) are excellent. Both funny and seriously emotional.

3. I have a weak spot for superhero team-up stories, especially when it is not a “natural,” or “organic” meeting of the principal characters.

4. While very different from the original comic book version of the first Thunderbolts team (which I loved back in the late 1990s when it happened), this group’s origin is interesting and well-done.

5. We do NOT see a typical MCU villain chewing up New York. The antagonists in this story are very different and this aspect of the film is original and well crafted. A different type of antagonist in the MCU is a very good thing.

6. The end credit scenes are fun and…Wow! Definitely setting up the big events of the MCU’s future.

7. Bucky, the Winter Soldier has a prominent role here. Anything with the Winter Soldier is great. He connects the film to the MCU’s past, the original Captain America, and the Avengers. He is a strong connective tendon to the body of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Plus Sebastian Stan is great!

8. The script has strong emotional moments (which are well-acted), great comic moments (which are well-delivered by the actors), and a (slight spoiler here) a very surprising death.

9. The Thunderbolts team is made up of, in some cases, leftover characters and antagonists from other MCU projects. This is making good use of these characters and giving them a chance to develop. It seems that the MCU creates storylines and characters that they either fail to move forward with, or are brought up again, very much later (i.e. the giant Celestial in the middle of the ocean in the Eternals (2021) which does not come back as a plot point until Captain America 4 (2025).

10. Great acting all around.

11. The Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) character has popped up in several other MCU projects, and this film brings it all together. She rocks this role! She was born to be a baddie!

12. Marvel is known for sneaking characters in who later prove to be significant. Valentina’s assistant, Mel (no last name given in the film) is working for the bad guys, but develops a conscience. Also, she wears a necklace with what looks like a bird. Again, referencing the original comic book version of the Thunderbolts, there is a former villain (who develops a conscience) turned hero named Mel (for Melissa) Gold whose hero codename is “Songbird.” There are no coincidences in Marvel movies. I bet dollars to doughnuts that THIS Mel later becomes a super-powered hero called Songbird! I really hope this is so…

Poster based on Thunderbolts* Standee Found in Theaters. Also references the end-credit scene

Ok, here now, are the more spoiler-filled thoughts on this film, both good and bad:

1. In the aforementioned death, early in the movie, the soon-to-be Thunderbolts are lured in by Valentina to kill each other. Yelena figures out they have all been set up by Valentina, but not before Ghost kills Taskmaster. Geez! Didn’t see that one coming! This was one of the characters I was looking forward to seeing develop more! I see why they did this (to add suspense, as in, who ELSE might die?) but I did not like this character's death at all!

2. Also in the negative column, no mention or sight of the following characters from prior shows that connect to team members:

   1. No Baron Zemo! I really hoped to see at least a cameo of this guy from Captain America: Civil War and the Falcon and Winter Soldier show. In the comics, Zemo was the founder of the original Thunderbolts, after all. Sigh!

   2. No Bill Foster (AKA Goliath). Mentor to Ghost and former science partner to Michael Douglas’ Hank Pym character. Seen last in the Ant-Man and the Wasp movie.

   3. Also no Melina! Yelena’s “mom” and Red Guardian’s “wife.” I really expected to see her in some capacity.

3. On the good side, the premise of Valentina’s work to create a new superhero (that she could control), was the absence of the old Avengers. This is similar to the origin of the comics’ Thunderbolts, in that Zemo created a team of fake heroes to replace the Avengers and other heroes who had seemingly died in the Marvel Comics Universe.

   1. Also on the plus side (in a funny sort of way), is how Valentina tricked everyone into accepting the new team as the “New Avengers.” Again, similar in some ways to the original comics.

4. The Sentry as a new character is well-done and fits in with the comic book version. Very mentally unstable, Bob Reynolds is also potentially the most powerful person in the world. The way this movie addresses mental illness, depression, and, to a point, alcoholism, is something new for the MCU, but with this bunch of misfits, it feels real for these characters to have lived this reality. This theme permeates the film, and helps set it apart (in a great way), from most of the rest of the MCU. It is similar in ways to the Moon Knight show, as that character also had some mental health issues. Hey…he may be a great next member for this “New Avengers” team!

The *New Avengers

There are many other points I could make based on my first viewing of this movie, but this is supposed to be an article, not a book. One last comment though. The final end credits scene is very, very significant! Basically this reveals the entrance of the Fantastic Four to the MCU!!!!! Watch the movie yourself and don’t leave the theater early to find out the details.

There you have it folks. My opinions on the Thunderbolts* movie. Oh yes, the asterisk…the running joke in the movie is how this group of losers was sarcastically named after Yelena’s pathetic youth soccer league team-West Chesapeake Valley Thunderbolts-until Red Guardian (“dad”) heard it, and enthusiastically started calling his new team “The Thunderbolts!” In the end, after Valentina tricked the team into showing at her impromptu news conference, she dubbed them the “New Avengers.” So, it seems that the Thunderbolts name may not show up again.

If you saw the movie, what do YOU think?

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