REVIEW BY: Kurt Morrison - 5/01/25

RATING 3.5 out of 5

Call me a cynic, and simply because I keep getting burned by these Marvel films, but I was not excited for Thunderbolts*. As I was speaking to my wife, gone are the days of a first weekend of May Marvel film feeling like an event. I even reminded her that 9 years ago today we started dating and Captain America: Civil War hit theatres, and that felt like a truly monumental blockbuster film event. The world was buzzing.

Now, I know I know, I’m being harsh and I think it might be because I am still grossly offended by how bad Captain America: Brave New World was but for every one Deadpool & Wolverine, we have to suffer through a gauntlet featuring Brave New World, Eternals, The Marvels and 10 television shows that feel irrelevant to the big picture.

Oversaturation killed the Marvel brand, and quite frankly I know why they are racing towards Avengers: Doomsday………… Because nostalgia sells. And they deeply need a billion dollar buzzsaw to reinvigorate this brand as a whole.

So even before going into Thunderbolts*, I figured this was going to be ….. mid. A puff piece to chat about for the next 364 days (Literally, that’s the count til Doomsday). But what I got was above expectations, only after a post-watch sit-down and discussion.

Thunderbolts* feels like a mish-mash of characters that have come and gone in the prior films and phases. Some are obviously more memorable or recognizable than others, like Yelena Bulova - played by the wonderful Florence Pugh - along with one of my personal MCU favourites Bucky Barnes aka The Winter Soldier, once again played by oscar nominee Sebastian Stan. While characters like Ghost circa 2018’s Ant-Man and The Wasp, The Red Guardian from Black Widow, US Agent John Walker of Falcon and The Winter Soldier’s single season reign are all additions to this group of misfits as the film carries along.

The task is simple for our lead Yelena, whom the film starts and mostly centers around. Follow your unknown target to a secret facility run by CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine and kill them. What happens next unfolds a much larger conspiracy and mission, as Yelena begins to realize that she, along with the others who were sent there, have been duped by Fontaine.

The film is bolstered by Pugh’s performance, as we slowly have come to accept her as the new Black Widow. Pugh packs a solid punch, both physically and emotionally during the film. I like Florence, I really do. I don’t want a replacement for Scarlett’s Natasha, I want this version - smartass, witty, a firecracker in her own rite and I think this role was meant to be that stepping stone for her to become one of the new ‘big faces of the MCU’ along with Anthony Mackie’s Cap.

We find Yelena at a crossroads in her life. Wounded mentally and trying to find purpose in her day-to-day life. It was a somber step back to the film after her quick charm and fighting capabilities are put on full display in the first ten minutes of the film. Using her Black Widow training in the ‘red rooms’ as a jump-off point to further understanding the traumas she has endured and also put herself through, the film's motives and themes drastically change when the exploration of mental health, depression and addiction come at us full force. It’s a very unique change of pace for a big budget Marvel film, and although the exploration with other characters like Alexei Shostakov’s Red Guardian and John Walker kind of get lost in the mix and don’t work at all, the film’s anatomy for writing such a heavy topic never wavers, especially during it’s introduction to Lewis Pullman’s Robert Reynolds aka Sentry.

Folks, I’m going to get real honest with you and let me call this a deep dive into my psyche if you’ll allow it, but I am a recovering addict. I used to be very ashamed and angry at this part of me; angry at this void I had inside of me, and never being able to understand or control it.

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I never told anyone about it unless they already knew because they’ve been around for years and probably seen that version of me. I was forever in hiding of that side of me - My lingering dark passenger.