Thunderbolts* review: Florence Pugh shines in Marvel's emotional return to form
Welcome back, MCU!
Following a lukewarm response to February’s Captain America: Brave New World, could a ragtag bunch of failed heroes and jaded villains be the answer to turning around the critical and financial fortunes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
The signs look rosier with this welcome return to the amusingly fractious action antics that made the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy so entertaining and watchable.
Indeed, it is the absence of the Avengers that continues to loom over the world, much to the glee of Machiavellian new CIA Director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis Dreyfus), who has been gathering power in the shadows since the character’s debut in 2021’s Black Widow.
Her pawns in these off-the-books schemes include spy (and sister of Black Widow) Yelena Belova (a delightfully deadpan Florence Pugh, last seen in the Hawkeye Disney+ TV show), disgraced Captain America replacement John Walker (Wyatt Russell), intangible assassin Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and the ability-mimicking Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko).
However, the first meeting of the querulous quartet at a secret vault out in the desert is nearly their last as their energetic attempts to kill each other are stalled by their battleground turning into a death trap.
Fortunately for them, Yelena’s surrogate father the Red Guardian – a slobbish Russian super-soldier, played with infectious gusto by David Harbour – is on hand for a quick-ish getaway in his ramshackle limo, although it is the timely and thunderous intervention of brooding, bionic-armed Bucky Barnes that forces these “defective losers” to team up or die.
Fresh from his Oscar nomination for playing Donald Trump in The Apprentice, Sebastian Stan returns as super-soldier Bucky (aka the Winter Soldier), who knows a thing or two about redemption after decades as a brainwashed Soviet assassin.
A veteran MCU character, who made his debut in Captain America: the First Avenger in 2011, Bucky is now a US Congressman, who’s been keeping an eye on Val’s shady machinations but soon realises he may need the battered bunch’s help.
There are some cracking action scenes (the desert chase, the battle at the old Avengers Tower) but there is also a mournful, almost meditative air to proceedings as the group grapple with their grief and regret, while trying to withstand the devastating power of an unexpected adversary (making his debut in the MCU).
Better known for thoughtful dramas like Robot and Frank (2012) and Paper Towns (2015), director Jake Schreier has gone for a muted look to reflect the ambivalence and trauma of his characters. However, he also produces a deft balance of action, spectacle (the Mission Impossible-style opening scene), character-driven interplay and bluff repartee that harks back to the franchise in its pre-Endgame heyday.
Just as Marvel set up the first Avengers film by bringing together superheroes from previous movies, the audience has been able to see all these characters – or “Thunderbolts” as Red Guardian is desperate to call them – in the likes of Black Widow, Ant-Man and the Wasp and TV series Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Florence Pugh’s cool star quality is undeniable but the top-notch cast has a chance to shine, too, delivering genuine chemistry and emotion as a sepulchral darkness falls over New York.
It would also be remiss not to flag up a post-credit scene paving the way to next year’s all-star smackdown Avengers: Doomsday.
Welcome back, MCU!
Thunderbolts is released in UK cinemas on Thursday 1st May 2025.
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