Thunderbolts* is the reset Marvel needed
Florence Pugh in a superhero movie about depression just might save the MCU
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Once upon a time, the Marvel Cinematic Universe thrived on a simple premise: Introduce quirky, likable characters in one property, then have them unite for a big but still self-contained crossover spectacular that maybe had a little something to say about the human condition. Marvel movies have never been high-art—even by superhero standards—but they used to be reliably fun, stylish entertainment.
That all changed after Avengers: Endgame, however, as Marvel entered what Ringer critic Joanna Robinson has dubbed its “triage era.” The pandemic, the death of Chadwick Boseman, the abuse allegations against Jonathan Majors, and the 2023 Hollywood strikes coincided with Marvel’s overambitious attempt to revolutionize its business model by adding a whole roster of Disney+ TV shows into the mix. Suddenly the studio’s “make it up as you go along” philosophy all but collapsed in on itself, resulting in a bunch of messy, heavily reshot movies and TV shows that could barely tell cohesive internal stories, let alone keep up with the universe’s wider continuity.
Even the biggest commercial successes of this triage era (Spider-Man: No Way Home, Deadpool & Wolverine) mostly just relied on nostalgia for other, better eras of superhero filmmaking, which was depressing in its own way. So when Marvel’s latest project, Thunderbolts*, opens with Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova standing on top of a building, talking about how nothing matters, and then jumping off, you get it. She’s on a mission and she’s got a parachute, but the point still stands. The vibes have been weird these past five years—both for Marvel as a studio and for the world at large. And maybe the only way to work through that reality is to acknowledge it.
In fact, Thunderbolts* does a lot of meta acknowledging about where the studio is at these days, not to mention what it’s like to be alive in this doomscrolling era of late-stage capitalism and political corruption. But it also does something else too. In delivering a team-up story about a bunch of loser superheroes, it somehow manages to recapture the spirit of the original MCU better than any other property of the post-Endgame era. Instead of another messy act of brand extension, Thunderbolts* is the first Marvel project in a long time that feels like an actual movie.
The early MCU throwback vibe is clearly intentional. Much of the final act takes place on the same New York City locations as 2012’s The Avengers, and the “Thunderbolts” team is basically a fucked-up mirror universe riff on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. There’s Red Room-trained assassin Yelena, who was introduced as Natasha Romanoff’s sister in the Black Widow movie. Yelena’s “dad” Alexei (David Harbour) is the former Soviet super soldier Red Guardian who now spends his days eating junk food in his boxers. Officious, self-absorbed veteran John Walker (Wyatt Russell) was briefly enlisted as the new Captain America in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, while traumatized science experiment Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen) was the sympathetic villain of Ant-Man and the Wasp. And reliable MCU stalwart Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) is back in the mix as a freshman Congressman trying to make a difference legally for once.
If you don’t remember who all those characters are or whether or not you’ve seen them before, don’t worry. The specifics don’t really matter here. The Thunderbolts are a ragtag group of antihero misfits in the vein of the Guardians of the Galaxy or the DCEU’s Suicide Squad. The joke is that they suck as heroes and can barely function as a team. Only where Guardians went goofy and Suicide Squad went edgy, the Thunderbolts are united by their shared sense of depression. Though the team bicker and banter in a way that’s funny to watch, they’re also grappling with a sense of meaninglessness and self-loathing that gives their adventure a different tone than Marvel has really attempted before.
Much of that tone hinges on a guy named Bob (Lewis Pullman), a sweet, sheepish everyman that Yelena, Walker, and Ava stumble upon while on intersecting missions from CIA Director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus chewing scenery in her biggest MCU appearance yet). I won’t get into too many plot specifics here, since the discovery is part of the fun. But all you really need to know is that director Jake Schreier (Paper Towns, Robot & Frank) leans into a darkly comic oddball sensibility that gives the film a welcome sense of cohesion, even when its plot meanders a bit. Thunderbolts* also delivers some of the best MCU action we’ve gotten in ages—from a Mission: Impossible 2 inspired motorcycle chase to a moody overhead shot that follows Yelena through a hallway brawl.
Perhaps most importantly, Schreier also proves excellent at working with actors, reworking some messy MCU additions into something much more compelling. While I found Harbour’s Red Guardian shtick pretty insufferable in the Black Widow movie, he’s much more effectively reimagined here as an embarrassing but supportive single dad. And all the contradictions that made John Walker so frustrating on Falcon and the Winter Soldier are much more compelling when the story leans into them with intentionality. There’s a silent reaction shot from Russell that I haven’t stopped thinking about since I left the theater.
Bucky is the least well-served of the main cast, with a storyline that feels left over from an earlier draft that put the former Winter Soldier more front and center. But that thankfully allows the movie to make the far more interesting choice to bring Yelena to the forefront instead. The always captivating Pugh has had quite an arc over her three big MCU appearances: fighting for her freedom in Black Widow, hilariously cutting loose and then tearfully breaking down in Hawkeye, and now grappling with the futility of her lonely, repetitive existence as a gun-for-hire. Growing up is hard and Thunderbolts* lets its heroine go to some genuinely dark places without feeling the need to undercut everything with a joke à la Guardians of the Galaxy.
Pugh is fantastic at embodying depressive pathos while still maintaining Yelena’s comedic spark. And the willingness to go dark makes it even more impactful when our new Black Widow does slowly start to reforge bonds with the people around her—particularly Bob, who emerges as part kindred spirit, part damsel in distress, and part, well, something else. Pugh and Pullman have incredible chemistry together, and where Bob’s story goes does feel like genuinely new territory for the MCU. Though the film doesn’t reinvent the wheel, exactly, the path it takes to get to its climax is still fun and weird and innovative. Thunderbolts* is ultimately another superhero movie about the power of friendship. But it’s also a superhero movie about learning to save yourself.
All of which makes Thunderbolts* an oddball charmer, whether you’re invested in Marvel or not. And for those who are, the movie is also welcome proof that the grand Marvel Cinematic Universe experiment can still work; not just as origin stories or siloed trilogies, but as true crossover events where the heroic whole is greater than the sum of its eclectic parts.
Grade: B+
Other stuff I’ve worked on lately: I reviewed Amy Sherman-Palladino’s new Prime Video ballet dramedy Étoile (watch it! it’s great!) and Apple TV+’s new sexy French historical cooking drama Carême. Plus I wrapped up my weekly reviews of NBC’s St. Denis Medical over on Episodic Medium.
I went into the movie with very low expectations but it had me hooked the moment it started. I left the theater speechless (last time that happened with an MCU film was Wakanda Forever). It is the first time, after a long time, that I am excited about the future of the MCU. Florence Pugh was mesmerizing.
Worth shouting out Pugh's stunt double, Sarah Irwin, whose previous Marvel credits include doubling for Rachael Taylor, Sophia DiMartino, Laura Donnelly, Tatiana Maslany, AND Aubrey Plaza (though this was her first time doubling Pugh). It would be a stretch to say that I "know" her, but we were both PAs on a short film in Chicago 10 years ago where we spent most of one day just sitting in an apartment with a chonky Rottweiler and a good chunk of another day just sitting in a car waiting for the rain to stop. Most people on the crew already knew at least one other person, but Sarah appeared out of the blue because she overheard the line producer in a coffee shop talking about a stunt in the short and she just wanted to see how it went, as she'd recently gotten into stunts herself after being a dancer for many years. The stunt was not great.