THUNDERBOLTS*
(director/writer: Jake Schreier; screenwriters: story & writer Eric Pearson, Joanna Calo; cinematographer: Andrew Droz Palermo; editors: Harry Yoon, Angela M. Catanzaro; music: Son Lux; cast: Florence Pugh (Yelena Beloya), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes), Wyatt Russell (John Walker/US Agent), Lewis Pullman (A Lab Patient Robert Russell/Sentry), David Harbour (Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian), Olga Kurylenko (Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster), Hannah John-Kamen (Ava Starr/Ghost), Geraldine Viswanathan (Mel), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Valentina Allegra de Fontaine), Wendell Pierce (Gary), Gabrielle Byndloss (Olivia Walker); Runtime: 126; MPAA Rating: PG-13; producer: Kevin Feige; Disney; 2025)
“Buttery popcorn superhero flick.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Jake Schreier (“Robot & Frank”/”Paper Towns”) directs and writes with Joanna Caloa and Eric Pearson (from his story) this buttery popcorn superhero flick about Marvel superheroes in need of serious therapy to mend their mental health issues caused by being superheroes, such as loneliness and depression.
The Thunderbolts are made up of both former villains and re-focused Marvel characters from its more forgettable films and TV shows. The spirited film offers a new spin on the familiar Avengers formula, and I think is able to revitalize the MCU franchise from its recent malaise.
The superheroes reluctantly become the Thunderbolts after realizing a phony patriotic political person placed a deadly trap for them and the only way to survive is to unite and fight back.
The Thunderbolts are: Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), a brooding Russian mercenary living in Washington, D.C., who is unhappy doing freelance covert missions for the CIA and swears she’s on her last job for the CIA as she wants to do more with her life; Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), known as the Winter Soldier, a new U.S. Congressman who looks young because of his superpowers; John Walker (Wyatt Russell), an arrogant dishonorably discharged soldier and a self-absorbed U.S. agent who will become the next Captain America; Red Guardian (David Harbour), Yelena’s aging single parent adoptive father, who is depressed he’s no longer an operative in Russia; Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), a mute who was at one time a villain and Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), who has the ability for short stretches to become invisible and previously was a villain.
The diverse loser Suicide Squad-like group is united by a serious threat from Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), a power-hungry CIA director, seen in the vile image of Trump’s unfit for office cabinet choice of Tulsi Gabbard. Valentina’s the current Director of Intelligence.
The corrupt CIA director Valentina asks Yelena, still brooding over the death of her older adoptive sister Natasha (The Black Widow) in Russia, to go against her will to kill a villain at the secretive O.X.E. facility, a scientific research company, in the mountains. It’s where the director was involved in conducting unauthorized experimental super serum injections into human guinea pigs. This incensed Congressman Gary (Wendell Pierce) enough to attempt to impeach her. In response to the congressman’s attack on her, Valentina’s capable assistant Mel (Geraldine Viswanathan) is ordered to get rid of the implicating evidence at the facility.
Meanwhile, the freshman Congressman Bucky Barnes is working behind the scenes to get the goods on Valentina’s crimes and thinks Mel will help.
When Valentina traps the mercenary Yelena in an underground vault at the O.X.E. site, she’s aided in her escape by her potential assassins John Walker, Ghost and Taskmaster. They were sent there as assassins by Valentina, and if her plan worked they would all kill each other. But the potential assassins rebelled and united as Thunderbolts to remove from harm’s way the deeply troubled, drug addict used as a guinea pig at the facility, the dazed lab patient Bob (Lewis Pullman). He’s also Sentry, the mysterious killer employed by Valentina.
The “Red Guardian,” the operator of a limo service, uses his only vehicle in their escape.
The name Thunderbolts comes from Yelena’s childhood, where she played for a losing pee-wee soccer team called the Thunderbolts.
This is one of the better Marvel flicks of recent years.
REVIEWED ON 4/2/2025 GRADE: B
dennisschwartzreviews.com