Thunderbolts*
- fivedollartuesday
- 17 hours ago
- 3 min read
This one looked good…this one looked fun. Despite feeling like perhaps we've gotten content overload (and perhaps treating stories as "content" is part of the problem), perhaps we've strayed from story in search of rushed generic committee movie writing and editing, perhaps I'm a hopeless optimist, but I walked, quite excitedly into the theater for the latest Marvel installment: Thunderbolts* (2025).
Fair warning: there are quite a few characters with quite a few backstories, but Thunderbolts* never drowns you in exposition or makes you feel lost among the antiheroes, even if you haven't been glued to every Marvel film and/or Disney Plus series. Honestly, points for that because between Thunderbolts*' concept and Marvel's catalogue of characters, that's no small feat.
Going in, I thought there was a decent chance Thunderbolts* could be a very Bucky-centric film, with Sebastian Stan returning to guide this mismatched team. Certainly, Stan does gather-ish the crew and plays his part as solid as ever. "Bucky Barnes" is an out-of-his-element congressman now, and that might sound insane given the Winter Soldier's past, but the older you get, the less and less it does (I kid, but seriously). Against the corrupt politician "Valentina Allegra de Fontaine," played charmingly evil by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, it very much works.
No, no, it's much less of a Bucky film and much more of a "Yelena Belova" study. And, after the events of Black Widow, Infinity Wars, and the death of her sister "Natasha" in End Game, it's so interesting and so worth it watching Florence Pugh bring her character's conflict and trauma to the surface. She's a powerful center holding our band of misfits together. There's a line where she's talking about how lonely she is: "All I do is sit, and look at my phone, and think of all the terrible things that I've done, and then I go to work, and then I drink…" and in any other case, mentioning phones irritates me because I don't want it to be a painfully obvious screenwriting cheat symbol for society's ills (although yes, please, let's all go take up silent walking), but she plays the line so honestly, it hurts. Plus, Lewis Pullman opposite her as "Bob" is incredibly well cast. There's a vulnerability and something not quite controllable under the surface in his performance that stresses the tension between his better and worst halves.
Because, since a lot of Thunderbolts* is about dealing with trauma, having actors who can hit that range while still working within the construct of a Marvel-toned film and somehow make it work seamlessly is a must. And the crew certainly captured that here. Director Jake Schreier threads a needle with a grimmer, more haunting tone that sets Thunderbolts* apart from, but not against, its predecessors.
Director Jake Schreier threads a needle with a grimmer, more haunting tone that sets Thunderbolts* apart from, but not against, its predecessors.
And the approach is such a constructive way of looking at grief and trauma and how one even attempts to work through not only the pain that's been done to you, but also the pain you've caused. I've long loved Marvel films, and rarely have I left the theater without some lesson, some nugget of wisdom for my own life. But Thunderbolts* wrecked me in a way I had forgotten Marvel might remember they're still capable of doing.
The colors are darker and harsher, the humor's a little grittier, the heart and the hurt still exist. The creative team behind Thunderbolts* cast and crew have achieved something I was tempted to believe we might not get from them anymore: a story-centric, nongeneric Marvel picture. It was honestly so fun, so heartbreaking, so worth it. And one of the best parts was listening to the audience in the theater excitedly talk about it while we all waited for the post-credits scene to roll. Which, in addition to the movie itself, was well worth the six-dollar ticket (and who am I kidding, the ten-dollar matinee one I'll catch this weekend, too).