Thunderbolts* Review: Florence Pugh Steals the Show in the Best MCU Film in Years

With MCU fatigue at an all-time high following years of lacklustre films and TV shows, Thunderbolts* arrives, well — like a bolt of lightning. From the irreverent marketing (including a winking trailer that plays up the cast’s A24 bonafides) to the film’s focus on lesser-known Marvel characters, Thunderbolts* is attempting to recapture the magic of the early Guardians of the Galaxy films with a focus on C-tier antiheroes forced to band together to save the world. 

For the most part, director Jake Schreier (Paper Towns) manages to imbue Thunderbolts* with some of the missing energy that has sorely been lacking from the MCU in recent years. The story is relatively simple, which allows Schreier (working on a script by Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo) to focus on this motley group of damaged characters who need to first work on themselves before they can work as a team. 

Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian (David Harbour) Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Taskmaster (Antonia Dreykov ), and John Walker (Wyatt Russell) find themselves battling each other in a secret government installation and quickly realize they have been pitted against each other by the hilariously named Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). 

Also in the death-trap situation with them is…Bob (Lewis Pullman), a dishevelled man who seemingly has no idea how he ended up there. Realizing that Valentina has set them up to kill each other to wipe out evidence of their illegal government work for her, the unlikely group decides to put aside their differences in hopes to bring Valentina down before they are all taken out for good. 

In some ways, Thunderbolts* demands a lot from the audience; the majority of these characters are from the least successful MCU properties (Black Widow, the Disney+ show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) and many casual fans may be completely unfamiliar with their backstories. Thankfully, the film addresses the issue head on; as the gang is forced to learn about each other as their mission progresses, the script also fills in the audience in a fairly organic way, without the need for endless exposition. 

Apart from their pact to bring down Valentina (and save themselves in the process), the now-christened Thunderbolts have another problem on their hands; they soon learn that Bob successfully underwent a radical government experiment that allows him to turn into The Sentry, a being of almost unlimited power. However, with that power comes a literal dark side; The Void, an aspect of Bob’s psyche that can cause widespread death and destruction if not kept in check. 

As the film reaches it’s crescendo, the team is forced to dig deep into their most painful memories in order to push back The Void for good, a climax much more inward-looking than the typical MCU third act CGI punch-fest (though there is some of that too). 

While the film’s pacing can be sluggish and not enough time is spent getting to know all of the team members (Ghost, in particular, remains rather…intangible), the chemistry between the leads is what makes Thunderbolts* one of the more enjoyable MCU outings in years. 

Florence Pugh is a commanding presence, and navigates her constant one-liners with a deep emotional core that speaks to her traumatic upbringing (all in a Russian accent to boot). David Harbour gets most of the big laughs as the endlessly upbeat and slightly delusional Red Guardian, but it’s the ad-hoc family feeling between these disparate characters that gives the film its sense of unity and purpose; if this crew can learn to get along and work together, maybe it’s not too late for the rest of us. 

Thunderbolts* opens in theatres on May 2.