Thunderbolts*
- Release Date: May 2, 2025
- Director: Jake Schreier
- Primary Cast: Chris Bauer, David Harbour, Florence Pugh, Geraldine Viswanathan, Hannah John-Kamen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lewis Pullman, Olga Kurylenko, Sebastian Stan, Wendell Edward Pierce, Wyatt Russell
- Screenplay: Eric Pearson, Joanna Calo, Lee Sung Jin
- Release Platform: Theatrical
- Subgenre: Action, Superhero
- Rating: PG-13
- Runtime: 126 minutes
Synopsis
A group of antiheroes and reformed villains from across the MCU are recruited by the U.S. government to form an unconventional team tasked with covert missions.
Review
Thunderbolts is a mid-tier Marvel entry that wants to be more than it is but never quite gets there. Like recent MCU films, it leans heavily on prior Disney+ shows for context and doubles down on a dim, grim aesthetic that makes everything feel weighed down. While the ensemble cast has strong chemistry and is genuinely fun to watch, the characters are underdeveloped and underserved by a story that rushes past emotional depth in favor of action and banter. The result is a watchable but frustrating film that highlights just how far Marvel has drifted from the self-contained storytelling that once made the MCU great.
This movie is part of our complete MCU retrospective.