TL;DR – It is a perfectly fine film, with strong performances and an interesting villain. Unfortunately, it feels like it is constantly being held back from reaching its potential.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid and post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Thunderbolts* Review –

I think it has been no secret that the MCU has been struggling to find its way in a post-Endgame world. It has had more misses than swings, which has forced a course correction into safety in many places. Thus, Ant-Man loses its charm and Captain America becomes just okay. It is in that space where they announced: what if the MCU did their version of Suicide Squad with a bunch of characters left over from the other films but also make it PG for some reason? It honestly sounds like a poor pitch, but then the first trailer dropped, and all of a sudden, there was a ray of hope. Now we see if that hope was warranted.   

So, to set the scene, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is the head of the CIA and totally not still working for her own company that is up to so many illegal activities that she is now under impeachment from the US Congress. Knowing she has to clean house, she sends her undercover agents across the world to destroy any evidence of what she was working on. However, then they are the only link between the illegal stuff and her, so what do you do? Oh, maybe you get Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) & Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) to go to the same secluded warehouse, each with the mission to kill the other and then incinerate all the evidence one there are just bodies left … what could go wrong … Oh, and why is Bob (Lewis Pullman) down here?

Honestly, this movie is a bit of a mixed bag, and I am not sure how well it will age. However, there were things about it that I liked. I think the cast works very well together. While this is primarily a Florence Pugh vehicle, everyone gets their moment to shine, and the team-up moments lead to some of the oddest yet compelling moments in the film. The action scenes, while a bit sparse in the film, all hold up with some solid choreography. It is also a pretty funny film as it is filled with these odd character moments that let Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Florence Pugh shine. I would say on that front that one of the big surprises was just how good Mel (Geraldine Viswanathan) works in holding the narrative together was being amusing in almost every scene she is in. Not to get too into spoilers, but all of this leads to one of the more interesting villain battles, with powers that genially shocked me at times.

However, while I generally enjoyed myself here, there were a lot of issues that did hold it back for me. The first is that it is a very contained film, to its own detriment. All of these are characters from different elements of the MCU, but the narrative feels almost cut off from it all, to the fact that you are honestly surprised as to who does not show up. Especially given one of the main gimmicks is going back into people’s memories. Some of the supporting cast, like Bucky (Sebastian Stan) and Ghost, feel underused or relegated to one-note parts. There is also a lack of balance. For example, in Black Widow, Red Guardian’s (David Harbour) energy is balanced against three other Russian characters. Here, he is so loud and overbearing that he starts undercutting everyone else in the film. Finally, it always felt like the film was being held back, restrained by its overly kid-friendly rating, even for a Marvel film. It might also be the one film I have seen that was actively hurt by its end-credit scenes.   

In the end, do we recommend Thunderbolts*? Look, it is quite watchable, even enjoyable in places, and the cast, especially Florence Pugh, makes it worth your while. However, I just can’t help but feel as I walked out of the cinema that there was a better film in there, but they kept it hidden. Have you watched Thunderbolts*? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked Thunderbolts*, we would recommend to you Captain Marvel.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Thunderbolts*
Directed by – Jake Schreier
Story by – Eric Pearson
Screenplay by – Eric Pearson & Joanna Calo   
Based on – Mavel Comics
Music by – Son Lux
Cinematography by – Andrew Droz Palermo
Edited by – Angela Catanzaro & Harry Yoon
Production/Distribution Companies – Marvel Studios & Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Starring – Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Geraldine Viswanathan, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Wendell Edward Pierce &  Violet McGraw      
Rating – Australia: PG; Canada: PG; Germany: 12; New Zealand: PG; United Kingdom: 12A; United States: PG-13