Thunderbolts*

Thunderbolts* doesn't just carry the asterisk to cause issues within file systems. The film will eventually explain the reference through substitution, but does a lot to justify its existence as something other than a placeholder.

This is the 36th film within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which borrows to various degrees from almost 500 episodes of television now. For Thunderbolts* it'd help to have seen The Falcon and The Winter Soldier and Hawkeye. It probably wouldn't help to have seen Captain America: Brave New World because that felt tired and left audiences in much the same place. The MCU has had men of iron, gods of thunder, strange creatures given galvanic spark by mixtures of mechanisms and magic. As a creation it's given so many things life that its energy has definitely felt stretched.

Thunderbolts* manages to recapture some of that original lightning. Jake Schreier is almost certainly better known for music videos and some TV work, but his début feature Robot And Frank had a charm and an oddity that's perfect for a second-string team of anti-heroes. Audiences might be tired of the MCU. Goodness knows I've started enough of these reviews with a consideration of the associated homework. Thunderbolts* acknowledges this; indeed, it's one of many of its bold choices to make ennui and depression and exhaustion so central to its plot.

There are elements after the credits. Stay through them not just to pay tribute to the dozens of special effects firms whose work so credibly draws colour out of an already desaturated New York, but also to get scenes that shed light back onto what's happened. Also light on what's coming. Though not quite as transformative as those of Sinners, the foreshadowing that's an epilogue to this film is in its own way something to be optimistic about.

The writing team have struck a balance between continuity and comedy. Comics author Kurt Busiek has a credit as creator of the Thunderbolts, though as with any set of super-friends it can be hard to put a finger on who's actually responsible. Eric Pearson has penned several Marvel elements. Thor: Ragnarok isn't as relevant as the carefully coloured-in Black Widow or as the similarly IP-respecting Transformers One. This is a feature début for Joanna Calo, who's best known for challengingly hilarious work on series like The Bear and BoJack Horseman. That's putting words in the mouths of two brooding black-clad folk, a Batman (Will Arnett) and a Punisher (Jon Bernthal). Here she's got an entire ensemble of folk whose action figures include lots of pockets. Oh, and Bob.

That's Lewis Pullman, who was also a Bob in Top Gun: Maverick. He's one of many characters whose presence in the film challenges the usual conventions of hero and anti-hero. This is a shadow world. We're at a point where we're at the opposites of opposites who've reversed their behaviours. Fortunately with this many mirrors we've got a full house for a fun house.

There's a sequence in a stacked car-chase that samples Terminator 2, Mission: Impossible II and The Matrix too. That debt's as obvious as recognising which Hot Wheels car was used as a reference in a 2000ad story**, but like that, it's not a problematic borrowing. There's a bit of joy in recognition but it's got a thrill as a thing itself.

Thunderbolts* comes much closer to being worthwhile as a standalone than a large number of its companions in the Disney/Marvel juggernaut. Black Panther is still head and shoulders above the rest with an 'aboutness' that's ever more timely and ever more sadly relevant. It might be that every 18 films the MCU kicks up something with something to say. We can check back in during phase nine. Here we're exploring the difficulties in keeping going, in continuing to fight, in picking oneself back up after things get hard. It's easy enough to relate to but even more amusing as a metacinematic commentary on the difficulties of franchise film-making.

Among the large cast is Geraldine Viswanathan, who, with Margot Qualley, made herself one to watch in Drive-Away Dolls. She says something about this all starting when she was in high school, and she's not referencing Iron Man from 2008 but the Battle of New York when the Avengers Assembled four years after that. There are high schoolers whose parents' first date was seeing Tony Stark welding in a cave. That kind of storytelling responsibility can weigh heavily, but Thunderbolts* shoulders it well.

I was rewarded for having spent too much time thinking about this franchise and its parent comic-books, but even without it this will entertain and amuse. There's a very specific MCU tone that's as hard to explain as Star Wars or Dungeons & Dragons but as distinct in its flavour. Thunderbolts* isn't as bold in its reframing of this as, say, Rogue One, but it's a treat to have this kind of counter-programming put front and centre in continuity.

Is it a reasonable starting point? Almost certainly not, but Prometheus had other problems and your modern equivalents can be as lumbering as Frankenstein's eponymous creation. I shan't bother to advise which version I'm referring to, you can piece that together yourself. Is it entertaining? Yes, and very much so. The street-level action does resemble many of those MCU shows, an early corridor fight owes a debt to that part of the oldboy network.

Thunderbolts* perhaps less resembles its asterisk than its near namesake, an asterism. A recognisable pattern of stars, perhaps not as bright as others, but in a combination that is familiar. These aren't leftovers, these are the ones who didn't leave. Which, perhaps ironically, makes them the perfect appetiser for what comes next.

* scholars might recognise 'Thunderbolt' as the nickname of Hulk-chasing general, sometime father-in-law, and then President Thaddeus Ross, but despite a mention that was probably covered by either an NDA or ADR he's among the associated characters who don't appear in this version of the team.

** an Xtreemser in Sinister Dexter, if you're counting

Reviewed on: 10 May 2025