The New Avengers, aka
Thunderbolts*
Before its release, Thunderbolts* was referred to by some as “Marvel’s Suicide Squad,” likely in reference to David Ayer’s 2016 box office money-maker—not James Gunn’s underperforming 2021 version. The comparison arises from surface-level similarities: the films draw from the same foundational template of 1967’s The Dirty Dozen, assembling a team of antiheroes for a dangerous mission. However, Marvel’s lethal reprobate crew in Thunderbolts* differs meaningfully from the legit criminals that populate DC’s version. Moreover, the sense of desperation that underscored Ayer’s 2016 film is largely absent in both Gunn’s Suicide Squad and Marvel’s Thunderbolts*.
Not that Thunderbolts* doesn't try to go in that direction. Florence Pugh "carries the whole movie" critics were saying when it hit theatres, but since she is the main character (Yelena Belova) and the script doesn't give much space to really develop the other characters, Pugh really has no choice. Yes, she is up to the task and quite good in the role. The camera from Director Jake Schreier pays close attention to her and without Pugh reacting to circumstances there'd probably be no convincing sense of danger in the film at all because the script tries too hard to charm us with humor and "quirky" moments, which I wouldn't begrudge a better production, but here it looks like substitutions for what's really missing.
But what is missing? Pugh, like we've said (and so many others) is good in Thunderbolts*, and the rest of the cast, though not getting the kind of showcase Pugh has, are also fine, and do a lot with what they're given for screen time. Julia Louis-Dreyfus as noxious team organizer Valentina Allegra de Fontaineis is a sort of brittle version of the Amanda Waller character from the DC movies, and as such provides the suffocating authoritarian flavor of arbitrary and menacing government power, and "villain" Bob Reynolds (Lewis Pullman) is a clever character construction, becoming "Void," a sort of walking mental illness that infects other people, triggering them into mental downturns. Each character has more details to them (and Void has more powers), but unfortunately, Pugh being so good makes most of the activity of the rest of the cast to seem like placeholders, and the camera just doesn't care enough about them for to stay on them as personalities versus action characters.
In a way this Marvel superhero story is a machine that isn't different from various earlier Marvel films, and as the plot in Thunderbolts* stalks its way forward it mimics The Avengers film of 2012 until we're literally back in Avengers tower (aka Stark tower) and there is a scene of the Thunderbolts grouped together in the very same formation as The Avengers in the 2012 film. Is it homage? Is Disney/Marvel hoping some weird muscle memory from the past will galvanize the audience to accept the Thunderbolts the way they did The Avengers?
The cast makes the film enjoyable, somehow the action is mostly rote, and the script writing has a thick patina of humor that I wouldn't resent except it is like a distraction from the sameness of what we're getting, which is, I guess, the bite of the bug that spread superhero fatigue.
Related: The Billion Dollar Club of Superhero Movies
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Original Page March 27, 2025