Marvel’s Thunderbolts* (2025) Movie Review

well

hello everyone and welcome to the concession stand here on the kb radio network i am your host kevin reeds and this is the review of marvel studios

36 film in the mcu thunderbolts this film stars forence pew sebastian stan wyatt russell lewis pullman david harbour hannah john hayman and julia

louise dreyfus this is a jack swade schrader directed film and this film uh follows a group of anti-heroes who are caught

in a deadly trap and forced to work together on a dangerous mission this film was super high on my anticipated list uh especially beat as though is a marvel film it's a superhero film it's a comic book adaptation and

to put it kindly the mcu has not been performing at its best you know it we we're off

the heels of Captain America brave new world which is rather divisive I guess you could say I

I know people who enjoyed it me personally I didn't like it at all so it was and it was disappointing very disappointed for a number of reasons so you kind of like you know what's going on in the MCU and prior to Captain America brave new world it

it hasn't been firing on all cylinders.

And we're about to embark on this big giant Avengers film that's coming down the pike next year with Avengers Doomsday.

And it's supposed to be a combination of all of everything that has taken place in this saga,

in the multiverse saga.

And it just hasn't been hidden.

It doesn't have that same magic as the MCU had in the first saga,

in the Infinity Saga,

you know.

So I was really,

really hoping,

wishing and praying that Thunderbolts would drive it home.

And I'm happy to report,

I love this movie.

This is Marvel at its best.

This is the best Marvel

Studios film since Endgame.

And I mean in a sense of interconnected with this entire universe.

It makes it feel...

like this is part of a bigger thing as opposed to the other films that have come out in the last two to three years that just it just felt like they were thrown out there to be thrown out there this feels like it's part of a bigger world

even though this is a film that's more grounded you know the characters are are more grounded there aren't any

well there are some super power beings within the uh thunderbolt group you know with bucky and red guardian and ghosts uh even even um john walker but uh not to the sense to whereas they're like uh

you know hulk and you have thor and you know what i'm saying who's basically a god you have him on part of the team and it it doesn't have that these characters are

flawed deeply flawed characters and if you followed these characters throughout the mcu these aren't this ain't the first time you've seen all these characters um they when we first meet them they're

not at their best you know uh most of these characters were either villains or antagonists in other shows or movies now they're coming together and they're becoming

heroes here and uh reluctantly may i add but i liked how it was done and now i do have some issues with it there is a couple of issues that i'm going to touch on and this is non-spoiler by the way probably should have started off the show by saying it is non-spoiler i'm not going to get into spoilers here so

don't fret i'm not going to spoil anything this this was yeah this was the best.

MCU films since

since Endgame and yes,

we've had some really good movies to come in between

Guardians of the Galaxy 3 the spider-man movie

Shang Chi those were excellent.

Those were really good movies and like I said,

they were good movies within but this this did something

That I've been craving and I didn't know I was craving it since the first saga

this movie made you connect to these characters you really uh got a good sense of their background their struggle you know their internal fight you know not just them fighting against this uh

being or whatever but it was really a fight within themselves and you have to have strong character action

actors,

grown actors,

period,

and actresses who can pull this off.

And this was led by the great

Florence Pugh.

Florence Pugh is,

look,

I know she gets her flowers.

A lot of everybody says that she's an exceptional actress.

And,

you know,

there's no way you can fight that.

That's probably the only argument I'll ever get on,

get,

get into involving a subject.

subjective subject matter such as film because

Florence Pugh I've seen her in every type of movie there is I've seen her in a comedy I've seen her in drama I've seen her in action I've seen her and I mean everything you can think of she's been a part of and

she knocked it out the park even if the movie downright sucked she didn't

She walks away from every project unscathed because she gives it her all.

This woman is amazing.

Huge fan of hers.

Not to mention I have a slight crush on her as well.

But that's besides the point.

This woman held this movie together.

This is

Elena's movie.

Yes,

it's Thunderbolts,

but this is her movie.

She carries this film.

We follow her journey through.

from the beginning to the end of this movie and it was a fun ride to go on an emotional ride to go on and you know what makes this such an amazing achievement in a marvel movie it tackles the subject of mental health dealing

with anxiety dealing with depression dealing with you know all of these afflictions that you me and everybody else that you come in contact with deal with you Nope.

normal human emotions we deal with these mental health issues uh uh uh past trauma family trauma you know when you was a child stuff like i mean all of it put in this movie and is not done forcefully it's not force feed uh fed to you is not uh

preachy it is just displayed in such a marvelous way and kudos to jack uh strider for

directing a marvelous film,

you know,

in the midst of all of that.

Yeah,

we get superhero fights.

We get special effect,

uh,

extravaganzas and all this here.

It,

it is,

it is mind blowing how well this was constructed,

uh,

along with Florence Pugh,

everybody else did an amazing job.

Every,

every actor here stepped up to the plate.

I don't want to shortchange them,

but there are a couple of them I do want to point out,

along with Florence Pugh having just another phenomenal performance.

You've got to shout out

Wyatt Russell here,

who plays John Walker.

If you watch The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+,

that's where that character was introduced,

U.S.

agent.

He had a good role on that show.

I'm not pooh-poohing on his performance there,

but here in this movie,

it was so much.

I often wondered when they first announced this film and it was,

okay,

why Russell is returning as

John Walker.

I'm like,

why?

Because he is the most unlikable character you could ever have in a movie,

TV show,

anywhere.

And

I'm like,

why?

How can you redeem this character?

they found the way to redeem this character from what we saw from Falcon and the Winter Soldier and made him one of the best characters in this film.

right russell here man i there were moments in in this movie where he was doing something and all i could see was kurt all i could see was his dad man he was he really uh uh he really channeled his dad on a couple of them scenes i was hit with his facial expressions and stuff like that i'm like man kurt

did a good job with this one it this this was

performance by uh right russell the other standout here lewis pullman man another another nepo baby i guess you can say um well i'm not guessing uh that is the son of bill pullman and lewis

pullman i've seen him in a couple of things he was in uh top gun maverick he was also in uh salem's lot which came out last year pretty decent actor once again

Not anybody who leaps off the page or off the screen as somebody like,

oh man,

Lewis

Pullman's in this movie?

I gotta go see it.

He's not that guy.

But I think after this movie,

you probably will.

Lewis Pullman had to pull,

no pun intended,

from a lot of emotion in this movie.

He went around the world with emotions.

He was funny.

he uh was deeply flawed uh emotionally spiritually uh uh mentally i mean he he has so much trauma in within him and he's this superpowered being with all of this mental health issues and

the movie did an excellent job of showing how somebody with all that power not everybody can handle that if you're not mentally stable enough

you know,

and that goes true in every walk of life.

And

I mean,

we see it now in Washington,

D.C.,

but he he did a phenomenal job.

I wasn't expecting much from that character.

Honestly,

he was in this movie more than I thought.

I thought he was going to be in a piece of it all.

You know,

I know that the movie was going to center around his character of Bob.

And

I just Thought it was gonna be...

you know a few scenes here or there but no he's he's in this movie quite a lot and you can probably say he's the co-lead if that's even possible in an ensemble film but um his character man boy

because i didn't follow century in the comics like that i've read an issue or two but that character really didn't connect with me and so i never was a Bye.

man century can do this this this and this i knew of his character i know what he's capable of doing and the movie did that the movie actually uh uh hyped it up to 11.

i was like my god century is a monster but uh yeah uh lewis pullman man phenomenal david harbour was great as the comic relief and

you know playing red guardian and it was a scene in here with him and florence pew once again no spoilers but that scene with him and florence pew i was you

know i was faking it in that movie i was like okay hold it hold it hold it together it was so emotional man it was so well done oh my god um

the action really really good action in this movie as i said this is grounded is a lot of grounded uh fight choreography it wasn't all that shaky cam foolishness it was a you

know it was a lockdown camera doing a lot of uh in-camera work here that i i i'm so happy i was so happy to see that uh now it did get special effects See?

At times,

of course.

I mean,

it's a Marvel movie,

so you're going to have that.

But it was a good balance.

It was a perfect balance between in-camera and digital effects.

Also,

also,

before I get too far away from the acting,

I've got to give another shout-out to Julia Louise Dreyf as Valentina.

Never was a fan of that character.

And,

you know,

in the films and on the TV shows when she popped up,

I thought she was a waste.

I thought she was a waste because Julia Louise Dreyfuss is a fantastic actress.

I mean,

Seinfeld,

Veep.

I mean,

she is amazing.

And so when she became a part of the MCU,

I was like,

okay,

that's a bold choice there,

you know,

for

Valentina. But,

hey,

I'll rock with it.

Man,

this was the first time I enjoyed her character.

I really enjoyed her character in this movie.

this is probably the closest they have gotten to uh valentina allegra de fontaine to the comics than they did in any other uh depiction of this character no

matter where she popped up in you know right it was black panther wakanda forever which i don't even know why she was in that you know you know in other uh shows where she popped up at i don't like why they are really wasting

Julia Louise Dreyfuss.

Well,

I guess they were saving it for this film because she brought it,

man.

Oh my God,

she brought it.

I loved her.

Loved her in this movie.

My flaws.

Here's my flaws.

Number one,

the way the group got together,

the way they came together was so cliche.

It was so...

predictable man it was it was like i don't know it just didn't have that effect i was hoping for something more poignant to it you know as a reason why they came together as a group but

it just didn't it didn't work it that part didn't work now that was the beginning now when they really became a team quote unquote at the end now that was fire

That,

that I love.

Now that,

I got emotional.

I got emotional again.

It was two parts of this movie where

I got emotional and had to fight back tears.

And it was the scene between Red Guardian and Elena.

And the scene when they became officially the Thunderbolts.

You know,

I was like,

oh my,

oh,

what are you doing?

What are you doing?

But it was uh,

it was fired in but the first initial meetup between them

Nah, it didn't work for me the second thing and my last thing really

Dad, I didn't too much like was the villain and And

I say villain loosely because they're like I said,

I can't spoil it

I can't get into it without spoiling,

so I'll just say I didn't like the villain.

And it sucks that I can't really elaborate on it,

but I'll just say I wish they would have kind of set the seeds,

just a few more seeds throughout the film to whereas we got this bigger thing that happened at the end.

You know,

it's fine i know where they were going i got where they were going and i rolled with it i mean i accept it for what it is i'm not hating it doesn't affect the grade of this film but it was just uh i don't know it was it

was man i can't i can't do it i can't do it but anyways uh those are my only two flaws everything else about this movie absolutely worked the pacing was

amazing this movie is two hours and six minutes long and it didn't feel like yeah i felt like was there for an hour i was mad i was i was like that's it that's it i want more it's i want more of it and speaking of more if you're going to see it there

are two two post-credit scenes two one in the middle and one at the very very very end and the one at the very they can keep the one in the middle but the one at the end please

don't miss that one that one is is huge i'll just leave it at that but thunderbolts brought to us by marvel studios and the folks over there at walt disney gives a letter grade of

a b plus strong b plus it it is it is a good it is really good man i am so happy i'm so proud of marvel

I'm so proud of them.

They did awesome.

It actually got me hyped up for the Fantastic Four.

Because now I can see a path forward.

Before,

I couldn't.

You know,

I couldn't see a path forward with all of those other releases.

You know,

Captain America Brave New World.

It felt like a brick wall.

It felt like we had a brick wall after that movie.

But

Thunderbolts opened so many doors to this expanded universe of Marvel.

And,

you know,

that's what we used to get.

when this franchise first started.

And that feeling is back.

It feels like that feeling has returned to the Marvel Cinematic

Universe. But that's my feelings on Thunderbolts with the asterisk.

And trust me,

that asterisk is explained in the movie.

I want to know your feelings on Thunderbolts if you checked it out.

And if you are planning to check it out,

let me know.

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Network. Everybody,

thank you for joining me for the review of Thunderbolts.

Want you all to know that I love you.

Continue to love everyone.

And until we speak again,

you all be blessed.

Marvel’s Thunderbolts* (2025) Movie Review

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