Thunderbolts*The New Avengers (2025)

Thunderbolts*The New Avengers (2025)

Yes, you could almost classify this film everywhere: Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Thriller and Science Fiction. Well, obviously it’s primarily an Action and Science Fiction film.

You might wonder who these new superheroes are, before realising that we’ve almost all seen them before. Well… especially if you’ve seen a lot of Marvel films. I wondered if Marvel had its equivalent of Superman or Shazam! and, surprisingly, I got an answer here!

I don’t know if I was happier to see Florence Pugh or Sebastian Stan again. In any case, seeing them in the same team was a treat for me.

This film still won’t appeal to people who hate superheroes… and I still wonder why some people continue to see them, especially if it’s to write the same review over and over again! It’s too American, too exaggerated, too this, too that!
In short!

As far as I’m concerned, this film raises the bar a little, especially after films like Marvel’s The Marvels (2023) and Madame Web (2024) or DC’s The Flash (2023) and Blue Beetle (2023). Unfortunately, I don’t really have time to see all the series/spin-offs.

So…
It’s a pretty effective comeback for Marvel, offering us quality entertainment, but not without a certain depth either, by tackling the themes of mental health and depression in particular.

Aided by some interesting characters, we enjoy following a film that is more psychological than usual. Of course, the film is still aimed at a wide audience, so it’s never too complex, but the actors’ convincing performances manage to get us to buy into the story as a whole, which manages to be very gripping. The musical composition is epic, and finally lives up to the Avengers theme, created by Alan Silvestri.

My score may be too generous, but of course I don’t care! I enjoyed Thunderbolts and was pleasantly surprised. I smiled, but there was also emotion. A rich emotional climax, because ‘Thunderbolts’ is to the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) what Rocky III and Superman III are to their respective cinematic universes, with a last-minute twist and a post-genre scene that give us a foretaste of and a link to the further evolution of the MCU.

The story is original, the messages are interesting, the direction, to my great surprise, is really good and the whole thing is very entertaining. On the downside, the ending is a little quick… but that’s obviously to announce a sequel!

A real banger! It flows really well and there’s hardly a dull moment. The team works well together and there are even some rather funny bits that lighten the mood a bit.

It’s bound to look better on the big screen!

And just to bring things up to date: this is the sixth episode of the fifth phase of the MCU – the second phase of the Multiverse Saga – and the 36th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe… which leaves behind a bit of recent nothingness to return to the light! We’ve had to wait two full phases, since Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019).

The end credits are excellent and the post-credits scenes nice for the first, quite interesting for the second.

If ever: Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova,
Sebastian Stan plays Bucky Barnes,
Wyatt Russell is John Walker / Agent,
Olga Kurylenko as Antonia Dreykov / Taskmaster,
Lewis Pullman plays Robert “Bob” Reynolds / Sentry / Void
and Geraldine Viswanathan is Mel.