Marvel Studios’ most recent addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thunderbolts, was officially released on May 2nd, 2025 after leaving fans impatient as its initial release was pushed back. The movie is about a team of anti-heroes who are forced to work together, and eventually find themselves having to face their cruel pasts to save everyone. As of two weeks from its release date, the movie has received an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and an A- on CinemaScore.
My Thoughts
I’d like to start off with how refreshing watching this movie was to me. If you haven’t been a big fan of the most recent Marvel content, then this movie will catch you by surprise. I walked into the theater with low expectations due to the mediocre run Marvel has been on these past few years. However, Thunderbolts was seemingly an outcast from the rest, being one of their best movies in a long time. It deviates from a traditional Marvel format, with one of its major themes being mental health and depression (I almost cried at times).
Marvel’s use of psychological issues to create such an emotional ride for the viewers while also still keeping a good balance of funny moments here and there was phenomenal. This movie doesn’t need big almighty villains to make your heart race. Actor David Harbour, who played Alexei Shostakov, also known as the Red Guardian, was honestly one of my favorites in the movie because of how funny his character was.
The action was also well done, with more traditional hand to hand combat throughout the movie which was very visually appealing and nicely choreographed. Overall, Thunderbolts is probably the best marvel movie I have watched in the past few years and I would no doubt watch it again. However, I wished the movie had something more to add to Marvel’s current multiverse saga, as the movie didn’t seem to fit into the current build up of the multiverse theme in the MCU.
