I think Deadpool said it best in Deadpool and Wolverine. Marvel’s cinematic outings haven’t exactly been excellent after Avengers: Endgame. While they’ve had some intermittent success stories with Spider-Man: No Way Home, they haven’t been as exciting as the first several Phases. Even with this rather long losing streak, I do believe fans are waiting for Marvel to make a miraculous comeback, much like when one of their superheroes is getting beaten down by the supervillain in the third act.

So, the question now is if their latest entry, Thunderbolts* (can’t forget the asterisk!), is Marvel’s redemption? Are they finally come out of their slump? Well, I did just see the movie earlier today. I can’t say it’s Marvel’s return to top form but I can say it’s a huge step in the right direction for the most part.

As Thunderbolts* isn’t out in a lot of territories as of this being published, I will be making this review a SPOILER FREE review. Honestly, based on the couple of audible gasps I heard during some of the film’s surprises, I think it’s only fair I not reveal anything. So, yeah. SPOILER FREE review!

Thunderbolts* takes place some time after the events of Captain America: Brave New World. That has reminded the world that the Avengers are still needed but they aren’t available anymore. During this time, a group of mercenaries, including Yelena Belova, Ghost, Taskmaster and US Agent are tricked into trying to kill each other in order to silence them. They eventually team up with Bucky Barnes and Red Guardian to face off the person who hired them as well as possibly save the world from a new threat in the process. If I’m being vague, that’s intentional as this is a SPOILER FREE review.

I will say that the setup is pretty engaging as it does give these characters a somewhat organic reason to join forces. However, that’s just for Yelena, Ghost and US Agent. Bucky and Red Guardian do feel like last minute additions as they’re not directly involved in the conspiracy. As such, they don’t seem to mesh well with the team’s dynamic all that well. With that being said, the dynamic between the initial trio is really good as they playfully bicker between themselves in pretty funny ways.

The acting here is also pretty good overall. Despite Thunderbolts* being a team-up film of sorts, Yelena is definitely the star of the movie and, thankfully, Florence Pugh has the acting chops to properly display the rather complex emotions the character has. She is cocky but she’s also hiding a rather dark part of herself. Florence Pugh manages to do the more dramatic moments while still keeping it in line with the character. Wyatt Russell‘s take on US Agent is also pretty good as, like with Yelena, his overconfidence masks some tragedy and regret. Although a part of the core three, Hannah-John Kamen‘s performance as Ghost is good but she really does come off as overshadowed by the others. The same can be said for Sebastian Stan‘s Bucky here as well. In fact, this is one of the most disappointing elements as I expected a lot more screentime from the character.

There are three scene stealers in Thunderbolts*. There’s Lewis Pullman‘s Bob, a mysterious person the trio find and rescue. I can’t really say much about the character as the reveal is intended to be a surprise (and the source of the first gasp I heard while watching the movie). However, the role does allow Lewis Pullman to really show his range. Let’s just leave it at that. I also liked Julia Lewis-Dreyfus‘ performance as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s take of Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. It does highlight her more comedic talent, which she’s known for. However, I do like how you know, in her heart, she’s not playing around as she’s always scheming in the back of her mind.

Of course, the biggest scene stealer is David Harbour as Red Guardian. It just looks like he’s having a blast with the role and he makes Red Guardian very likable. David Harbour makes him a lovable teddy bear of a guy who is eager to do something to get back some of that recognition he got in the past. He’s the very definition of down-on-his-luck and, combined with his somewhat naive and optimistic dad energy, makes you root for him to succeed.

While the acting and performances are pretty good, the story… not so much. It’s actually good during the first and second acts as things are very tight and flow together pretty good. Unfortunately, things do kind of fall apart by the third act. A couple of plot points that were introduced during the early part of the film are all but forgotten during the climax. A few plot conveniences and contrivances pop up all of a sudden near the end. Heck, the film ended very abruptly as well! It’s almost like there were two different film editors for Thunderbolts*. The good one did the first two-thirds while the bad one did the latter part.

In its defense, Thunderbolts* is trying to tell a darker and more complex story. These aren’t heroes who want to be heroes. Not right from the start, anyway. These are people who have done bad things and are trying to cope with what they’ve done. This allows characters like Yelena, US Agent and Ghost to have much more character growth than other Marvel heroes from the past. I do like the change of pace here.

The action and the fight scenes actually look really good. Well, most of them anyway. Once again, the action, especially the first couple of fight scenes look pretty darn good. These are really well choreographed and their framing on the screen makes them easy to follow. The last two? Not so much. It’s not that they’re bad but they’re kind of underwhelming. This is especially true for the climax as, to be fair, it’s not supposed to be this big action packed battle but something more dramatic. I can appreciate Marvel doing something different once again. This isn’t one of those “punch the villain until they lose” kind of deals. But I just don’t think it was executed well enough to really make me feel like that emotional payoff was earned.

Overall, while Thunderbolts* does have a good number of flaws, the good definitely outweighs the bad. While the last third of the movie is kind of bad, the first two-thirds does build itself a lot of goodwill to make me forgive it. The performances from all of the main players are really good and the action scenes, in general, are just plain fun and well thought out. Sure, Thunderbolts* doesn’t exactly hit the highs of the early Marvel movies. But it’s much better than their later outings. Not exactly back in its prime but definitely much better than what we’ve gotten recently.

Have you seen Thunderbolts* yet? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments section below!