After the mixed buzz around Captain America: Brave New World, fans were bracing for another “meh” Marvel movie—but Thunderbolts is flipping the script. The 36th MCU film just dropped and it’s already pulling in serious praise, boasting a solid 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and even earning a rep as Marvel’s most surprisingly heartfelt movie in a long time.
Directed by Jake Schreier, Thunderbolts doesn’t follow the usual superhero playbook. Instead, it throws together a team of misfit anti-heroes—think less Avengers, more beautiful disaster squad. The cast is stacked: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, David Harbour, Lewis Pullman, and Olga Kurylenko all return as the morally grey characters we’ve come to love (or at least tolerate).
The plot? A bunch of ex-villains are roped into a high-stakes mission that no one else is willing to take. It’s Guardians of the Galaxy meets Suicide Squad, but with way more emotional baggage.
What’s really making waves, though, is how deep the movie goes emotionally. Critics are raving about the film’s willingness to talk about grief, trauma, addiction, and mental health—stuff Marvel usually skirts around. Florence Pugh’s Yelena gets some of the film’s most powerful scenes, and Lewis Pullman’s take on The Sentry (a.k.a. Bob) is getting serious love for being raw and layered.
The movie actually started off with a near-perfect 95% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes before settling at 88%—still way higher than most recent Marvel releases. Reviewers are loving the mix of serious themes and signature MCU humor. One of the biggest highlights? Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. Critics are calling her “a villain you’ll love to hate”—and honestly, they’re not wrong.
Sure, Thunderbolts deals with some dark stuff like depression and substance abuse, but it still manages to sneak in hilarious moments and sharp one-liners. The balance between chaos, comedy, and character work is exactly what fans have been missing from the MCU.
Bottom line? Thunderbolts isn’t just good—it’s a breath of fresh air for a franchise that’s been needing one. If Marvel can keep this up, the spark might just be coming back.