Thunderbolts* (2025) reviews

The Fuzzy Mushroom take on Thunderbolts*

By Fuzzy Mushroom · Updated 14 November 2026 · The Pros 78 · The Punters 72 · Spore Score 76 · How we write our takes

Why The Pros and The Punters broadly agree

Thunderbolts* landed better than many expected for a late-phase Marvel film. The Pros give it 78, The Punters 72, and the Spore Score is 76, with a crystal clear tag and a 6-point gap. Critics are a touch warmer, mostly because the film spends its time on character and mood rather than wall-to-wall spectacle, which is exactly what some fans wanted more of.

What it is

Florence Pugh leads as Yelena Belova, the assassin introduced in Black Widow, who is stuck doing dirty jobs for CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. A set-up throws her together with other misfits from the Marvel films, including Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and US Agent (Wyatt Russell), along with a mysterious man called Bob, played by Lewis Pullman. Jake Schreier directs.

What it does well

Pugh is the reason it works. She plays Yelena's loneliness and dry humour with real feeling, and the film is unusually willing to talk about depression and emptiness for a superhero blockbuster. The team's awkward, squabbling chemistry is funny, Harbour gets plenty of laughs, and the finale finds a more personal way to resolve things than another sky-beam battle.

Where it falls short

Some of the team get very little to do, the villain plot is thin, and viewers who don't follow the wider Marvel series may miss the weight of a few returns and reveals. The action is solid but rarely memorable.

Who it is for

Marvel fans who have felt the recent films were running on autopilot, and anyone who liked Pugh in Black Widow. It stands up reasonably well on its own.

The Fuzzy Mushroom verdict

Worth a watch, with a Spore Score of 76. A smaller, sadder and funnier Marvel film than usual, carried by Florence Pugh, and one that critics and audiences both rate well.