'Thunderbolts' Early Reviews Overwhelmingly One-Sided

Reviews for Marvel's 'Thunderbolts' are coming out and they seem to say the same thing.

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Michileen Martin is a contributing entertainment writer located in New York. His focus is on Comics and Comic Book Movies. He has in-depth knowledge of Comics as a whole, being a fan for over 40 years and covering them at Looper, Digital Trends, and Giant Freakin Robot. Michileen joined Newsweek in February 2025. He is a graduate of the State University of New York at Albany. You can get in touch with Michileen by emailing m.martin@newsweek.com. You can find him at Threads @mickmartin182.

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The reviews for "Thunderbolts*" are coming out, and everyone seems to be saying the same thing: for fans tired of the same old thing in Marvel movies, this is the one that breaks the mold of recent failures. It's a great flick with a big heart, and most of the credit goes to the cast, who elevate the material above usual superhero movie fare.

Read More: New 'Thunderbolts' Teaser Shows Best Look at Sentry's Powers

One of the main common threads throughout the reviews is that "Thunderbolts*" is, as Liz Shannon Miller of Consequence calls it, "a breath of fresh air." She also writes that it's "a notable step forward for the MCU as a whole, which is pretty remarkable given that this is a cast of characters where the literal point is that they're loose ends left adrift."

From left to right: David Harbour as Red Guardian, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, Sebastian Stan as the Winter Soldier, and Wyatt Russell as USAgent in Thunderbolts* From left to right: David Harbour as Red Guardian, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, Sebastian Stan as the Winter Soldier, and Wyatt Russell as USAgent in Thunderbolts* DISNEY

Likewise, Linda Marric of HeyUGuys calls the film "a gritty, chaotic and sometimes uneven return to the best of the old MCU. It is thrilling and heartfelt and best of all, it proves Marvel can still surprise us when it stops trying to please everyone and leans into the weirdness."

Some critics weren't in love with "Thunderbolts*" as much as others, but still gave it credit for surpassing other recent Marvel films. Empire Magazine's John Nugent, for example, writes that the film "doesn't always land, but it dares to be different, from the title to the team-up. Fresh and thoughtful in a way recent Marvel efforts haven't always managed."

Similarly, Donald Clarke of the Irish Times says, "It is a shame the project feels flimsier than the average TV-show pilot, but, after the catastrophe that was 'Captain America: Brave New World', one can celebrate something that at least has a middle between its beginning and its end."

If nothing else is agreed upon by most critics, it's that the best reason to see "Thunderbolts*" is Florence Pugh's portrayal of Yelena Belova.

"If it ultimately works," writes Radheyan Simonpillai of the Guardian, "it's all due to Pugh, who can wrestle sincerity out of a screenplay (and a franchise) that has so little, capturing a whole emotional arc in just her moments of silence."

Vulture's Alison Willmore agrees, writing, "Pugh, in particular, gives the movie an emotional tangibility that makes it feel realms more solid than the last few years of Marvel product."

If nothing else, we know what the critics have to say about "Thunderbolts*". The film hits theaters this Friday, May 2.

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