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Thunderbolts is the latest Marvel movie focusing on many of the antihero characters that have appeared in various MCU media over the years. Yelena (Florence Pugh), Black Widow’s sister, is the protagonist, so it’s best to view this movie as a sequel to the Black Widow movie. The other members of the Thunderbolts team are Red Guardian (David Harbor) also from Black Widow, Bucky (Sebastian Stan) and John Walker (Wyatt Russell) from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) from Ant-Man and the Wasp. The group of five must work together to expose a conspiracy created by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) who has been set up as an antagonist in post-credit scenes for the previous three productions. Well, now those seeds are sprouting!

The main plot revolves around De Fontaine being accused of unspecified wrongdoing by Congress. She’s under investigation and needs to hide all of the evil schemes she’s had going over the last few years. Her team of misfits, calling themselves the Thunderbolts, get roped into this coverup. However, as events progress they decide they’d rather expose De Fontaine than work with her. Of course, De Fontaine has plots within plots so she has several backup plans as well.

Thunderbolts delivers on all the stuff Marvel movies are good at. Fun action, quippy dialogue, and over the top villains. The action scenes that allowed for the Thunderbolts team to initially bond were great. There was also a reference scene to Terminator 2, with Bucky as the Terminator that I liked a lot. Red Guardian had the best lines from my point of view, but I think the character’s personality is easy to be drawn to no matter what he’s saying.

I felt the acting was well done. Florence Pugh had some odd lines to deliver that only make sense in the broader context of the movie. As the point of view character she introduces the movie with a voiceover narration that feels off. The intention is to rapidly summarize the relevant events of Black Widow and Endgame while also setting up some character development for later in the movie. It’s sloppy, but I can’t say I’d do much better, and Pugh sells it well. The rest of the cast do a great job as well with John-Kamen possibly performing weakest, but that might also be the writing not giving her a lot of opportunities.

Oddly for a Marvel movie, there was also a theme of how depression affects people running throughout the movie. The Thunderbolts are all depressed and dissatisfied with their lives unless they’re doing hero work. But due to various circumstances they’ve been doing superhero stuff in the shadows instead of the public eye. The climax of the film really beats down this message of loneliness and despair where each character has to confront their inner demons to defeat the final villain. I’m not sure if mature is the right word to describe how Marvel handled this theme, but they did their best to take the topic seriously within the context of an action movie.

So should you see Thunderbolts? If you’re a fan of Marvel movies, yes. Otherwise… probably not. It has elements of a fun action/spy movie, but the third act drastically disrupts that with Marvel superpowers and depression exploration. I think people who aren’t fans of Marvel will feel like the third act comes out of nowhere and leave feeling unfulfilled. For fans of Marvel movies, I’m not even sure if I’d recommend this for watching on the big screen. I had a good time, but I don’t think the special effects made seeing this in theaters worth it. I would’ve had just as much fun watching it on Disney+ two months later on my couch at home.