Thunderbolts has rekindled some of the magic lost in the MCU, though it’s not without its problems. Then again, no Marvel film is without its flaws. At least this one seems to understand what audiences want better than most post-End Game efforts from the studio.

The MCU has been in rough shape. Outside of a few exceptions – Spider-Man: No Way Home, Guardians Of The Galaxy 3 and, to a lesser degree, Deadpool & Wolverine and Shang Chi – the film side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been pretty lackluster in its fourth and fifth phases. Some of the Disney+ shows have been excellent – WandaVision, Agatha All Along and especially Loki – but many of those have misfired as well. And a big problem with the project as a whole is tying everything together, including the TV shows, which makes it much harder for audiences to keep up, especially as more and more fans burn out and start skipping lackluster offerings.

Thunderbolts feels a bit more like old-school MCU fare. It’s leaps and bounds better than the other most recent Marvel movie, the cumbersome and unsatisfying Captain America: Brave New World. Spoilers follow.

The plot follows Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) one of the Black Widows and sister to Natasha Romanoff. She’s burnt out in her job as a “cleaner” for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and wants a more “public facing” role, inspired partly by her father, Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian (David Harbour) who dreams of bigger things.

When she poses this idea to de Fontaine, her shadowy boss agrees, so long as she’ll complete one final mission. De Fontaine has other ideas. She’s busy cleaning house while under a congressional investigation and wants all evidence of her misdeeds scrubbed, including her special operatives, who she pits against one another in a remote lab deep underground. Things don’t go her way, and our rag-tag band of heroes escapes with a mysterious man named Bob (Lewis Pullan) with equally mysterious powers and an adorably affable demeanor.

One thing leads to another, and the reluctant band of anti-heroes ends up teaming up to take down de Fontaine. Other members of the “Thunderbolts” include Wyatt Russell’s John Walker aka U.S. Agent, the once-Captain America whose rage issues led to his downfall and recruitment into de Fontaine’s cabal; Ava Starr’s Ghost, an assassin who can turn invisible and phase through walls; and, of course, Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes aka the Winter Soldier, who becomes the de facto leader of the group. Barnes is also a newly minted congressman, though he has no patience for his colleagues’ committees and red tape.

The movie works on a lot of levels. It’s quite funny, for one thing, with a great blend of humor thanks to Harbour’s over-the-top Red Guardian and Yelena’s acerbic wit. The chemistry between Pugh, Harbour, Russell and Pullman is genuinely great. And Sebastian Stan gets to have one very cool action sequence to remind us how much of a badass the Winter Soldier really is, and how much he really deserves his own movie. (I’m still pulling for a Sebastian Stan Luke Skywalker movie also . . . .) The action is great throughout the film, and the whole thing is really well-paced, clocking in at just about two hours.

Where the film stumbles, rather badly, is in its third act. When things take a terrible turn for the worse, our heroes have to face off against Sentry, a superhero more powerful than all the original Avengers combined (according to de Fontaine). But Sentry quickly turns into his other, darker half: Void. It’s a great setup for an epic showdown, but everything that follows feels rushed and the resolution is too neat and tidy. Given the pretty fascinating history of these dueling personas, a lot more could have been done with the Sentry/Void character, and I hope we do see more in future films.

As it stands, this felt like too many other MCU films with strong opening arcs and a rushed conclusion. I often complain that superhero movies are too long, but this one might have benefited from a bit more screen time, or more economical use of time earlier on in the picture.

Still, I enjoyed this a great deal even if I wouldn’t include it with S-Tier MCU films like The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: The Winter Soldier or Spider-Man: No Way Home. Thunderbolts has a lot of heart, a great sense of humor and enough action to keep you on the edge of your seat. While it stumbles in the third act, it’s still worth a watch. And be sure to stick around for both the mid-credits and post-credits scene. The latter is actually pretty meaty, and sets up Phase 6 of the MCU.

P.S. I’ve seen some people saying the film engages too much in “girlboss” stuff or makes the male characters seem stupid compared to the female characters. While this has definitely been an issue in some MCU products (ahem, She-Hulk) I really don’t think it’s a very good critique of Thunderbolts. Characters like John Walker and Red Guardian are definitely played for laughs, but they also get some really great moments with heart and badassery. It felt like a pretty solid balance across the cast, with everyone flawed but ultimately likeable and heroic.

And I’m so glad that we aren’t doing multiverse stuff anymore! Only Loki and No Way Home handled this really well. Even Deadpool & Wolverine was bogged down by the multiverse garbage. But that’s just my personal opinion, shaped by overuse of the gimmick over the years. (The Spider-Verse films do it well also, but aren’t part of the MCU).

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