Thunder Force (2021)

Thunder Force (2021)

 6/10

 

Starring

Melissa McCarthy

Octavia Spenser

 

Directed by Ben Falcone

 

Thunder Force is Netflix’s new take on superhero movies, and I actually found it funny. I enjoy seeing Melissa McCarthy, but her movies are usually misses for me. The jokes are never funny, but because I enjoy her presence, I always come back for more, hoping to find one I like. This, like a few of the movies I’ve liked, is funny. If you remove the wasted time on cringey moments, annoying lines, and cliché settings, it’s a very decent film. I can understand the critics' dislike of the film because, I have to say, this is not a clever movie, and it won’t be breaking any ground with people clamoring for a sequel.

The pair poured their whole energy into this movie, and this husband-and-wife production (Ben Falcone and Melissa McCarthy) has been done in many McCarthy films before, but it would have done better with a more original and clever script.

The movie starts with a brief intro into the world now—after a cosmic beam hit the Earth and gave powers to people. The bad thing is, in this new world, the people who have the natural instinct to be evil are the ones who have the genetic capabilities to use these powers. Emily (Octavia Spencer) lost her parents to one of these supervillains, now called miscreants.

Emily was sent to a new school and was a subject of bullying until Lydia (McCarthy) came to her rescue. They grew up to be best friends, but Emily’s drive to finish what her parents started caused their friendship to end. Her parents were working on making good people with powers to face the miscreants, to balance things using genetics. Here, I believe the movie should have just kept them as friends instead of the awkward reunion they had.

Emily succeeded in finding a way to make good people with powers, and during their awkward reunion—when Lydia was messing around in Emily’s office—Lydia got injected with super strength. Emily had made two batches of superpowers at that time, and the one for invisibility was left for Lydia to take.

Lydia and Emily formed a superhero team called Thunder Force, after working through their past issues, and must stop the supervillain, The King.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this movie gets viewed a lot on Netflix because of the acting pair in the lead roles. The problem is, this movie is almost impossible to recommend because, even though I laughed in numerous places, I just feel the movie should have done more—especially with the action. Just imagine if the movie had expanded on Emily’s powers instead of just making her an invisible girl with a taser.

I believe the pair would have had us begging for a second part if the script had been more original and the powers cooler.