Mark Reviews Movies: THUNDER FORCE

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Review by Mark Dujsik | April 9, 2021

We—and the genre itself—could use a good spoof or satire of superhero movies. Thunder Force definitely isn't it.

Indeed, writer/director Ben Falcone's movie is a pretty dreadful excuse for a comedy, hoping that its star Melissa McCarthy can improvise, ramble, yell, fall, and otherwise make a fool of herself to compensate for the almost complete absence of any worthwhile comedic idea. McCarthy is usually the bright spot in even her worst comedy vehicles, but this might be the first time that her typical shtick has almost immediately felt tired.

We might have seen it too many times at this point. We might have figured out just how many times a movie has relied on her to carry lackluster material. The movie itself might just be dead weight in terms of inspiration and humor. The quick exhaustion with McCarthy's brand of comedy here might be the result of any of these things or all of them. It's definitely at least two, because the movie is a cul-de-sac of comedy pretty much from the start.

The story is set in a world where cosmic rays irradiated the planet back in the 1980s, leading to select people becoming super-powered. Apparently, all of these genetically modified super-humans became villains, dubbed "miscreants" here (Everyone makes a big deal of the fact that our protagonists are the first legitimate superheroes to exist), which seems like a pretty cynical view of humanity, but that's beside the point.

Anyway, a lengthy prologue details a childhood friendship between Lydia (McCarthy) and Emily (Octavia Spencer). The latter's parents were killed by a supervillain, and Emily has made it her life's goal to continue her parents' research into genetics, find a way to infuse a person with superpowers, and put an end to the miscreant scourge. A young Lydia stands up for the intelligent and bullied Emily, but Emily's ambitions and Lydia's desire to have a good time drive a wedge between them.

Decades later, Lydia invites her long-estranged friend to their high school reunion. When Emily's a no-show, Lydia looks for her at the headquarters of Emily's company. Through some curiosity and bumbling, Lydia ends up being injected with a serum. It will give her the super-strength Emily planned to give herself, and no wanting the process to go to waste, Emily decides to finish the treatment on her old friend. Emily will just undergo the treatment that makes her invisible.

It all starts fine enough—if also quite bland and a bit too certain of McCarthy's shenanigans (A long scene is dedicated to Lydia trying to determine if some milk has gone rotten, and that's just the random beginning of that streak)—as the promise of some superhero antics. Lydia undergoes her treatments, trains to take advantage of her powers (not before falling down or causing a lot of destruction), and, with Emily, becomes half of a crime-fighting duo. Overseeing their missions are Allie (Melissa Leo), a straitlaced former CIA agent, and Emily's genius daughter Tracy (Taylor Mosby), who feels overlooked by her mother.

Falcone's pretty basic intentions falter at almost every turn. The over-reliance on McCarthy's attempted comedic chops isn't a fatal flaw, although it highlights the short supply of ideas here (A running gag is Lydia's new appetite for raw chicken, which is so randomly unpleasant that it's not even amusing as an intentional gross-out). The usually great Spencer is left with almost nothing to do, except to explain things in a dry tone and otherwise serve as Lydia's dull foil (A smarter and funnier idea—which isn't saying too much in regards to this material—might have been to reverse the casting). We get bored of McCarthy, while Spencer is made intentionally boring.

The rogue's gallery of villains and their escapades aren't much fun, either. At the head is mayoral candidate "the King" (Bobby Cannavale), who's using other miscreants to win the election out of fear. One is "Laser" (Pom Klementieff), a generic baddie who can shoot energy from her hands, and the other is "the Crab" (Jason Bateman), who—as one might expect—has arms and claws like his namesake. He's involved in a couple scenes of foreplay using butter and seasoning, and it's around—if not well before—that point that one should realize Falcone's adoration for the random—no matter how unfunny—outshines every other concern of character, story, and comedy.

There are the random sing-alongs. There's a random scene about whether to call a henchman by his full name or nickname. Thunder Force is basically a collection of random gags, barely supported by its simple premise.

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