Seems like everyone is making “superhero” movies these days. While the bigger players like Marvel and DC are exploring character depth and dark realms, others want to play around the premise a bit. Thunder Force directed by Ben Falcone and distributed by Netflix approaches the Superhero genre like a parody. Hence obviously it isn’t aiming to create an impact but does the comedy tickle a bone or two? Let’s find out.
‘Thunder Force’ Summary
After being hit by a massive pulse of Interstellar Cosmic-Rays, a genetic transformation unleashed unimaginable powers in some rare individuals. These new superhumans came to be known as Miscreants. They started terrorizing the world and at one such instance burnt down a train on which Emily Stanton’s parents were traveling. Since that day, Emily made her life’s mission to stop the Miscreants at all cost.
Teenage Emily meets another crazy girl Lydia in her school and strikes an unlikely friendship. Though they become best friends, Emily parts away soon realizing she can’t be strolling around as she has bigger responsibilities like saving the world from Miscreants.
A few years later, Lydia (Melissa McCarthy) has literally wasted her life, now working as a crane operator on construction sites, while Emily (Octavia Spencer) has turned out to be a brilliant scientist. The world is terrorized by a threatful Miscreants called Laser and contesting Mayor, The King (Bobby Cannavale) promises to safeguard the people if they show him their support.
On their reunion, Lydia is baffled by Emily’s absence and she decides to pay her a visit to her research station, Stanton 4.0. Though the meeting between the two is heavily awkward, Lydia in her clumsy state initiates an injection procedure. It injects some genetically modified super serum and gives Lydia super strength. Emily was about to use that serum on herself but Lydia poked in. Feeling helpless, Emily decides to continue experimenting on Lydia while she saves invisibility power for herself. After the training, the two get prepared to save people from Miscreants, and in a heroic manner call themselves Thunder Force.
Major Spoilers Ahead
‘Thunder Force’ Ending Explained
Wasn’t that hard to guess, but it was The King who schemed the plan to spread terror through Miscreants. He wanted to reap people’s fear for his own gain until Thunder Force showed up and screwed his plan.
In the end, The King, who is a Miscreant himself, loses the election to Rachel Gonzales. But he isn’t the one to own up to a loss. Instead, he hosts a celebration inviting Gonzales and all those who voted against him. He plans to explode them with a time bomb.
Thunder Force tries to stop The King and defuse the bomb. To aid their help, Emily’s teenage daughter Tracy injects herself with the serum too and gains super-speed. Together they defeat the King but the bomb is still ticking and can’t be defused. Lydia steps in and decides to jump off the building with the bomb. She is hopeful that her super-body could take the impact, and if it doesn’t, she still would be able to save the people by sacrificing herself.
Lydia jumps into the water with the bomb. She saves the day and she isn’t harmed. Together, these two best friends bring Miscreants to justice. Though the Laser goes missing and the hunt is probably going to be continued in the sequel if there would be any.
Netflix is trying to contest against its competitor in SuperHero Business. However, with a few of its recent originals like Project Power, The Old Guard, and now Thunder Force, it has failed pathetically. Thunder Force is literally the opposite of what a superhero should not be. It is dull, painful, and extremely boring. The writing is the most amateurish that you’ll ever experience and the characters are “low-grade dupes” of everything we have already seen.
In the times, when Disney is making such extremely layered narratives like WandaVision, and HBO Max is running visually stunning Snyder’s Cut, Thunder Force runs without a story, plot, and character development. I think, with this comedy, one can undoubtedly say, “the jokes on you, Dude.” It’s an entertainer that bores you.
Thunder Force is what you get when you make a movie for the sole purpose of making it and not with a clear objective. It is another project that shouldn’t have happened but it’s Netflix and they don’t mind throwing trash on the internet.
Thunder Force is a 2021 superhero comedy film streaming on Netflix.
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