Thunder Force

Superhero comedies are nothing new in modern cinema due to how many of them have risen in the past few decades. They aren't exactly hard to do when the effort is there but it can open the door to complacency for those who want to take a premise and turn it into a vanity project. That type of effort description perfectly describes comedian Melissa McCarthy: when she puts effort into projects where her husband Ben Falcone isn't directing, films turn out decently. But when he's at the directors/writer helm with a minuscule budget for better profits, you get laziness such as The Life of the Party. This brings us to their latest efforts into the aforementioned genre, Thunder Force, which Ben both wrote and directed. The announcement of it filled me with dread and being available on Netflix would mean possible streaming deals for that duo. I eventually reached the point where I would decide to watch it after getting enough good films in my system and it ended up being worse than I though it would be.

What's it about? Taking place in a reality where a cosmic beam gave powers to malevolent people, the story follows 2 distant childhood friends who end up getting abilities to fight crime. There is certainly potential in such a premise to where the term they use to identify these felons is different from other media: they are called Miscreants. And with that, the only positive element has been identified about this film.

As a whole, there is so much laziness and vanity written into this script (by the stars husband) to the point where spoiler details must be discussed to describe how bad it is. The standard opposite friends intro is super rushed and there's an annoying phrase that feels phoned in the more it's used ("I'm not a nerd, I'm just smart"). The comedy is heavily reliant on improvisation jokes but those are incredibly drawn out, tedious, and annoying to the point where the mute button was used during my viewing. In addition to that, they don't even follow their own established logic: the main protagonists go through a period of experimenting before their powers kicked in but it must have been forgotten when in the climax, a companion takes a pill to get speed powers. The vanity is so apparent to the point where the smart friend of the duo turns invisible just to provide more spotlight on the main star. The writing is so bland and doesn't even try to elevate itself (includes pointless plot twist) to the point where a main protagonists nourishment is eating raw chicken (yes seriously).

 

How are the actors? In regards to story importance, the actresses to focus on are Melissa McCarty and Octavia Spencer. Melissa gives such a phoned in performance that relies on things people have been wanting her to move away from: physical humor as an overweight person, badly drawn out improv, and basically anything Adam Sandler character troupe. Octavia isn't given useful material to the point where the director gave her invisible powers so that the most talented actress in the cast doesn't upstage his wife (pushing the black best friend to the side in favor of that disfunction white woman).  Dishonorable mentions Ben Falcone, Bobby Cannavale, and Jason Bateman due to the former 2 giving the worst performances among the supporting cast while the latter is phoning it in with his weak lines regarding his crab claw hands.

 

Overall Consensus: Thunder Force is a vanity project that focuses on weak improv humor, awful directing, horrible script, and lack of commitment to a cohesive engaging comedy, neglecting the rest of the cast as a result. ⭑ Runtime: 1 hour 47 minutes PG-13

 

Reasons to watch it: You are a fan of the aforementioned actors and/or filmmaker Ben Falcone. You want to have something on as background noise. 

 

Reasons to avoid it: You aren't a fan of the aforementioned actors and/or filmmaker Ben Falcone. You dislike lame comedies that don't try to live up to its potential or give its cast useful material. You are annoyed with comedians who are aiming to follow Adam Sandler type of annoying protagonist roles. You hate Hollywood nepotism that leads to terrible directing.