Netflix Movie Review: Thunder Force

I have always wondered when a bad movie is released, how the people who spent 1-2 years writing and creating the production feel, when it gets very low ratings. One of the best examples of this is the movie “Gotti” released in 2018, which received a 0 total rating on Rotten Tomatoes. After all of of those years of hard work, writing and acting, and in the end, a bad movie is still made. Very often the people involved are not even aware that the movie is bad when they are making it. Critics are extremely cruel and Gotti was not a zero, but it was also not a very good movie. Gotti should have either not been made, or delayed until a good script was re-written. Very often due to budget concerns, or a deadline that just had to be met, becomes just another reason why a bad movie is made.

Melissa McCarthy is married to actor Ben Falcone, who both wrote and directed the new film “Thunder Force”, about high school friends who later become super heroes to fight off human mutants known as miscreants who were infected with cosmic radiation that affects each of them with dangerous super powers.

The idea behind this film, is an attempt by the screenwriter to cash in on the huge interest in Marvel Comics and Super Hero movies. In this case, Thunder Force is mostly a comedy, but unfortunately most of the comedy does not work. There was a good amount of money spent for special effects, with one of the highlights – “Melissa McCarthy who plays Lydia Berman throws a bus down a street”. One of the miscreants, a character called “The Crab”, played by Jason Bateman has lobster claws for hands. My assumption is that was idea was created entirely because they thought that having lobster claws for hands “looked funny”. It did not look funny.

Lydia Berman’s friend Emily Stanton is played by Octavia Spencer who is also best friends with Melissa McCarthy in real life, otherwise it is hard to understand why Spencer, who has won an Academy Award, decided to make this movie after reading the script. This production is a friendship collaboration that started with Ben Falcone and Melissa McCarthy coming up with this idea, writing the script and then hiring their two best friends to make the movie. I was surprised how few of the jokes were not funny in this story, visual or otherwise. Movie making is a long and arduous process and so many ideas that seemed so good at the beginning, fail either while trying to fix the script or on the cutting room floor. Melissa McCarthy is extremely likeable and funny, so hopefully this bad film will not do any damage to her career as a comedic actress.

I mostly agree with the very low 4.2 rating in IMDB and 25% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. This one is a surprisingly big miss, unfortunately for everyone involved.