It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s… two middle-aged women in spandex? Thunder Force released on Netflix on April 9 and tells the story of two women who are injected with superpowers. As much as I wish I could say the movie was a smash hit, it was more like an epic flop. 

Thunder Force follows best friends Lydia (Melissa McCarthy) and Emily (Octavia Spencer) who met in elementary school. Lydia is the rebellious underachiever to Emily’s nerdy sophistication. The two grow apart in high school but then come together again after Emily moves her company back to Chicago.

A strange series of events lead Lydia to accidentally injecting herself with a  super strength serum that Emily had spent years perfecting, thus binding the two women together again. Emily herself injects herself with the power of invisibility and the two become Thunder Force: the crime-fighting duo sent to thwart the attacks of the Miscreants, a group of super-powered criminals tormenting the city such as Laser and The Crab. 

From there, the plot revolves around the Thunder Force trying to save Chicago from various Miscreant attacks headed by William “The King” Stevens, a greedy politician trying to become the mayor. 

Honestly, the entire movie seemed to be a wannabe DC movie. I wasn’t super impressed by the superpowers, costumes, or superhero names. “Bingo” doesn’t really awe and inspire. Plus, the idea behind how they got the powers wasn’t fully put together. I realize that the science of creating superheroes doesn’t exist, but the execution wasn’t very impressive. 

The plot also wasn’t very creative. From the beginning, it was obvious who the villain would be and how Thunder Force would save the day in the end. I knew exactly what was going to happen next which didn’t make viewing the movie very fun. The characters fell flat as well. Lydia’s personality revolved around being the comedian and Emily was the genius, and that was all they had going for them. They had little character growth and they didn’t have very dynamic personalities. The comedy fell flat and I ended up cringing through a lot of McCarthy’s attempts at humor. 

I like the idea behind the movie, but it fell flat for me. It just wasn’t super. I wouldn’t recommend watching it. Little kids would probably think it’s cool just because of the superhero aspect, but that’s about it.