Thunder Force and How Not to Interpret Superheroes
The moral case for why you need to think through what you're doing with superhero movies.
Superheroes are everywhere today.
The most obvious example is this is the MCU and the insane success they've had. DC has had similar success although mostly in the television landscape. Between the two they've mostly cornered the market on superhero content. However this hasn't stopped various independent and popular but lesser known properties from trying to get in on the action. Perhaps the best versions of this are Kick Ass and The Boys.
Marvel and DC have decades of experience with interpreting superheroes and how to reinvent them through the comics they published over the years. Not to mention the fact that both made previous attempts to create superhero movies and television. This is far from new for them. It's much more interesting to notice how many times they've had trouble properly interpreting the stories rather than how successful they've been. Even Kick Ass and The Boys was originally created by writers who have many years of experience in Marvel or DC before transitioning to their highly successful independent comics and their adaptations.
Thunder Force has none of the experience and knowledge that these other entities have.
Which is not to say that they don't understand anything. With the number of films and TV shows and other media out there, it would be hard to not have some experience with such things. However, just because you've seen a superhero movie or television show, doesn't mean you understand how stories like that are supposed to work. Although Thunder Force has many of the fundamental tropes of superhero stories like a childhood tragedy, training montages and many others, none of them really connect on an emotional level.
Yes, the movie is supposed to be a comedy and trying to make fun of the superhero genre on many levels. That doesn't mean it's been earned in the storytelling. Kick Ass is a superhero comedy as well, not to mention Deadpool which is perhaps the most obvious example of doing a send up of tropes in the superhero genre. The difference is that they understand the point of the trope and in many ways manage to reinforce the importance of them in the process. Or seek to challenge the superhero genre to push things further and come up with new tropes or new ways to deal with the tropes.
Thunder Force fails to do anything close to this. It's only interested in the joke for the sake of the joke. There's no deeper meaning or underlying critique of the concept. Things don't happen because the characters need them to. They don't happen because it makes sense for the story. They happen because it's the next supposed trope that a joke has been written for.
There's nothing of any real value to learn from the movie, except what not to do when interpreting a superhero.
If you wanted to do that however, feel free to check it out on Netflix.