Major Thunder: The Game – is it as good as people say it is?

On May 23, 2024, the film «Major Thunder: The Game» launched in all Russian cinemas. It’s the long-awaited sequel to the movie about a simple policeman who saved the city from the Plague Doctor.

Major Thunder: The Game.

Why long-awaited? First of all, the first movie came out as far back as 2021. Second, we don’t get superhero movies coming out that often (read: not at all), and therefore every such quality movie — is worth its weight in gold. Well third — the fanbase around Major Thunder and Bubble comics in general has grown significantly over these past few years thanks to the comics and the movie (including the short film). So the excitement around the new movie is justified.

So the excitement around the new movie is justified.

Plot

That’s what Kinopoisk itself says about the movie:

Police Major Igor Grom is known throughout St. Petersburg for his assertive character and implacable stance towards criminals of all stripes. Incredible strength, analytical mind and incorruptibility – all this makes Major Grom a real superhero. His life is perfect: during the day he catches criminals together with his partner Dima Dubin, and the evenings are spent in the company of journalist Julia Pchelkina. The complete idyll is interrupted by the appearance in the city of a mysterious villain calling himself Ghost. He offers Thunder to play a dangerous game, the stake in which – the lives of ordinary people.

Generally speaking, the plot is without any complicated twists — everything is quite straightforward and logical. There is Major Grom, who is incredibly popular among the inhabitants of St. Petersburg, and here comes the villain.

Beware, there will be spoilers!

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The first problematic issue of the movie that we are confronted with from the very beginning is — humans will never be as effective as a good robot. And in line with this, the main leadership of the police decides to modernize this very police force by replacing them with drones from Holt’s company. Incidentally, if the comics are to be believed, it is Holt Jr. who is the adversary of Red Fury, about whom a TV series is to be released soon.

But drones, unlike humans, cost a lot more (we’re talking about pay, not the value of life), and that’s why this same management, led by Maria Arkhipova — a police lieutenant general from Moscow — is slow to buy. Holt doesn’t like it, and with the help of Ghost (Razumovsky’s long-awaited friend — Oleg Volkov), he proposes the idea of setting off a few demonstrative explosions in the city to speed up the decision to buy the drones.

For Major Thunder, this is where the game begins — he has to guess exactly where the bomb will be planted this time. For viewers, these are quite interesting scenes — funny in places, very tense in places. And for sure many will enjoy the cameos of many major bloggers. BadComedian, for example.

Further down the line comes a phase of even more action. Pchelkina has her own line, she is on the trail of the Ghost. Dima Dubin doesn’t waste time either, turns on his bloodhound sniffing skills and gets on Volkov’s trail. At some point all the lines cross. But everything may seem fun exactly until the Ghost kills Fedor Ivanovich — Grom’s boss and friend.

It should be noted that this scene turned out to be very strong and violent. So if you wanted to feel the emotional swings, this movie will fully satisfy your desire.

And if you wanted to feel the emotional swings, this movie will fully satisfy your desire.

The ending is intense and a bit overwrought — Grom confronts and simultaneously cooperates with Razumovsky’s various personalities, Volkov fights Holt, who has a cool exoskeleton, in the background, and the entire city is shot up by deranged drones, including half the police station.

Everything ends in Marvel fashion — Thunder finds a very stupid miscalculation in Razumovsky’s program that turned these drones against the city’s citizens. In the end, Sergei is killed by his own program, Holt flies home safely, and Volkoff is sort of caught.

All of this ends up happening.

Final scene — Thunder declares in court that his career as a cop is over, and his iris has changed color slightly, indicating the emergence of some other personality. What it is — we don’t know, but it will be interesting to watch the character develop, as the movie’s plot in no way matches the comic book of the same name.

The movie’s plot is not in any way the same as the comic book of the same name.

Heroes

Major Igor Grom, or simply «Ugorek». At the very beginning of the movie, he’s not much different from the version of himself we saw at the end of the first movie. But as the plot progresses the character evolves, facing some very frightening consequences of his job. He makes a hasty decision to break off his relationship with Pchelkina and stop communicating with Dima, to which they react understandingly. But somehow they are still close to him, albeit at a distance. The character of Tikhon Zhiznevsky is clever and intelligent, excessively cruel and aggressive. And the desire to avenge Fyodor Ivanovich drives him crazy. Thunder is interesting to watch — despite all the honors bestowed on him by the inhabitants of the city, he remains a man. Yes, with a heightened ego, but a man and a policeman who is ready to sacrifice himself without delay.

Sergei Razumovsky. For most of the movie, we don’t see him at all. But despite that — he’s around somewhere. Until the final scene, when Thunder himself makes the decision to free the enemy to help him, we just watch the crazy man in the cell, who is afraid of his own shadow and second personality — a bird, and who is obsessed with chess. Apparently this strategy game is inserted into the movie to make a reference to the original, where Sergei and Igor played chess, but not with pieces, but with the lives of loved ones. The finale shows him dead. But how it will actually be in subsequent installments — we will not take the liberty to state.

And how it will actually be in subsequent installments — we will not take the liberty to state.

Oleg Volkov. Oooh, a killing machine in pure form. He has no equal in the movie at all, even the contrived Holt with his electrical discharges can’t overpower him. The character really turned out to be quite interesting, despite his superhero banality, and it is quite likely that we will meet him again.

Dr.  Rubinstein. A character played by Khabensky, whom we criminally haven’t mentioned once yet. This is the doctor who is involved in the treatment of Razumovsky. Rumor has it that he puts experiments on his patients. And one of them — hypnosis with the help of a pendulum — we observe twice in the movie. And if in the scene with Igor, he just looked like a doctor, then in the scene with Pchelkina, this character is tense and, to some extent, even frightening. I really hope that his role will be expanded in the next movie, considering that he appeared in a rather interesting final scene where we are introduced to such a concept as «superhuman».

And I hope that his role will be expanded in the next movie.

 August van der Holt. He is somewhat reminiscent of the antagonist of the second installment of Iron Man — Ivan Vanko / Whiplash. He turned out to be a classic antagonist — a rich, smarmy businessman, who at first pursues only monetary goals, but then he has some principles and decides to take revenge on the Phantom.

General Impression

I won’t even hide — I liked the movie a lot. It is dynamic, emotional. Those who know about memes will find a couple of funny references. Seriously, nothing cheered up the people in the theater like the song «In Peter to Drink» and everyone’s favorite meme about the grandfather in the old house.

If you compare it to other superhero movies, for me Thunder — that blend of Marvel and DC. The right balance is struck — the jokes from the former and the grimness and hand-to-hand fighting from the latter, especially the scene with Holt’s team attacking Ghost’s hideout. As for the jokes — there are enough of them, but not so much that there are too many. Yes, some moments look extremely ridiculous, but they turned out pretty… real? In general, I want to say that in life, the same jokes we meet on every corner.

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The music is great. And Yandex.Music has an entire playlist dedicated to the movie «Major Thunder: The Game». The picture is nice, clear. And there are a couple of interesting scenes with some unusual shots.

The only downside, which you can’t really call a downside, is — a nuance — it’s cluttered. The movie runs 2.5 hours — the standard running time of modern superhero movies. But so many different storylines that are woven into a single knot toward the end — confusing. We want to watch the heat between Razumovsky, Thunder and the drones that shoot every other resident of St. Petersburg, and in parallel we’re still shown an intense brawl between Holt and Volkov. Spectacular, I don’t disagree, but it feels a little out of place.

Some of the action is a little out of place.

Graphics may be inferior to Marvel and DC, but there’s not so much of it in the movie to draw attention to it.

Conclusion

10 Gromov out of 10, if you take it in the context of sci-fi and superhero movies of the Russian segment. And overall, the movie can be given a confident 8.5 out of 10. The franchise is definitely evolving and moving in a direction that I, personally, really like. The clutter of the plot at the very end, Dima’s super-sniff and Sherlock’s (Guy Ritchie’s movie) in Thunder, when he anticipates his opponent’s movements — cause a tiny bewilderment, but do not spoil the movie.

Something feels too clichéd, but there’s no way to do it without it. And somewhere that cliché is made fun of and it’s straight up good. The movie is definitely worth watching if you’re a casual movie buff, and a must-see if you’re a superhero and comic book fan