The film became a riot and a real sensation. A superhero movie appeared in Russia.
Igor Thunder is a Russian superhero. It is Russian: lives in a communal room, drinks and loves Shaverma. He's selfish, proud. However, a plague doctor appears in the city, cutting at the root the main flaw of the country - corruption. Only more Chinese than European methods: killing people.
Already at the release of "Major Thunder" became relevant. The domestic superhero franchise was able to bring diversity to our cinema. The rights to the film were acquired by Netflix.
Oleg Trofim managed to show on the screen the dynamics and diversity, the viewer is hard to take his eyes off the screen. Separately, it is worth praising the actors, their images have become memorable for the audience: these are Tikhon Zhiznevsky, Alexander Seteykin, Sergey Goroshko and many others.
The views of the cultural capital please the eye. St. Petersburg is perfect for the scene: a troubled, gloomy and beautiful city implies violent and important phenomena within its walls.
The visual effects team should be praised. The editing of the film is very high-quality: inserts from news, scenes of fights and explosions are amazing. Modern Marvel movies look worse.
The only nitpicking will be the forced step: often in the film are read references to Western stories, especially the publishing house DC, in particular Batman. Most likely, the creators were inspired by the Dark Knight. However, the events of other comics are transformed and take the form of a domestic plot, as if asking the question: "What would it look like in Russia?". This makes the film interesting to watch and doesn’t look like an empty copy of an American blockbuster.
To fully plunge into this film, you need to understand where the "roots" of all this ugliness (just kidding!!!). Take Wikipedia and read : "Bubble Comics." Russian Comics Publishing House - Russian publishing house specializing in comics, created by journalist Artem Gabrelyanov in 2011. It is the largest publisher of original comics in Russia. The publisher simultaneously produces several of its own lines of comics and, in addition, produces a companion Thematic products”. (c) In 2017, the cinema also had the launch of a domestic comic book and Major Thunder with Gorbatov in the title role (this is the actor who played the role of the actor). Prokhora Gromov in the modern "Ugly - river". The film was 30 minutes long and was a great success for the first director Besedin. Signal dynamics and The raucous plot, editing problems in the technical jump were all together ... pleased the eye 6 million views on YouTube. Success is certain. "Major Thunder: Plague Doctor" and its premiere turned out to be Oleg Trofim even more successfully. It seems that all the developments are reasonable and A competent clipmaker Oleg invested in all 100.The plot does not sag anywhere. Timekeeping is not small for a larger screen and a serious studio work - the result of more than 2 hours - spectacular and aftertaste tangible. The choice of the main character Tikhon Zhiznevsky fell directly into the heart. Hot, stubborn, intelligent, physically charges and fundamentally "breeds" conflicts. Chamber scenes of hand-to-hand fights, itself "packed" action, visually worked out and with a soul picture "business" and thoughtful dialogues, alternative Petersburg with its landscapes. All together. laborious work. Of course, you can not cancel the version of the cover of the opening credits of Viktor Tsoi - his "Changes". As well as keeping up with the plot ... a sound consisting of compositions by Dolphin and a couple of other popular authors. Sure, like work, comic book. This dynamic movie is an order of magnitude higher than Black Lightning and Defenders. There's an idea. And it works on all the keys. The signs that a certain genre puts for itself. There are a couple of disadvantages in terms of the fact that Major Thunder in a couple of moments reminds and films by Guy Ritchie and Zack Snyder and Nolan, and also figuratively and reflexively reminds Danila Bagrova from "Brother". But most importantly, The viewer is given to be torn apart - a story that will be interesting not only to the teenage audience, there are also sore themes of protests. and corruption and murder. As an audience and as an 8-person company, I will remember the film. I don't think I'll send it to the collection for a reason, not mine. genre. And in general - very incendiary, precise, talented, exciting.8 out of 10. Thanks. We'll wait for the sequel. Yes.💋 Review written: April 16, 2021, Olya Grinevskaya (Alenushka).
Not worse than Marvel – about the successful attempt of Oleg Trofim to make the first Russian comic book film
“A superhero is not one who has superpowers, but one who defeated a supervillain” – a phrase thrown by journalist Yulia Pchelkina almost at the very end of the film becomes his motto, because his main character is an ordinary policeman, differing from others only by his principledness and courage, because of which he is repeatedly forgiven violations of the charter.
St. Petersburg lives its own life, and on its streets, of course, crimes are committed - different people come to the city police department: a pensioner whose wallet was stolen and no one cares about him, a woman pumping her rights, finally, a young intern Dima Dubin, who is trying to teach life and given under the patronage of the main character, Major Thunder. On the news periodically flash criminal reports, which the viewer may not pay attention. And it is worth it – after all, the events shown in the news create a real threat – a new maniac in the mask of a plague doctor, burning alive first the son of a billionaire who escaped punishment for a fatal accident, and then several more influential people involved in deception, corruption, poisoning the city with their very existence. Who this brutal killer, who later became an Internet star with a crowd of followers, we learn literally 10 minutes after his appearance, but not everything is as simple as it seems.
The reverse side of absolute freedom of the network, duty, love and friendship in the scenery of the Northern capital under the soundtracks from the group “Dolphin” and with a taste of shaverma – all this creates a unique atmosphere of comedy of a new level. This film is definitely worth watching for those who are crazy about St. Petersburg and those who still believe in the Russian film industry, because the filmmakers were able to prove that a good action movie can be shot without expensive special effects and computer graphics, if you put your heart into it.
10 out of 10
Major Thunder: Plague Doctor. Naïve and naïve borderline
For a very long time I avoided intrusive advertising of this film, but Kinopoisk did finish me off, and I heard about it as a good entertaining film. So I decided to look. And I have something to say.
If we talk about the general impression, the first thing that came to my mind after watching the film is a worthy competitor to American superhero films. Since I did not watch it on the big screen, and I do not like to look for small shoals in the frames, I can not say that as a graphics did not give way, but on the smartphone screen it was very pleasant to watch and no obvious hacking was found. In terms of characters, quite logical and integral stories, there are interesting twists, there is no feeling that the story was gathered on the knee and pulled on the plot, like an owl on the globe. I really liked that during the whole film there was not a single meaningless bed scene (they are not there at all, but they are not needed), I just got tired of watching in many Russian and not only films sexual scenes for the sake of sexual scenes and attracting an audience stuck in puberty. There is a large romantic arch in the film. So yes, the overall impression is pleasant, and the film deserves to stand on a par with major American superheroes.
The second thing that came to my mind, 4 words: gloomy, naive, categorical, borderline. It feels like the writers were inspired by Brother and Batman. Very gloomy and depressing atmosphere, dark, gray, cold colors with rare exceptions when the viewer gets to some festive or status locations. Endless despair and night or twilight, fun only for the rich, and the rest live in utopia. And this leads to boundary categoricalness. There's only good or bad. The city lives badly, because there are few good people and everything has been taken away from them. And only Major Thunder knows how to do well. Which is very naive. And the romantic story is also insanely naive. But the film was not required to be complex, it is a superhero, well-written, well-made, well-sold, very Russian, very patriotic.
I was incredibly excited about the idea of making the world a better place in the film. That everyone sees this idea in their own way and wants to achieve this goal in their own way. The film does not save a sleek world from the invasion of aliens, here make a dirty and gloomy world better. This is a superhero, but with a Russian accent.
I didn’t like the idea, which the authors may not have laid down, but it is readable. All evil comes from the rich. I do not believe so, and in general, I believe that evil in equal proportions is borne by all segments of the world’s population, rich, poor, healthy, sick, cheerful and sad. But the film stubbornly declares: "Rich exploit the poor!", "Rich with fat mad." This idea is not close to me at all.
As a result, the film is worth watching and a solid 9K. Minus only for theses about the rich, and so recommend for family viewing.
Drawing comics and making action plays on them is one of many things Russia has borrowed from America, and in this case it is worth noting that it is not in vain. Comics in America have been on the pages since time immemorial, and in Russia they were learned quite late, but many of the classic stories about superheroes were filmed only in the 'tenths', and now, in the 'twenties', we are seeing a decline in excitement around this art due to the decline in the quality of new projects Marvel and DC. In Russia in 2017, they tried to remove the answer to Marvel and released Defenders, which was subjected to a flurry of negative criticism, despite the obvious “Russian spirit” in the film. The historical film "Legend of Kolovrat" was also a response to the American adaptation of comics on the historical theme of "300 Spartans" - in this case, our film received relatively good reviews, but very restrained, since many eyes were cut by the excessive abundance of computer graphics without a live nature and distortion of history for the sake of action. And so, in 2021, a film is released, which, it would seem, bears the theme of cops and their capture of bandits, which everyone has long been fed up with on the NTV channel, highlighting only the projects of Ilya Kulikov (Glukhar, Karpov, Sword) as the only thing that can be seen among all this consumer goods. This new film, which, unlike the series pro cops, was held in cinemas and collected a huge box office, is based on a comic book - this is the story of a talented hereditary opera, which in childhood lost his father (we later saw it in the prequel "Thunder: Difficult Childhood" together with the main character in adolescence in the 90s), whose opponent becomes a mysterious fighter with criminal authorities and wealthy tycoons, who performs merciless lynching over them. Previously, we saw a whole group of modern Robin Hoods in the series “Sword”, but there they were presented to the viewer as positive heroes, and in the film “Major Thunder: Plague Doctor”, a fighter for justice, whose nickname is taken out in the subtitle of the film, is presented as a supervillain, whom a superhero must stop.
If “Defenders” is a direct response to “The Avengers” (also made in the genres of fiction and fantasy and represents the confrontation of a group of good forces against a group of evil forces), and “The Legend of Kolovrat” is peplum, then “Major Thunder” is essentially just a spectacular action movie without fiction (except for a fictional super-advanced social network developed by a young genius of new technologies). But the comic-book manner takes place here, and perhaps in the case of this film, the authors wanted to replicate the success of the first Sin City, shot from the comics of the same author who painted bloody battles involving 300 Spartans (though without directly emulating the entire stylistics and characters of Robert Rodriguez's film) - and, as we see from the box office and a barrage of applause awaiting a sequel subtitled "Game," they succeeded. The protagonist here is clearly not from the real world - where now will you see a young man who uses a cell phone from the late 90s with a black and white screen and despises social networks and the whole civilization? One can understand only that his “clean hands” is a complete abstinence from bribes: we have already seen such a cop in Gaishniki. It is this young cop who gets the task of finding and neutralizing the vigilante, who began with the murder of a major, who was released from custody in the courtroom, where he was supposed to receive a sentence for hitting a child to death while intoxicated; but then, when the Plague Doctor crosses a completely understandable moral line, it becomes clear that the authors do not in vain assign this character the status of a villain. And yet, when watching, one does not even want to be caught (many poor viewers from the lower strata of the population, humiliated by capitalism in Russia, probably caught themselves on the same idea).
Major Thunder's logic is, 'You can't kill people!' - nobility is a good thing, but not when it comes to defending justice and ridding good people of bad people. It is not for nothing that the Russian viewer at one time loved the series “Sword”, whose heroes took up pistols and killed like dogs those who sell drugs, rape children and take away apartments from the elderly – everyone liked to watch how at least on the screen freaks get their own. But here we see that such actions can lead to mass disorder (well, then let’s remember “Joker” there was a similar scene), and about the Plague Doctor we later learn something that reminds us of another Hollywood masterpiece in the genre of psychological thriller of the late 90s (I won’t say the title of the film, otherwise it will automatically be a spoiler) – and then it becomes clear that stop it, maybe, and really necessary. Only this does not change the fact that the film shows the truth about the corruption of the judicial structure in Russia and the lawlessness of the powerful in general.
The film is good, and the contradiction is good for it. I just hope no one accused him of advertising shawarma - stupid, really. It was nice to see Lyubov Aksyonova (Vasilisa from the uncouth youth comedy Walk, Vasya!) and Alexei Maklakov (Shmatko from the series Soldiers). Thank you for the good action and topicality - such films we need.
10 out of 10
He went to the cinema in the year of the release of the film Major Thunder: Plague Doctor. We went with a friend to watch, not knowing what to expect from this film. They knew only one thing - the first serious film on comics of domestic production broke into the box office. Such an event should not be missed. We have taken our seats and are ready to absorb new information. A new acquaintance has been made and is now ready to share impressions of acquaintance and some considerations regarding this tape.
A narrative criterion or narrative. Major Igor Gromov is a thunderstorm of the underworld. He is distinguished by a penetrating character, an analytical mindset and incredible strength. But on the horizon was an opponent equal to him in intelligence and persuasion. The beginning of the development of a large feature film was laid in the seventeenth year, when a short film was shown as a presentation of a new hero to a wide audience. On the Western canon of the genre of kinokomix was imposed a domestic flavor and it worked. In a way, this is a full-length continuation of that short film. Here's that rare case where there's not just a story with the idea that one in the field is not a warrior. Only a person who has support in the form of friends and family can withstand the most difficult tests. But it is also imbued with the belief that people can change without external forces. Our nervous system is so shattered that we are willing to see negativity, even where we don’t need to look. Because when we get into the swamp, we feel like there's no way out. But even though we look like a gray mass, our hearts are capable of change. Change must begin with yourself. The plague doctor is driven by the idea of equality of all before all, no one can be better than others. But it is not as simple as it may seem at first glance. Everything is fine and humorous here as well. There are moments that will smile, and with some you will laugh in your voice. But most importantly, the film contains all of the above ideas, structurally remaining a comic book. Oddly enough, it turned out a comic book on the patterns of the West with our color. Don’t believe this movie in one thing. Everyone wants change, not just crazy people. The rest of it was successful.
Visual criterion or technical equipment of the picture. In this regard, the film is also able to surprise. The operator savors every chase, every detail of the frame, creating a spatial environment around the characters, giving them more opportunities to reveal themselves. This is especially true for action scenes. Fights do not look like a flash of hands and feet, explosions are colorful. Manual flamethrowers fully justify their presence in the frame. Another issue is that a film with a 136-minute timeline can quickly tire if it is overflowing with color. Darkness and light are evenly distributed. The soundtrack is good, there are just good songs, and the song of the group Kino in the context of the tape acquires conceptuality. Also, melodies and sounds work on the mood of the scenes and the general intonation of the tape.
Acting jobs. In the film Igor Thunder played Tikhon Zhiznevsky. I remember one of his early works with Pavel Sanayev in the film At the Game, where he played the long, curly guy who smelled of charm. Now he's grown up and got a cool role. He managed to capture the essence of the character, to feel the dramaturgy of the image. He is obsessed with his tongue and always says what he thinks. He is who he is because of a heightened sense of justice. Lyubov Aksyonov as Internet journalist Yulia Pchelkina. The girl is engaged in exposing illegal activities and is on the front lines in the fight against the Plague Doctor. Alexei Maklakov is good, every scene with his participation is a decoration of the tape. Alexander Seteykin played Dubin, Thunder's partner. He looks like a good guy. Sergey Goroshko played a complex character, not often in our penets for mass screens show characters with a personality disorder. Western pictures don't count. There is something to see and there is someone to see.
As a conclusion. The movie worked. He will be able to like it, because the plot is good, and the direction is high-quality, and the actors will please. But the main thing is that rare case when the film is made well, with knowledge. I recommend going to the cinema to see if this is your story. All health, good and good movie.
Praise cannot be criticized. Where do you put the comma?
This is a very bad project. But also very good. . .
In the next 2024 will be the second (except for the prequel) full-length superhero film about “Major Thunder”. The first was released in 2021, called Major Thunder: Plague Doctor and offered the audience a rather unusual spectacle.
If you asked a neural network to write a story about a Russian policeman based on a story about Batman and add a little Spider-Man with a cucumber Sherlock and a Bond, then probably it would turn out just the story of Major Thunder.
The main character here is a brave selfless policeman. He fights evil, disobeys the rules and tries to fight the evil that has taken over Gotham Peter. And although at the very beginning of the film we see how a corrupt judge releases the son of an oligarch responsible for the death of a child, the main villain in this story was an anarchist programmer who decided to take justice into his own hands and start killing oligarchs.
Criticizing the creators of this film for the fact that it almost completely lacks Russian authenticity is even silly. In "Major Thunder: Plague Doctor" literally every frame shouts that this is a tracing of large-scale Hollywood projects. And if in history the creators tried to weave Russian realities in the form of arrogant oligarchs and St. Petersburg founders of the social network (in the image of a supervillain you can easily recognize references to Pavel Durov), then everything visual is deliberately foreign. The places where the heroes live and work, and even St. Petersburg streets and squares - everything corresponds to what we are used to seeing in foreign cinema.
One can criticize Major Thunder for being apolitical, for idealizing the image of a policeman endlessly. But also stupid. It's a superhero movie after all. Is this movie propaganda? Maybe. Very, very similar.
Honestly, for me to see this film to the end was not an easy test. But is it worthy of harsh criticism?
Definitely not. It's a very, very high-quality film, where every frame, every character, every dialogue is verified. Yes, unbearably secondary and stupid. But... They say love can save the world. She definitely saved that movie. And I’m not talking about a love storyline between the characters of the tape.
I am talking about the love that the creators of this film put into their project. Russian cinema is full of films that are made without love. People just make movies on the right topics. They themselves do not like what they create, but “on another budget and rental will not get, besides the audience are idiots, they only need something like this stupid.” The result is a movie that neither its creators nor its viewers like.
In the case of Major Thunder, the founders of Bubble Comics, who decided to produce domestic comics, took up the business because they sincerely wanted to succeed in this activity. When making their films, they sincerely want to please the viewer. It’s not just about putting more money in your pocket. Bubble wants to be liked, wants to build an army of fans, wants its stories to be talked about, wants to create something that will last for decades, evolve and expand. And in pursuit of this goal, the creators of Major Thunder have an absolutely clear understanding of who their audience is and that they should create projects that they like.
An elementary rule. But in fact, in Russia there are very few projects that the author creates for the audience, and not for himself or for the one who is having dinner.
In short, the creators of Major Thunder are good. The children's film audience probably really liked it. But if they want to achieve their goals and attract not only children, then they need to have the courage to turn their superhero tales into something behind whose facade viewers can see not propaganda and self-censorship, but criticism of reality. Well, or create action that you want to watch because of their entertainment and humor - a few bright energetic episodes inserted between long stupid dialogue and a banal story, smeared as much as two and a half hours, is clearly not enough.
The answer no one asked to the question no one asked
The picture is good, the actor is also good, the message is not bad, even straight to the forehead.
There are big problems in the script, like I don’t know why we were shown who the Plague Doctor was. And I'm not talking about the scene with the mask removed, but about the one that goes on. When the Doctor disappears from the premises and you realize that yes, the dude is just a shiz, he is the Doctor.
With this you could play, build a good intrigue and pathos open it to a good soundtrack. But why, when you can give everything to the viewer. And like this is given for a reason, saying, "Here you are, the viewer, guess," no, it is given just in the forehead immediately.
Of course they were trying to hint that this guy might be the Doctor, that kid might be, but Kamon, it's not working. The viewer already understands who the Doctor is and all these games mean nothing, it is just stretching the timekeeping.
You could do it like the Green Goblin in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man. They tried something similar, but somehow it didn’t work out. There are also questions to the Doctor, how did he catch a stone in the beginning? Because then it does not play out and there is a feeling that it was done for the sake of a beautiful shot.
The main character himself does not develop much, except that he learns to accept friends and support, but this is done not as his decision, but as he was forced to accept. Like a journalist and an intern just got so sick of him and he decided to accept the inevitable. We are told that he is a cool detective, but this is not shown or played out.
It is also worth writing down... well, look. One could give the main idea that even an ordinary person can do cool things without any abilities. And at first glance, this idea is there, but it destroys: I don't fly, I don't have lasers, I don't shoot spiders, but I stopped the villain, I'm cool.
You mean understand? All of your superheroes with superpowers aren't cool, and I'm just a cooler cop. And in general, this thought in the final scene of the film is taken out of nowhere. If such a message went through the whole film, they say Thunder would be compared to someone from the comics of DS or Marvel, poking that those have powers there, and the Thunder does not, only then that thought would be appropriate.
“I’m like Batman, only cooler,” and it’s immediately followed by a punch in the face, otherwise known as facepalm. This is shame, this is shame.
We just have to say we're better because we're better. Like an answer to Hollywood superheroes, even though no one asked for any answers, why was it done then? Because you have to, that's all.
Nevertheless, I liked the film. There is a good choreography of action and combat scenes, good jokes, excellent camera work, very beautiful shots and views, the Plague Doctor inspires, the actors fascinate.
You just have to stop giving answers and just make good movies, that’s all.
I couldn’t help but be skeptical about this film adaptation, just as I read the Thunder comics when I was still a schoolboy. I didn’t have any expectations for the film, I knew immediately: either I will leave the session or I will applaud. But I was wrong, I left the session in reflection and knew for sure that I would watch several more times, looking for details, forming an opinion.
In general, I wanted to write a neutral review, because the film left a huge number of double impressions, but in the process of revision I came to the conclusion that in general I liked the picture, and an estimate of at least 7 (the bar for a movie worthy of me) deserves, but there are several significant BUTs. Get to the point, no water. What I liked and what I didn’t like about the movie. I will also add a few words about the prequel.
What I liked:
1. The whole technical and camera team — thank you, you guys are great. Seriously, camera work, editing, colors, angles, animations - everything is level. There is nothing to add – you can make a beautiful picture. What it costs only intro and "change."
2. The music is amazing here too. There's a lot of it, it sounds unusual, it fits in, it creates an atmosphere, it fills empty spaces. The audiovisual humour was also good. There are no complaints here either.
3. The game and characters - especially the Thunder himself performed by Zhiznevsky. As one well-known film critic once said, “Thank you for not Petrov.” And seriously, it is clear that Zhiznevsky gave his best, he perfectly managed to revive the Thunder from the comic book. I don’t know what else to add, a great actor. It is worth noting that I was also pleased with the appearance of Kyivstoner in the role of Ignat, Igor’s childhood friend, albeit for a few seconds. Sadly, in view of some events, it is not necessary to count on its appearance in the sequel. In general, there are no complaints about the actors, the entire staff scored talented. Hat off. The characters are alive, there are almost no pacifiers (which can not be said about the prequel), the villain is natural and interesting, which is most importantly - not unambiguous, with a penchant for continuation, although this has already become the basic principle and norm of any comic book, but I can not praise. I learned to write characters, and thank you. Smoothly move on to "learned" and "watched".
What I didn't like:
1. Cops, Audi, New York and St. Petersburg Gotham.
Really? First, you build a dark Peter atmosphere with all the thugs and the arrogant rich and lawlessness, and then you take us on a tour of the police station in downtown Manhattan? What's this lickiness for? What's this clutter, these Audis? I understand that you want to make a beautiful picture. I understand that the universe does not pretend to be realistic. But it's too much for me. Decide what atmosphere you want to recreate in the film. A licked, empty hollywood, or your product. Do you want to show Peter in all his glory or Gotham? Pruning into this police station after some gloomy atmospheric scene breaks the whole atmosphere. I am not asking for a police station in the style of ROVD Zaperdyuzhevo with loaves, crumbled walls and smoky koloboks with AKSU at the top. But even that would be better for me. Please don't ever do that, it ruins the picture of the universe that the viewer is building for himself. It looks corny to place.
2. The prequel "A Hard Childhood." I made it look like something I didn’t like. It's like they took "The Plague Doctor" and took away almost all the good stuff and added the bad stuff. Frankly merged characters, the villain, the most empty of the most empty, music that almost does not exist, the timing of a series of any series with credits in mind. It wasn't just the visuals that went anywhere -- apparently the same people were working. It is clear that the purpose of the prequel was to show the trauma of the Thunder, but don’t get me wrong – it should have been done either as a short film or as a whole movie for ~2+ hours. Feeling like watching a medium-bad anime - wrapped as much as possible (in places superfluous) in as short as possible, skipping the disclosure and not giving the viewer answers to questions that he may have. Disclosure of the essence only in the final (in 2 minutes!!!), at first some savoring is unclear. Just one piece. Cake of scraps.
In the end, “no fish, no meat” on 5 out of 10, or even all 4. And only for visuals and references. I'm upset.
***
If this review is read by someone who is working on a sequel, well, well, it’s not hard:
Tell me 5 years ago that we are waiting for another Russian comic book, I would silently turn away and would not even want to hear about it, such a wound on the soul left “Defenders”. But now I think differently: It is possible, and better, our filmmakers still have the makings, everything is in your hands. You can make a beautiful series of films out of Thunder that will be remembered as classics. Go ahead, just please be yourself. We don’t need Batman in uniform and Gotham, we need Major Thunder and Peter.
I'll wait for the sequel, go to the premiere. I believe in you.
Major Thunder is trying to do what neither Black Lightning nor the Defenders did: repeat an American superhero movie. However, despite the budget and more talented visual design, the film does not work, for exactly the same reasons as its predecessors. At the exit, we have a scrappy, secondary movie that becomes boring to watch after the first chase. It turned out that when the creators said that they wanted to repeat Western blockbusters, they meant “repeat”. Every second of the movie feels like I've seen it before, these characters, these scenery, these storylines, I've seen it before. And most importantly, the film does not bring anything new to this, it simply repeats the clichéd and hackneyed script moves of the old American cinema. The plot about the "cool cop" and the newcomer is beaten so that if the same American film was released now, we would fall asleep with boredom. It is the feeling of secondary does not leave until the end of the film.
Most importantly, it doesn’t work in Russia. The St. Petersburg Police Department doesn’t look like that. We do not have such furniture, and the police do not sit in one large room at tables. I'm not saying we're necessarily bad, just different. And the chase at the beginning of the film will cause a topographic collapse for anyone who knows the map of the center of St. Petersburg, but this is already nitpicking.
I can paint for a long time how secondary and mediocre this film is, but I'm afraid it will be for a long time. We can say that many successful directors often repeated their colleagues, many will immediately cite the example of Tarantino, Coppola, etc., but Oleg Trofimov did not bring us anything new. If this film had been released 20 years ago – yes, it would have been cool, but today, when such mastodons as Marvel or DC are trying to find something new, looking for new plots and new heroes, repeating the old, moldy story about a cool cop and his new partner, excuse me, but incompetent.
Further, we can talk about the boring production, the average performance of actors, instantly forgotten music, but all this could be forgiven, for a good plot, which, alas, is not.
Someone will pay attention to an interesting agenda that a good policeman is fighting some weirdo from the Internet who exposes corrupt officials, but I will leave it to you.
Please, let's stop repeating American movies and make our own movies. I don't think any of you have heard of the German answer to Hollywood or the English answer to Hollywood. We don't have to.
My inner child rejoices. Just 10 candelabras out of 10
The film is cool, it catches me with numerous references to the films of the nineties and zeroes, on which I grew up loving with all my heart, but presented in a new way. The whole film felt how all these references pleasantly twitched the strings of nostalgia in my soul. When watching, I again felt like that little girl who accidentally got into the movies on Spider-Man and finally and irrevocably fell in love with the superhero genre.
Excellent camera work, beautiful color, scenery, Peter in the frame looks chic, costumers worked perfectly with the appearance of the central characters. All images are memorable, which only costs a costume with really working flamethrowers. Young, beautiful actors are just the opening of the year for our cinema. Great men, absolutely different, but everyone is in the heart! Why are Petrov and Kozlovsky endlessly filmed when there are so many talented and beautiful people in Russia? And of course, the cherry on the cake is Lyuba Aksenova, who gave us a bright and strong female character. Separate admiration and love is Maklakov, an amazing actor!
Good production of the final fight, cool action. The script, though simple, but all the main storylines are well written, and by the end, all the guns are fired. Yes, they even in animated credits closed the issue with the loss of 12 refrigerators. You can see that love and soul were invested in the production, which is why the film turned out so alive. I am sure that the film will be loved by many and will be re-watched many times. For me, the film became one of those rare cases when I wanted to go to the cinema again, and this happens not with every film, but with Russian for the first time.
I really want to continue!
PS Careful! the film evokes an ardent desire to go to Peter and eat Shaverma.
I only recently got to an expanded version of the film and realized that I still like it, and the new scenes made it more whole. Despite all the shortcomings, which, unfortunately, there are, the project still turned out to be successful. Although it did not justify itself at the box office, and reviews were not always positive - all these factors did not prevent Major Thunder from becoming the first successful Russian comic book. First, I want to praise, because from the technical side, a lot is done at a high level, whether it is directing, general staging, camera work or soundtrack. Of course, it is impossible not to mention the cast, thanks to which the audience discovered new names, because many actors before the film did not especially appear anywhere.
Speaking about the work of the operator: how many beautiful shots there are and how pleasant it is to watch what is happening, and to make the atmospheric St. Petersburg "Gotham" with an even darker atmosphere should still try. A cool, driving, interesting soundtrack, located exactly where it is needed, one scene of interrogation by the Thunder under “I love people” which is worth it.
I also want to focus on special effects, because in the picture there are many shootings on nature, and the costume of the Plague Doctor and flamethrowers were really created and used. Of course, the graphics here also take place, but it is made in such a way that nothing stands out against the background of natural shots. For world cinema this is not news, but for Russian - a big step forward.
Of the bright minuses for me is the unclear motivation of Igor Thunder (but the creators told about this in the recently released “Difficult Childhood”) and another moment, it is clear that the film is based on the comic, but there are quite a lot of clichés inherent in this genre, so here and not directly minus, but in addition to the picture it clearly does not go.
Yes, the film is not without flaws, the morality in it is simple and banal, and clichés, as I said, are still present. But what in another picture would look unnatural and ugly, here, on the contrary, works and everything that happens on the screen is presented dynamically and interesting, so the first experience in this genre is still successful, we will see how this universe will develop further. . .
Bandit Petersburg for Millennials or Dostoevsky is Immortal
I watched this film only a few years after the official release, although I saw advertising. But I thought, like a lot of people, ‘Oh no, Russia decided to shoot another response to American Marvels, worthy only for Badcomedian’s reviews.’ But I was wrong. The movie was very, very good. First, yes, it is based on comics and, of course, in some ways is an imitation of the famous Marvel and DC. But the authors skillfully weave the plot into the Russian cultural canvas. This is not a cargo cult: let's make it exactly like them.
This is a really good Russian movie. Secondly, the actors handled their fields perfectly. Thirdly, I do not know much about the technical aspects, but even in my philistine opinion, I will say that the quality of shooting, the “cinema” of the pictures is wonderful. Russian music is appropriate and harmonious. And fifthly, this is a morality with a reference to Dostoevsky: you can not kill people, even bad, even very bad, otherwise the whole world will go crazy. Well, that's what's on the surface. And more deeply, we can add that the thirst for justice is not yet a virtue, because punishing those who in your opinion are worthy of punishment (for example, the rich), you can yourself become an even worse criminal and villain.
In general, in the film you can find many references and allusions (here and "Joker" and "V for Vendetta" and "Crime and Punishment" Dostoevsky. . . )
It’s a shame that the film failed at the box office, I think it’s undeserved. Perhaps the next parts of this comic will become more popular.
“Major Thunder: Plague Doctor” is, in my opinion, one of the most brilliant films of the modern Russian film industry.
I learned about the likelihood of the release of this film back in 2017 from the prequel Major Thunder (short). Even then, I was already hooked by the plot, and the way of narration, and the heroes.
The first minutes of the picture, after opening, meet us with Eisenstein’s method of influencing the viewer, they say, you want to impress, use animals and children. After that, the film does not cease to keep in suspense, there is no feeling of “sagging”, a certain decline in the intensity of passions. Yes, of course, any movie is a wave story of events, but here the second scene is emotionally, meaningfully and meaningfully higher than the previous one.
Speaking of the cast, I would like to note that all the artists coped well with their roles, there is a certain belief in what they do. I immediately want to say about the work of Lyubov Aksyonova: I did not expect to see her in this image, although it undoubtedly suits her, compared to her previous game, which I saw, in the series Survive After. There she is represented by a sweet, shaggy girl, afraid of her own shadow, and in Major Thunder she opened up on the other hand as a strong, independent and strong-willed person. So, in contrast, it is very interesting to watch and enjoy the change.
The performance of Tikhon Zhiznevsky was very surprising, especially when I had not seen him in other films before, although I know that he has excellent works. The actor perfectly coped with the task set by the director, perfectly worked out the details of the role.
All the actors were pleasantly surprised. Sergey Goroshko wonderfully, I believe, coped with the mentally unstable image of the hero, played it so that the special effects imposed by the editors could not block his efforts.
The whole film is a huge step forward not only for Russian cinema, but also a step towards rapprochement with Western cinema. This picture is quite colorful and vividly demonstrates the achievements of modern cinema with its personal special effects, stars and editing.
I immediately wanted to talk about the installation, since I stammered. I thought that in the film there is no static camera, as if each frame is in continuous motion, but even with this condition there was no sense of chase or jump, on the contrary, all the muoves, necks looked appropriate and helped to navigate in action, track all movements and observe the development of the event.
A separate paragraph will highlight the musical equipment of the film! It was just a catharsis for the ears. All the sounds and music were so ideally suited to situations, events happening in front of the camera, which gave even more atmosphere, accuracy, specificity.
Very beautiful scenes were performed in the film fights, battles and so on. It was so organic that it was a desire to review over and over again, just to find a blunder, which was nowhere, for which we should say a special thank you to the mise-en-stage study of the film. The technical part was so pleased that I immediately forgot about the world and just enjoyed this beautiful creation.
The film left behind only positive emotions.
When "Major Thunder: Plague Doctor" was released on screens, he was treated ambiguously. This film came from Bumble Studios and remained independent, which was one of the exceptional advantages of the film itself. One thing is certain, this is a good movie. It gives emotions and is full of countless references to the whole pop culture, which is permeated all now, some memes, other phrases, references to references and all this is put together by the screenwriters in a competent and pleasant film filled with intrigue, twists, jokes, which are clearly very well understood by the Russian viewer and incomparable graphics with a pleasant play of actors.
If you start to disassemble the film in pieces, then the first thing worth mentioning is a great director. Oleg Trofim stunningly conveyed our alternative Peter, showed it much more believable than the real one and created a city in which I would like to live. In addition, I really want to emphasize that this is the only film about heroes (do not read the paragraph further if you are afraid of spoilers), where the heroes themselves were not fully counted on, and ordinary people began to solve questions. Sorry for the spoiler, but this is an important fact of human behavior, because according to research, people would clean up their city.
And then what's important is the actors. Tikhon Zhiznevsky just showed himself in this role, and you can immediately see how thoughtful and good he is, especially after watching Topy. Also Sergey Goroshko, who managed to show an intelligent and cool guy, even Lyubov Aksyonova conveyed her character so believably that she came out better than in comics. The cast is very well selected, there is not even anything to celebrate.
The editing and graphics are amazing. It is clear where the money went for the film, the studios that worked deserve a separate mark. It's really something amazing. As far as I know, it was difficult to shoot, still not to block the city for a hundred takes, especially the Palace, and it was necessary to shoot and they did a limited number of takes and coped perfectly.
Loved the start, there's a huge reference to the short meter, and those lovely memories from 2017 when it came out. The plot and script are very thoughtful. All these allusions to American cinema, to their superheroes, are amazingly done. Because the writers did not copy anything, but took and adapted to our mentality and our viewer. All these jokes, remarks, speech of the characters are absolutely honest and believe them. Sarcasm, jokes-minutes, passive aggression, all this subtly and competently conveys the main vibas of the film. There are a lot of comments about it being a bad copy, but it’s just not a copy. In the U.S. comics industry about 75 years, in Russia, the maximum good comics have become popular and released, it seems 20. They’ve been making superhero movies for a very long time, and this is literally our third movie, two of which seem to have failed. And then the writers and the director decided not to reinvent the wheel, but to take the parts and collect their own, which turned out great. Because the experience of others should be taken into account, not learn from their mistakes.
Tracks are a separate love. The song at the beginning is a stunning and subtle reference to modernity. There is nothing to add here, the cinema looked great, and at home it was just good.
My impressions of the film are positive. It can be easily reviewed, it does not bother. The lines are funny, even when you remember the joke, the second time you notice more details. The film should definitely be seen.
“Major Thunder” is such a peculiar “Russian Version” of the last “Batman” Matt Reeves, with separate echoes from “The Dark Knight” Nolan and “Joker” Todd Phillips.
Let me take a little step back at the beginning. Particularly striking was the similarity in certain angles of one of the main characters with Robert Pattinson, who in turn performed an extreme version of the main superhero of the DC Cinematic Universe. Their costumes and hairstyles were similar.
Now to business. The idea of incarnating mass psychosis among the masses in the cinema, following the example of some ideological inspirer who acts, to put it mildly, not in the most legitimate ways, is not new. The evidence of this is, among other things, the above mentioned, I will not be afraid of this word - masterpieces.
The main character, who has a lot of complexes and leads a reclusive life. “Rotten” justice system, a sharp division of the population into classes where there is no middle stratum. There are either the majors who do not deny themselves anything, or ordinary citizens who cope with grief in half. A high level of crime and countless hordes of marginalized people who only need to make noise, smash, outrage.
All this was perfectly repeated and copied in this film. Just down to detail and detail.
But! How it was done from a technical point of view... There is no doubt about it.
Beautiful panoramas of a familiar city, atmosphere, angles, locations, colors, constant dynamics, great actors (some of course replayed, I would even say: “looked caricatured”, well, come on...), spectacular action scenes, decent props, good and appropriate jokes, as well as original script finds.
Even if you remember one of the few modern heroic epics of Russian cinema "Defenders" and try to compare them, then of course there is "heaven and earth"!
In general, it is not for nothing that huge efforts were made to create a film. It is safe to include “Major Thunder” in the list of Russian cinema, viewing which will not make you bored, will keep you in suspense and leave a good impression of what you see.
Major Thunder: Plague Doctor is the first full-length film based on Russian comics. Before that, domestic superhero films – “Defenders” and “Black Lightning” – were shot according to the original scripts. Despite the fact that the main character lacks any superpowers, the film has all the other attributes of a superhero movie, including spectacular action and epic confrontations with a masked villain.
The space of pseudo-Peter is one of the best author's finds. Familiar sights of the city are adjacent to a multi-storey casino, and the fashionable police department in the center is replaced by criminal districts of the outskirts. Shaverma stalls, semi-basement boxing clubs, old apartments and open roofs.
A huge plus of "Major Thunder" is its cast: young and little-known actors have a chemistry that makes them smile on any joint scenes. And the Thunder himself, and his entourage, colleagues, comrades and antagonists, in short, all turned out to be alive and bright.
The main character Gromov, whose role was played by Tikhon Zhiznevsky, already known for the role of Max in Topyakh, is similar to Sharapov and Armi Hammer in the role of Kagebeshnik in Agents of A. N. K. L. Igor is not a simple fruit: the rules are not written to him, he lives under the slogan: "Good should be with the fists." And every day does good and does justice.
The second key character is the Plague Doctor - the master of social networks Razumovsky, reminiscent of Pavel Durov; instead of the House of Books, he sits in the penthouse of a skyscraper painted near the Gazprom tower.
The fact is that, in fact, their views of the world and ideas are very similar. At some points, it may even seem that the only difference between the two characters is the bird mask. They both want to clean the city of dirt and they both don’t like the fact that due to corruption and arbitrariness, the fight against crime turns into an eternal run in a circle. Only Chumka has a ready-made solution to the problem, but Igor is against murders, even such beautiful ones. The Batman Paradox.
The film turned out to be funny, comically bright, well technically executed. And after more than two hours, it seems that it was not enough. I want to see more.
Let's start with a good one. The film has excellent soundtracks, perfectly conveying the atmosphere, a good cast and overall a beautiful picture, although graphene sometimes limps.
Now for the bad. I didn’t see any “pro-Kremlin propaganda”; instead, there was a rather dubious attempt to adapt a classic Western action movie to our way. The attempt was unsuccessful in all respects.
First, the film is made for a Russian-speaking audience, and she, logically, lives in Russia and knows how things really are. She knows that we don’t have tough cops working alone, that the children of rich parents who have committed a crime don’t shout about their impunity (on the contrary, they try to keep quiet and whitewash their reputation), that we don’t have free journalism after all. We know that all this is, but there is not in real life, but in American cinema, which as a child was watched on television.
Second, why try to adapt something that is already obsolete? The main character works alone, and in the end understands that without friends he would not have coped, the evil villain has no friends, so he lost. The main character goes against the system because he is good and for the truth, so he has no money, the evil villain has money, but in the end it turns out that money does not solve anything, and good always conquers evil. The main character and the villain, in fact, drown for one idea, but the approaches are different (after all, one is good, and the other is bad), and the villain tries to lure the hero to his side, but he will not succeed, because the main character is good and right (who will let us forget about it).
Does that ring a bell? In my opinion, this is the most standard set of templates from any superhero action movie.
Spoilers! References to the fight club did not understand. From the point of view of the development of the storyline, it was logical, but this storyline already consisted of solid clichés and banal dialogues from superhero films like “we are friends, and only together we can defeat a smart villain who has no friends!”, where else? Can you at least something of your own, and not pieces from Western films, take and add Shawarma and corruption as a color?
At the end of the day, most of the questions are, if you really stifle. Why did Prokopenko defiantly hit Strelkov? That is, it is logically clear that “we will not play by your rules anymore, stop telling us”, but in fact, what does this give? Well, you hit him, and then he wakes up and suddenly realizes that he was wrong? I doubt it. Then why was it and why could not words convey the idea of the hero?
In short, the movie is good if you don’t watch it. And seriously, for an audience of 12+, who have not watched superhero films of zero, the film will do: the picture is beautiful, the cast is good, and the idea of “good and friends always defeat evil” is albeit banal, but still correct.
At one time, the film was very popular, and I was curious, I decided to get acquainted. For a long time, I was stopped by skepticism, because, judging by the reviews of Bad Comedian, good Russian cinema is a piece product, and you need to try very hard to get to that model of filmmaking, when the creators themselves do not care (they create, not make a product), and sponsors. To be fair, there are a lot of good domestic films. I mean, they don't come across very often. What a pity.
Wary attitude to the "Major" was due to the fact that it is a superheroic with a leaning on the "Western samples" of superhero films. And when you just copy a pattern in the 'our answer' style, it's just as hard to make something good. Because you don't create, you answer. And this very significantly narrows the inner freedom and clips the wings of the creative impulse. Therefore, I included the "Major" at my own risk. And you know what? I'm not disappointed! But everything in order.
The film tells about the everyday life of a St. Petersburg operative, Major Igor Thunder, who is struggling with crime by any means available to him. He's one of the city's best operatives, and this time, he's going to have to face a really terrible enemy. This is a mysterious and mysterious Plague Doctor who uncompromisingly and ruthlessly administers his justice.
The plot is simple and uncomplicated, but nevertheless, it is clear, clear, structured, helping to reveal and understand the characters, their conflicts, motives and aspirations. What helps to feel and empathize with the heroes.
The main character, Igor Thunder, is the archetype of the hero-vigilant. A hero who fights for justice, but has long since disbelieved that it can be achieved through social institutions. He sees how rotten they are, how imbued with human meanness, greed. He sees that judges can be bought, that for a certain amount of money, the law will turn a blind eye to the crimes of high-ranking officials, and just those who use their influence, or can bring in the necessary amount to cover up their shady affairs, cover up the stray offspring, or pull off an illegal deal to enrich themselves even more. The hero sees all this perfectly, he is sick of all this, and he knows perfectly well that it is pointless to fight this “fair and legal” methods. In this case, the evil will still remain unpunished. That makes Major Thunder uncomfortable. For this, he is often blamed by colleagues, and the authorities gnash their teeth. The hero walks on a very thin line that separates him from the criminal. However, he does not cross that line. Because that's his essence, and that's his principles. His gloomy, tough, but still, humanism. Major Thunder is unsociable. He seeks to alienate people from himself, and is a convinced loner. But, it turns out to be a mask behind which hides a person who is desperate to find a kindred soul, but passionately desires it. As the hero develops, he learns to open up to people, trust and make friends.
The mirror of the Hero in the film, in our opinion, is the antagonist, the Plague Doctor. His philosophy is that society has long been very painful, and he is the cure. The Plague Doctor in the film is not a cartoon villain, evil simply because he is a villain. He is a shadow reflection of Major Thunder himself. With the same acute sense of justice and resentment that evil (in the form of corrupt judges and officials, brutalized by the impunity of the rich masters of life, etc.) goes unpunished. That it can pay off by playing on human greed or other weaknesses. Seeing all this, he begins his Crusade against injustice, and he, unlike the Thunder, is not going to stop at any edges - for him, humanism towards those who do evil and injustice is simply harmful. He is determined to destroy all evil and injustice at its root, and there are no excuses or mitigating circumstances for him. He is ruthless not only to the evildoer himself, but also to his family members, regardless of gender or age. And that is his uncompromisingness. It was this inflexibility that attracted many supporters under his wings. But has he become a leader in the fullest sense of the word? Did he care about people? Or are people pawns in his own vendetta, whom he is willing to throw into the fire without hesitation or moral dilemmas? The image of this antagonist is remarkable in that he once again gives an opportunity to think that fighting evil, recklessly, fanatically, you can turn into a monster yourself. It will be very difficult to find a way back to your humanity.
Also interesting characters are the friends of the major.
Dmitry Dubin is a young intern, full of ideals, eager to serve and protect. At first, he irritates the hero, but gradually, he imbues himself with sympathy, and realizes that in many ways, he is right, and Dubin’s idealism is not his weakness, but his strength. Similarly, young Dubin, together with his “senior colleague”, comprehends life and learns to perceive it in all its manifestations.
Journalist Yulia Pchelkina also appears as cunning, intelligent (very beautiful), but unscrupulous and cynical. She values her work and ruthlessly denounces everyone, exposing the most intimate vices of people. In spite of this, she also strives for justice and wants to correct the world around her to the best of her abilities. Having met the major, he also gradually begins to learn to empathize, to think not only about his career and work. And see the material of living people.
Despite the fact that the picture is full of borrowed images from old superhero films, but, nevertheless, there is something in it that differs from them. What the filmmakers brought in. Perhaps it is in the panoramas of St. Petersburg, its special atmosphere.
The theme of friendship, camaraderie and mutual assistance is also highlighted in the film. Softly, but persistently, the idea is presented that without comrades and comrades, it is very difficult to win.
In general, the film unobtrusively and unpretentiously raises serious questions: about ideas, principles, humanity and what ratio they should be in order for people to finally heal happily. What does it take? What does it take to overcome social evil?
In our view, the film tells us that social evil is much deeper. And it's not concentrated in all those grotesque Grechkins, bankers, and other powerful people. They are the products of this evil, the symptoms of a disease nesting in the depths of society in general, and of men in particular. And, in our opinion, the most valuable thing about the idea of the film is that the authors show that this evil people are quite able to overcome. The only question is what they choose.
I don’t watch Russian movies, even big-budget ones. There are several reasons - I do not like modern Russian actors, plots in movies.
Major Thunder: Plague Doctor Complete exception to the rule. It looks fresh, the plot may be written off from Batman, but he is very own. Locations for the filming were extremely liked, as Peter is beautiful, and Moscow is already quite tired of the movies. For some reason I remember the series Gotham. Similar to the location of the police station, the city also looks gloomy. So the resemblance to Batman is not accidental. Comparison with Gotham is a compliment to our kin, with all due respect will reach even to the series is now extremely important.
I liked the main character, which in some ways resembles the hero of the film of the same name Brother. He is a simple, ordinary guy, also eats shawarma like us (sorry, shaverma, we are in St. Petersburg). Major Igor's character is very interesting and not controversial at all. The antagonist didn't jump either. He is not cardboard like many villains in comic books, he has his backstory, it is correctly revealed to us. And it's only at the end of the film that you understand why the title is so collective. And all just the antagonist moves the plot, it is very much in the film. And I can't say that he was much worse than our major. Only Major Igor doesn't kill, but the plague doctor does. To quote, perhaps, Major Thunder: You cannot kill people, even the latest creatures. Otherwise, the whole world will go crazy. It's a day after February 24.
I liked the secondary characters less. Yes, all of them have Russian flavor, Russian features. But they all look weird. We don’t have such cool girls journalists, well, it’s a comic book, but in fact she was made a very strong character, although it does not suit her very well. But “Shurik” (the major’s partner) could be more brutal and smarter, and so he completely repeats “Shurik”, which is not good. Moreover, the major does not really need friends, everyone without exception except the general, he really helps and supports in a difficult moment.
Separately worth noting the action. All cool frame saturated, action is not inferior Marvel. The plot flows smoothly both in meaning and in action. The only thing that triggered me was the explosion of the car when it was shot by a flamethrower, but it's nothing. Very competently, by the way, there is an acquaintance with the main character, it occurs through the action scene. This is probably the best action scene in the film.
The film is not a masterpiece, but obviously it will be on my list of normal Russian films. After Move upwards and Legend 17, nothing got there for a long time. And yes, Moving Up is a normal movie from a film perspective, whatever Bedcomidians say otherwise.
I was not familiar with the comics from Bubble, so I cannot and will not judge the source. The first acquaintance with the world of Major Thunder, began with a short film, which became the first swallow to the upcoming film. A short meter came out extremely cheerful, bright, juicy. The groundwork for the full meter came out just fine, we just have to wait.
And so the film showed itself to the world. And I not without pleasure watched it and I will say right away, I was extremely pleased with the impressions received, so immediately the cards on the table - I will praise this tape, scold it simply for nothing (more precisely I do not want to scold it).
I’ll start with the cast, which is very happy. Tikhon Zhiznevsky in the role of Igor Thunder surprised, previously saw his work in the series Topy, and there he left not the best impression of himself with a rather clumsy game, but Major Thunder he turned out what he needed! The character is alive, albeit morose. Not rich in emotions, but shows them when the situation demands it. Love Aksyonov is just a decoration of the whole film and a real lighter, although someone else is burning with fire in the tape. Maklakov here does not look like Shmatko, but rather plays a typical police chief and at the same time a good father. Goroshko and Chebatarev are just a stunning tandem that instantly gained popularity on the network, and for good reason, the chemistry between their characters felt serious. And do not forget about Setykin, who seems to have taken the image of a kind of Shurik, but was able to give him his charm.
The characters in the film turned out to be alive, thanks to the work of actors and screenwriters, each in its degree is ambiguous and has a double bottom. The scenery in the tape also plays an important role, because they serve as a kind of disclosure of the character. It would seem that we do not reveal the identity of the Thunder through his dialogues, because Igor is not very verbose, but his apartment says a lot about his hero. I highly recommend revisiting the film at this point and looking into the details. It's something.
The story itself is more like Dirty Harry starring Clint Eastwood, and there and there the protagonist is a virilant police officer who acts against the system in order to get justice. And this story is still quite new to our modern realities and looks fresh. Alternative Peter looks just amazing, almost from the real one can not distinguish, but the devil lies in the details.
Music also plays on the atmosphere of the tape, the tracklist is clearly selected with a soul and in many ways inscribed in the picture, complementing it and adding more action to it. The opening credits can be revised - visually and audioly - this is a real masterpiece, will definitely enter my personal collection of the best opening credits in the world of cinema and TV series.
The technical side is also well done. The camera does not shake, the installation does not rush, and the work on special effects was done well, the eye does not cut anything.
What's the result? Maybe Major Thunder isn’t a masterpiece, but he’s definitely a movie I’m not ashamed of. A breath of fresh air in the world of Russian cinema, and even in the world of comic books (especially if the Avengers and the Justice League are bored). I give the highest score to support the film crew for new achievements!
I watched this film without thinking that it was based on a comic book, because I was used to getting emotions and doing it for the quality of the picture and script moves. The picture quality is good. And in general, all the locations, despite the fact that it is Peter, as if Western because of the light. Only as for the script, everything is really as if a hand-drawn comic (and with a rather banal superhero idea, as it happens with comics) was shot, not a movie. I’ve never understood this cross between comics and cinema. It turns out neither, but under the tree.
I expected so much more from this film. And I got it.
1) The banal opposition "Good is evil", where there is almost no psychology of heroes, except that there are good and evil. There are friends and there are enemies. Bagachi and the common people. Playing binary oppositions is so head-on as if it's a children's comic book rather than a feature film. That’s why writers want to say, well, at least write down the psychology of the characters, their arches, and all the drama. Why are they static? A red-haired blogger, Major Thunder is a typical justice fighter. Why, where all this is from, trace laziness. In the end, there is absolutely no history behind the heroes. The only thing is that they worked on the villain at least a little. He came up with an orphanage and a personality disorder (which, by the way, is shown absolutely unconvincing, caricatured even as if).
(2) Cartoon of society. Also quite banal and pretentious. A rich man with a cigar who opens a casino, fuzzy ladies and gold sequins, and the son of another bigwig of the city who hits a girl in his expensive car. If I were making a comic, I would at least give a hint of suspension (according to Shklovsky) to show the convention of what is happening. It’s all over the place, sorry.
3) And of course love. A superhero is gaining superpower. What else do you need? The comic is good, but the movie is not. Because of his banality. Angels and demons, good and bad boys and pretty blogger girls. . .
(4) One can only hope for continuation, as the latest footage is intriguing. There appears a doctor (played by Konstantin Khabensky). Let's see how he handles the 'interesting patient'. How long will the “global evil” (local, rather) stay hidden in a psychiatric hospital?
(5) However, the film has a kind and life-affirming message, as well as a St. Petersburg atmosphere. Peter is more of a scenery than a real city. But I had enough roofs and Isaac in the background.
Viewers in the cinema are interested in the themes of justice and justice. We were perfectly able to reveal this topic in the film Batman Christopher Nolan. But in Major Thunder, these topics are only secondary. There is no full disclosure, and the pursuit of this idea throughout the film.
There is no sense of empathy for the main characters. All of them are very emotional.
The Thunder himself has no pity for villains. He tortures them and gives them a hard face at every opportunity. The method of detaining criminals at the Thunder is to arrange as much rout and violence as possible. The hero is never fully revealed as a character to whom you can empathize.
It's not clear why the Thunder lives in a wreck if he's the best in the department. The police have Audi cars in the database, a huge building in the city center, and they cannot pay decent salaries. And the Thunder never had thoughts like the Plague Doctor? If at work he is satisfied with disrespect from colleagues and management, a small salary, then how is he going to get a calling for the work done?
Razumovsky also shows a sense of empathy, but only until the middle of the film. And after the middle, the authors completely ruined the hero. Then he wants to rid the city of injustice, then just create chaos.
In the same Batman on such topics was revealed a lot of topics for discussion, and here is a very linear plot, and such a disclosure is not necessary to think.
After watching, there is a feeling that the film has a prequel, and you want to watch it to understand the characters.
We will wait for the prequel "Difficult Childhood"
6 out of 10
I was pleased: in general, the director’s work, atmosphere, detail.
Disappointed: linear plot, low-emotional heroes, weak action.
Russian blockbuster about the superhero that is worth the attention
The film “Major Thunder: Plague Doctor” is the first adaptation of Russian comics in Russian cinema. Here we see an alternative Russia of our time. The main location is the streets of St. Petersburg, which are under the tireless protection of the local police.
The main character - Igor Thunder - a kind of crazy policeman, striving to overcome all the injustices of this world. He is constantly on the verge of dismissal, as he uses, albeit effective, but not everyone understandable methods in catching criminals. Events begin to develop rapidly from the moment the name of the Plague Doctor spreads around the city, leaving a bloody trail. Finding and catching the villain becomes the main goal of the Thunder.
It is worth noting that a significant plus of this picture is the visual component. Each frame seems to transport us, the audience, in the plot of “Major Thunder”, forcing the emotions of the characters through themselves. Very successfully selected a range of colors that show us the grayness of streets immersed in chaos. An important place in the film is given to the musical accompaniment, which adds to the plot of dynamics and brightness. It helps to catch the right mood, while not disturbing the viewing at all.
Throughout the picture, the viewer is kept in suspense, the stakes are growing, at some point it seems to us that a good ending here is definitely not worth waiting for. This feeling is quite justified, because the struggle between the main characters is on an equal footing. They are driven by the same ideals – the desire to improve the world. However, the methods they use are radically opposite. Between them there is a very thin, but quite obvious line, and the final collision makes you hold your breath.
The film is really good, especially considering how small the budget was.
From the very first minutes, the exciting scene of the robbery begins, it sets the whole tone of the film. Drive fills the frame, you can't come off. That wildly interesting pace won't let you go.
I have no weakness in the opening credits.
Cartoon characters.
We meet our main character Igor Thunder. A major working in the police, every time they put a bet on him, will he be fired? He looks formidable, but in fact, except for the dissatisfied expression of his face, he has little. His only superpower is to think (absurd and far-fetched to enormous proportions). He imagines situations and thinks them through, looking for the best outcome, like Sherlock Holmes. “Think, think, think” repeats under the nose of the Thunder, it should delight us, wow, how smart he is. In fact, he's an unsinkable character. There is nothing surprising in the fact that our main character always gets away with it, the plot is very predictable.
Sergei Razumovsky is a noble rich man, although it is revealed to us from the other side, at first he is a flat, cardboard puppy, an absolutely boring character. Everyone loves him only because we open the veil on his difficult childhood and everyone immediately began to feel attached to him.
Yulia Pchelkina is an incredibly annoying person, Lyubov Aksyonov is not the best choice for this role. The female character is not revealed in any way, guess what she is for, of course, for our main character, who does not need any connections, resorts to his help at the very last moment. She's not an independent hero.
Dima is that awkward guy with glasses, came to work as an intern and one day, when he is framed as a partner to the same Thunder, everything changes. It would be a sad pity moment between them to make a piercing talk about why he became a police officer, but no, the boy runs like a dog to the rescue for no particularly obvious reason. They have no close relationship except to look for the missing refrigerators, why does he decide to save him, but because it is time to somehow return Major Thunder to the game, and there are no other visible ways to do this, this is the only purpose of Dima’s existence.
Directing is a great, beautiful work of a person, with a well-rounded eye, here I can not say anything bad, I liked it.
Brisk editing is also impressive and fits this genre, sometimes adding much needed comic.
The cast is probably still good, played a little above average, but more is not needed for films of this genre, excessive drama here would be superfluous.
For Russian cinema, this is a high figure, if you let go of all the minuses, then a very pleasant work, I would like to see more of these, definitely memorable and vivid picture.
It all began with a short film, in which the authors acquaint an unprepared viewer with a project that is quite “a little” like the beginning of another Hollywood film. After a positive reaction to the sample, the authors roll out a full-fledged canvas for 640 million? in the spring of 2021. Did you lose the idea and make your own superhero movie? Spoiler: No!
And now the story: One day in a corrupt alternative city where in broad daylight robbers rob a mafia bank, an orphan billionaire creates a supersuit and administers his justice to various criminals and their powerful leaders, demonstrating perfect combat training. In parallel, the elusive hero is pursued by a valiant and honest policeman. So stop! So this is the plot of Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" trilogy? No, this is the plot of the movie Major Thunder: Plague Doctor. The authors were apparently inspired by Batman 2005 and adapted the plot for the Russian audience.
The main villain: IT-snika, an orphan who suddenly became a billionaire, with the appearance of a secretary. Under an attack of schizophrenia, which occurred out of the blue, creates a Batm costume. The plague doctor and begins to burn criminals and disappear from the scenes of crime like a ninja. Bruce Wayne, who for years studied the underworld, underwent terrible training Ra’s al Ghul and had an inventor in the person of Lucious Fox. And in our "Dark Doctor" of the villainous chiefs, just immediately mastered super power, created a super weapon and a super company. He uses an old-fashioned movie teleport to attack his victims. And his ideas completely contradict the ideas of Wayne. He, as the true heir of the League of Shadows, arranges a full house in the city.
Now to our Thunder Gordon: Before us appears Major superhero, valiantly catching criminals with his bare hands, a lover of cheap food and the roof of local crime bosses. Like thunder in broad daylight, he is ready to ram the garbage truck into the collection machine and dump on the city square during the event. I don’t care about the citizens, the main thing is pathetic to fix the cap ...
As a result, we have the Dark Doctor, who embodies both Batman and Ra’s al Ghul, with the mental illness “Golum” from the Lord of the Rings, with clumped intentions and ideas. And the main character, who seems to be a positive character, but with inclinations of muzzle and perverse justice. What was the viewer supposed to do after watching? What's the message of the movie? Eat cheap food on the roof before the credits?
5 out of 10
In defense of the film, I can praise the excellent graphics, the work of the editor and director. Just a great oppenig to the song "Changes" and the very idea, which, alas, did not bring to mind. But it was possible not to plagiarize Nolan, but to remove really, something of their own.
Major Thunder, as a failed attempt in a new film franchise
Honestly, like most people, I love action movies with a comedy bias. All these films are probably trying to show us some stories that are as close to life as possible, but each with its own twist. And of course, Major Thunder should have been one of them.
Many in their reviews try to compare this film franchise with the same fantastic films from Marvel. But they seem to forget that fans of the latter have a huge base, a plateau, on which not only the cinematic universe is based.
What do we have with Major Thunder? Almost nothing, of course, in the context of comparison.
And I would like to tell you, in the person of an ordinary layman, how I see the film Major Thunder: Plague Doctor.
The very acquaintance with Major began, of course, as many with the short film Major Thunder. Of course, I had no idea about the existence of the comics of the same name at that time, so I really liked the film itself, which of course made sense to wait for the continuation.
But after watching this sequel, I asked myself why.
And this is, I think, the reason for my internal rejection of the continuation of this film franchise.
What did we have in the first part? A memorable hero, an unusual storytelling, a plot that does not strain (for such films there are separate categories) and of course novelty. In this so-called demo, there was a zest that held me to the very end.
What do we have in the sequel? First of all, it’s a complete film. And that is not unimportant, the first film in the series, which in fact was supposed to reveal the main character at least a little, introduce us.
But in the end, we have the most empty character. We do not know his background, nor why he so zealously pursues his goals.
Why does a hero live so poor? Don't know. Why does he have nothing to eat at home? Don't know. What's he doing outside of work? Also unknown!
The only thing we know is that the whole movie is script-wise like Swiss cheese.
The most striking example is again the budget of the main hero.
There is no money - lives in ruin, there is no money - no food, no money - Shawarma eats for "half the price" for acquaintance, there is no money - in the casino only half a dime. But again GG, there is no money - put the "five" on the bet on dismissal, there is no money - buy an iPhone blogger. The connection? This is one of the main mistakes of the film.
It gets worse. There are no written characters.
Partner, a common clichéd character, as well as all colleagues with superiors.
Allegedly a couple of Major, an ordinary dummy does not cause any emotions.
The visiting police chief is only disgusted.
The only one who got caught up in anything is the main villain. He has his own motives, his own background, and he reveals himself to us by the end of the film as a person.
We won’t see anything else in this movie. There are no well-staged action scenes like in the first film, there are no sensible dialogues, there is no disclosure of characters.
As for me, this is a big step backwards compared to the 2017 DEMO.
Of course, as a film franchise, it has a place to be, but the guys have something to work on.
No matter how high we may be Russian cinema, Major Thunder can already be set apart.
The film turned out great, although not without joints. One way or another, we’re finally catching up with Marvel and movie budgets are getting better. Not in advertising and "stars of tnt", but on special effects, costumes, extras and sound.
Alternative Russia is used here. Local St. Petersburg turns into something between the present and Gotham from the DC universe. There's a tough police force with a plot in a frankly banking building, cars not just any but all equal to the selection. And the uniform. It looks very stylish and unusual
The main character is such a chaotic-kind cop. He seems to be within the law, but he seems to have put it on him. Incredibly romanticized, sweet and lonely. His methods do not suit the police, but his effectiveness is higher than that of the entire precinct combined.
The cast of actors here is also great. Although among them, only one Maklakov can be called professionals, who brought to his role echoes of ensign Shmatko from the series “Soldiers” and is generally responsible for lamp lighting in the film.
Finally amazing work on costumes, special effects and sound. Without this, the spectacle of no superheroes is possible. Of course, there are no flying suits like Iron Man, and high-speed jumps of Spider-Man, but this is not necessary.
There is just as much realism of Russia as there is Western color of comics. And it is very cool that the film turned out and set the trend of a real domestic cinema universe. Many films over 20 years have failed to do this, and Major Thunder did.
What to praise:
1) The cast of actors is amazing from and to
(2) Russia 2.0
(3) VERY LONG LIVE FIRE
(4) A good budget for a domestic fighter is not about war
(5) The perfect place to continue
(6) The main plot twist is very good
7) After that, I want to read the comics from Buckle.
What to blame:
1) You can see some artificiality in state bodies.
2) The film is delayed
(3) The plot is sometimes played banal
Overall impression:
I enjoyed watching it in the cinema and watched it recently. I’m looking forward to continuing, because I want to be proud of such films of my country.
8 out of 10
Nice shot. For Russia, it's fire. From a political point of view, of course not very. It feels like it was filmed 15 years ago. But you can't please me. The movie is still entertaining.
The film Major Thunder is famous for its bad reputation among liberal-minded youth. They say that this is an order from the authorities, discrediting the Navalny movement, because the Gabrelyanov family (sponsors of the film, the comic book of the same name, and in general the founders of @bubble_comics) is in the pro-Putin clip. Why? How do you know that? Why?
The main meaning of the movie just echoes Navalny: you need to replace the wrong managers and oligarchs, the “right”, then the system will work (nowhere does it work, but who cares). And in the cinema critic Pavel Durov and his telegrams. He's really fighting for an idea, not money. It's a joke, God is with her.
The film about modern people's volunteers is simply mediocre and stupid. Like the comics about Major Thunder (the plot about the plague doctor is blatantly not friendly with logic and life itself, but now the series has another author, I do not know).
The thesis that oligarchs are not able to defend themselves is simply fantastic. PMCs and security companies will give everyone such a turn from the gate that you can only nervously light up. Ukraine won't let you lie. From the field of fiction in general, the world in which the plot unfolds. Not from reality, but from American films. Everything - police, journalists, scenery, filled with movie quotes from Hollywood. Here and Die Hard, and Bad guys, and C for vendetta, and Raven, and Fight Club, and much, much.
The structure of Major Thunder is perfect: jokes in each scene, the dynamics of the narrative, an unexpected turn, romance. But due to the fact that the world is artificial, the villain is dangerous only behind the scenes (when he is in the frame, he has either already done everything or screws up), the actors mostly show caricature clowning - the movie does not work.
Comics as a separate kind of film create their own worlds, but they must be persuasive (the Dark Knight or the Guardians, for example). There is no such thing.
In general, it is funny, before Dostoevsky wrote about the Narodnaya Volunteers, which caused a public outcry, and now they shoot a template film based on a bad domestic comic book for teenagers. The level of political discourse is on everyone’s face!