With evil mutants wreaking havoc on Chicago, two estranged school friends (real life pals Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer) team up to defeat them, with the help of super-strength, invisibility and the ability to suck the life out of their surroundings.

In our modern era even comedies have to have superheroes in. And while Thunder Force is less funny than an average Marvel movie, or even an average Lars von Trier movie, this doesn’t stop it from using its comedy status to take liberties with story and character motivation. The writing, by McCarthy’s other half Ben Falcone, would be shoddy even for a first draft, resulting in confusing nonsense with as many laughs as Batman v Superman, if you removed the scene where batman bludgeons Superman with a sink.

McCarthy is just awful as the idiotic Lydia – a character with the depth of a leaky paddling pool. When her response to every situation is another painfully bad wisecrack it becomes impossible to have any reaction but a cringe. Spencer, who is usually a light in the darkest of cinematic places, looks bored from beginning to end.

The plot revolves around a mayoral contest between a non-so-thinly veiled Donald Trump and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and even features the dire-duo campaigning for the latter, adding insufferable pandering to its long list of sins. With no ideas which haven’t been done much better elsewhere, Thunder Force is a less-than-super addition to the genre.