I watched the new Russian film “Major Grom: The Game.” There is only one minus here, but it is important

Today, Oleg Trofim’s superhero franchise returned to Russian distribution with the announcement of the film comic “Major Thunder: The Game.” In this part, the creators clearly sought to raise the bar after “The Plague Doctor.”

The film retained the spirit and original style, but added new unexpected twists and a decidedly restrained quality of images. The second part offers more complex puzzles and characters, making it even more exciting and interesting for the viewer. While the film has indeed improved, it still has room to grow.

We have already attended the premiere and are ready to share our impressions.

Short description

• The script is interesting, but it’s too busy
  Heroes and villains are interesting, but considered secondary
  The film skillfully entertains, without any “buts”
  The film is good, but I have one question for the creators

The script is interesting, but it’s too busy

What is the movie about: Major Igor Grom and his partner Dubin are led by a new villain known as the Phantom who threatens St. Petersburg. The ghost challenges the heroes of the mystery and threat to the cultural heritage of the city and ordinary residents of the northern capital.

Thunder and Dubin have to use all their skills and ingenuity to uncover the crime and save their beloved city from disaster.

The plot of the film begins with police major Igor Grom enjoying glory after capturing the Plague Doctor. He is being filmed about him, his popularity on film social networks is skyrocketing thanks to the efforts of the photographer’s lover. However, world life is quickly hampered by the emergence of new threats. A lieutenant general from Moscow plans to reform the St. Petersburg police. In addition, a villain appears in the city, demanding an image of Thunder and dragging him into a deadly game.

It sounds promising, but the attempt to make the film more serious and deeper leads to a bloated running time and excessive plot complexity.

The film clearly takes inspiration from Nolan’s The Dark Knight and ’90s action films like Die Hard. In some places the borrowings are the most appropriate and interesting, taking into account the St. Petersburg surroundings, but in some places the copy-paste mode is turned on. But this is not as annoying as timing.

The main problem – protractedness. Almost three hours of screen time, rich in dynamics and meanings, are tiring due to the abundance of characters and parallel storylines.

Moreover, some of them are ultimately not brought to a logical conclusion, leading the viewer to bewilderment. Some of the action characters are average and completely inconsistent, undermotivated or downright stupid, thereby reducing the tension level.

The film skillfully tackles such important themes as the use of neural networks for criminal purposes and the total service of corporations, but the final twist seems forced and forced.

Let the writers realize their corny move and see through the grin of one of the antagonists. However, if only they would apologize to the audience and remind them that they are still watching a comic book and not a serious drama.

And yet, it can be recorded that the moment when the main villain makes a long speech explaining all the events being voiced becomes a literal economic weakness of his own script. Nolan wouldn’t understand. Self-irony is, of course, good, but maybe just work more carefully on the script and cut out part of the scene on the editing table?

◦ Back to contents ◬

Heroes and villains are interesting, but considered secondary

Major Igor Grom’s partner, Dima Dubin, plays a loyal partner in the videos and resembles Robin from the Batman comics. The main antagonist, the Phantom, is a mixture of several villains: the Joker from the DC Comics universe, the Riddler, and the terrorist Simon from the movie Die Hard 3.

In parallel with the famous comics, the past era of original materials and the “youth” of Bubble comics are inevitable. As a result, while watching, you catch yourself thinking that there is only one original hero here – Major Grom himself. And it’s damn few.

One of the film’s key problems is its desire to be a major A-movie while still remaining within the B-movie genre. The characters sound too cliched, we’ve seen all this somewhere, in one form or another. I would like to see more originality. At the same time, the film’s dramatic moments also emerge.

Although there are no questions for the actors themselves. All played great. Like the main antagonists, who reveal us, of course, we won’t, as well as the secondary characters, for whom you feel sympathy, mistrust, or even fear. Excellent cast, no one drops out.

Special, we note small role comedian Evgeniy Chebotkov: the red-haired Kazakh stand-up comedian managed to surprise and amuse. We approve of such transfers.

◦ Back to contents ◬

The film skillfully entertains, without any “buts”

The action scenes in the film deserve special attention. They have become more inventive and spectacular, reminiscent of action scenes from John Wick and Jason Bourne. Particularly memorable is the opening sequence with its impressive fight choreography and the showdown leading up to the end of the story. The hero Zhiznevsky began to use auxiliary objects more often in battle scenes, for example, in one of them he uses aluminum mugs. A modern approach to dragons!

I’m also happy no prolonged use of slowmowhich makes the scenes more dynamic.

In addition to the action, the film is filled with colorful shots of St. Petersburg, links to various Internet memes and YouTube bloggers, which you will probably enjoy in part. The scriptwriters are not shy and grin at television censorship. A bold decision for 2024.

◦ Back to contents ◬

The film is good, but I have one question for the creators

Despite its secondary nature, the film may entertain and delight fans of the superhero genre. The film offers spectacular action scenes and asks philosophical questions about the price of fame, the consequences of actions and the nature of heroism. The only question is that viewers are ready to put up with the feeling of “I’ve seen this somewhere before” and are prone to comic book templates.

“Major Thunder: The Game” is a worthy sequel with improved direction and pacing, but suffers from lengthy lengths. For an extra half hour you are interested in what is happening, and you just start waiting for the final scenes.

A logical question for the authors, if there was so much material – maybe it’s worth releasing the film as a mini-series on one of the Russian streaming platforms?