Metroburg. After a fight against a super-villain on the street goes wrong and a giant plastic donut falls and injures superheroes from the V-Team, the Thundermans are demoted by President Kickbutt and punished by being sent back to their old house in Hiddenville. Phoebe and Max try to find new jobs as superheroes, while their siblings, Nora and Billy, now teenagers, enter high school and try to impress students by bragging through their superpowers. V-Team are actually kids of Dark Mayhem, Strongdor and King Crab and plan to spread superhero seeds from the power plant across the city in order to create tens of thousands of super-villains. However, the Thundermans unite and stop them, saving the city.
The comedy TV-show "The Thundermans" ran for six years, ended, and was then semi-revived six years later in the form of this movie. All the cast returned, but it seems their charm, wit and inspiration didn't, as if their trademark humor stayed back in their original show. The opening conjures up a smile on the viewers' faces—meteorites from the sky are falling towards the city, people panic, searching for some superheroes, until they point towards the right, and the camera reveals the Thundermans posing, boasting on the street in their blue uniforms. Max and Phoebe then have this little comical exchange: "Glad they finally saw us!" - "Right? We've been standing here for three minutes." This is a great intro and immediately ignites a spark in the story. Unfortunately, the rest of "The Thundermans Return" is a level below that, since it seems the authors didn't come up with some especially good jokes in that six year pause. There are more corny jokes than truly great ones. As an unwritten rule says, if a story is concluded, a sequel needs to either raise the stakes, show character growth or expand this universe, which warrants for continuing returning to any given world. Some of these rules are followed, luckily.
For instance, Nora (in the meantime a teenager) now uses her laser powers to burn a bow, ending her childish trait. Billy (now also a teenager) unfortunately still talks like a naive 12-year old at times, which is inconsistent, but he shows character growth when he finally has an intelligent thought and correctly guesses that the villains will execute their plan on Mt. Metroburg, causing the entire family to pause and stare at him for a minute. Chloe then interrupts and asks why everyone is "just standing around", so dad Hank replies: "Quiet, we're savouring the moment!" We needed more of these moments where we understand that some characters have "moved on" in the meantime. The supporting cast wasn't used enough, since they are mostly just cameo appearances, though the first encounter between Cherry and Phoebe is amusing, since Cherry tells: "I've been auditioning new Phoebes, but nobody's been working out!" The finale is standard and routine, missing that 'frequency' from some of the best "Thundermans" episodes which became gems of comedy, such as "Why You Buggin'?", "Patch Me If You Can" or "Save the Past Dance". The brilliant Kira Kosarin is still outstanding in the role of Phoebe, always lifting the movie a notch higher, since she is such a fascinating personality that you could watch her in whatever she does—she simply makes even the most mundane scenes appear special.
Grade:++
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