The superhero comedy Thunder Force recently dropped on Netflix. This movie stars the two notorious actors, Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer, as “estranged childhood best friends” Lydia Berman and Emily Stanton. They have clashing personalities but soft spots in their hearts for each other which allows them to be an unstoppable duo.
Throughout the movie, McCarthy’s character Lydia ends up obtaining superpowers via injections and must eat raw chicken in order to maintain her super-strength. The raw chicken prop looked so realistic, fans are wondering what it was actually made of.
What was the raw chicken actually made of?
The raw chicken in Thunder Force was constructed of pears. Eating this delicious and sweet fruit is far from the reality of actually consuming raw chicken, however, the striking similarity between the two is not easily digestible. Movie creator and husband to Mellisa McCarthy, Ben Falcone, shared, “The raw chicken is actually really thinly sliced pears treated with citric acid and food coloring,”
Falcone added, “It was so believable that we all got completely grossed out every time we saw it as did everybody who had to eat it. Melissa was like, ‘I know it’s a pear, but it’s just hard not to imagine it as raw chicken.’ So that was difficult for her to get through.”
While Falcone shared the reactions to the “raw chicken” from the movie’s cast and crew members, Thunder Force watchers have taken to Twitter to express their disgust. It has since been described as “revolting” and “gag worthy.”
Twitter user Lewis Nico tweeted a gif of someone gagging with the caption, “The scene in Thunder Force when she eats the raw chicken.”
Another wrote, “No, I just had to pause Thunder Force cause there’s multiple scenes of her eating raw chicken and I couldn’t stop gagging?”
Clearly, watching someone eat raw chicken on multiple different occasions isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, despite its comedic background.
What do critics think?
Sadly, since its release, the movie has received a wave of harsh criticism. At the time of writing, Thunder Force has a low 25% on Rotten Tomatoes with 89 reviews. Top Critic Alison Willmore wrote in Variety, “How can people who purport to love comedy so much turn out something so lackadaisical and joyless?”
Specifically addressing the raw chicken bit, Willmore wrote, “There’s one involving Lydia’s powers making her crave raw chicken, and the movie returns to it repeatedly without ever making the bit look gross enough for it actually rise to the level of funny.”
Contrasting slightly, IMDb has rated the movie with 4.5 stars out of ten which is almost double of the Rotten Tomatoes ratings, but still low. Perhaps, laying back on the raw chicken would’ve done the movie some good.
Thunder Force is currently streaming on Netflix.