This was such a weird experience, I'm not even sure what to categorise it as. Family fun? No, there's definitely some scenes that don't fit. Superhero action flick? Nah, there isn't enough action for that. Superhero parody? I think that _might_ be the intention, but I really can't be sure, there's not enough comedy in it for that.
I'm a simple person: I saw Octavia Spencer and Melissa McCarthy, I knew I had to watch. And then I don't know if I had as much fun as I thought I would, which is unfortunate and left me feeling just like the movie itself was: awkward and frustrated. The two main characters, in quite sharp contrast to the movie poster, look just tired mostly throughout the movie, almost to the point of "I really wish I was anywhere else". Which is a crying shame, because everyone knows they can do much better, but somehow they don't really get the chance here. For quick gags and slapstick humour, too many scenes are stretched a lot thinner than they should be - and several of those are even put on repeat. For any sort of dynamic between the two, there isn't enough interaction to let it bloom - and when there is, [spoiler]it's usually one of them having verbal diarrhea, with the other either trying to deflect some curse words or just meekly protesting. It doesn't help that one of them gets some generic super strength (never really allowed to have fun with that either), while the other can just - become invisible, which is really redundant, considering she keeps hiding behind every imaginable cover anyway.[/spoiler] I could go on, but you get the point.
There isn't much follow through to so many elements, either, leaving a trail of missed opportunities throughout the entire movie. [spoiler]There's an overly long scene about getting the bully of the school in a dumpster - and then that character's never seen again later, never shows up to get any sort of revenge. There are overly long scenes about how difficult it is for the two women to get into the sleek Lambo - and then it's never an issue anyway, it never makes them arrive late or actually get stuck or anything. Making a point several times about how they can't wash the suits so they start to smell - and only a barely-there, sort of "honorable" mention towards the end where someone actually notices that; and besides, why not just, you know, make more of them, not that that's ever brought up as an option. A bighuge sentimental fuss about granny being in danger, only to watch as nothing ever happens to her. The plot twist (but not really) traitor is discovered and promptly knocked out - and that's about the last we see of her. The guy always botching up the knock-knock jokes? What even is the point of his presence?
As for the others... There's literally no character to The King, he's as generic as they come, I could've sworn he was copy-pasted from a certain series. Crab is just random as all hells, and his arms looked even cheaper than the hero suits (and the randomness of his romance was only second to Tracey's out-of-nowhere hero transformation). And Laser's so one-dimensional, I started to wonder if she even has a single dimension to her.[/spoiler] Another pile of unfortunate, because we know full well these two can do a lot better as well.
And... look. I get it: not every character in every movie has to be complex and well written. Not every script has to be well written, either. But if you're trying to aim for comedy, the gags and jokes have to hit and come a lot more frequently, instead of being allowed to sit down and the movie to just trickle between them. If you're aiming for parody, you have to go over the top at least a few times, instead of... idk, never, like this movie does.
I'm frustrated, because I wanted to like this movie, if for nothing else than the two leads, but also for the premise of being a sort of superhero parody. I wanted to conclude that it would be understandable if superhero fans got upset about this movie and hated it, because it pokes fun at all the tropes in all the right ways. I really wanted to... but I can't, because it keeps missing one mark after another, while also dragging on unnecessarily long. It can't even keep its rather on-the-nose nods to PC/SJW issues in check, with how certain things turn out, needlessly adding more to an already long list of frustrations.
It's a really unfortunate one that could have been a lot more than it ended up being.