Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with some THUNDERBIRD reviews. I would have figured most of these to be negative, but it's quite the other way around. Mixed Positives and Mixed Negatives. Hrm... Were we fooled by the awful trailers? Is this a kid's movie worth checking out? I don't know about that, Yogi... Let's see what these folks have to say.
Hey Harry,
I saw the new THUNDERBIRDS movie over here in England earlier on - thought you may like an opinion on it...
First of all, let it be known that I was and still am a huge fan of the original TV series so I was a little heartbroken when I heard that Gerry Anderson, the creator of the show, wasn't even involved. So into the cinema I tentatively went, hoping that Mr Frakes had done justice to a British institution...
Well, let me say how impressed I was with this film. Let's get one thing straight from the start - this is a kids movie, made for kids and kids will jump all over it. From a fan's point of view, there are a lot of things right here. The production design, from Tracy island headquarters to the ships themselves, is fantastic. Frakes and co have managed to create a futuristic environment but with a real sixties vibe - big and colourful and child friendly. As it should be. Bravo...
The effects are excellent, particularly in the opening scene where International rescue come to the aid of a stricken oil rig - wind, rain, lightning and ships that look amazing on screen. Sent a shiver down this fan's spine.
Wasn't sure about Bill paxton as patriarch Jeff Tracy to begin with but actually thought he was ok, if a little wooden (spot the irony....). Sophia Miles as Lady Penelope was very well cast - posh, limber and VERY sexy. Also good was Ron Cook as chauffeur Parker, playing nicely, and essentially, off Miles.
So what's wrong with it? Well, with a couple of exceptions, the Tracy brothers have been cast too young. In the series, the youngest was 21. Here that same brother, Alan, is 14. Bad idea. When will the suits realise that you don't have to make a film ABOUT kids to appeal TO kids. The brothers are a little too bland and do pretty much bugger all for the majority of the movie - the action focusing on Alan and even younger chums trying to stop evil villain The Hood from using International Rescue technology for nefarious means....
Ben Kingsley is the man on bad guy duties and unfortunately seems to be on autopilot when he could be having a whale of a time. Shame, really.
It would have been nice to see international rescue doing more rescuing, especially after the excellent but all to brief opening but there you go. I could go on forever about what was in there and what wasn't but this, for kids and non-fans, is a fast paced and well made family adventure movie. Enthusiasts with an open mind may learn to like it. Die hard fans probably won't.... Let's hope they sort out the glitches in the sequel. If there isn't one I'll be mightily surprised.....
BIG X
Alright... Lacking, but not terrible. Gotcha. Next?
Harry -
Greetings from the UK. I saw the new Thunderbirds feature today and thought I'd share my opinions with you if you want to use it as a review.Here goes..
With the weather being a bit overcast, I opted out of going to a local music festival to see an advance screening of the new Thunderbirds live action feature. I grew up with the origianl series and regard it as a classic idea - having a billionaire philanthropist and his sons saving people in peril with cool ships and gizmos. It allows you to have all the adrenalin-pumping action and suspense without descending into morally-dubious high body counts of Scwartzenegger/Willis flicks. And even though the TV series is just puppets and miniatures, it transcends it's genre by having every aspect of production given the same amount of attention and common-sense approach that is lavished on live action dramas.The acting,directing,pacing and soundtrack are all skillfully blended to give you the viewer an edge-of-seat drama that rarely, if ever, descends into parody. Each week some disaster would happen and our heroes would slide down tubes into their craft and we'd go through the umpteenth re-run of the launch sequences (but who cares ?, retractable swimming pools and hinged palm trees are part of the charm). Thus, when I heard of a TB movie, I had high hopes of a fantastic CGI-fest of cool ships and suspense.
But then, thanks mainly to AICN, rumours stirred of a Spy Kids style kiddie-flick that was later to be confirmed. Well, how bad is it ?.
Well, instead of cool ships and high drama, we have cool ships and sets with lukewarm pantomime - style farce that lacks proper pacing and characterisation. The producers have gone too far in allowing advertising and merchandising demographics to judge the story and whom it should be aimed at. This movie is firmly aimed at the 10 - 13 year age group and there's nothing wrong with that, it's just that this sort of juvenile slapstick chase stuff with campish villains and inept dumb henchmen is tired and clichéd. And someone in Hollywood obviously believes in the dogma that decrees ‘if your production is to appeal to kids, then it must have kids in it’. Well, short answer : NO. I saw Star Wars when I was 13 and it has no kids in it. I believe it went on to be one of the most successful movies of all time. Likewise, the popularity of The Simpsons and Shrek is that they are skilfully written to appeal to kids and yet equally have something for adults to enjoy.
Sadly, Thunderbirds doesn’t do this and thus is badly written, sloppy farce that ignores basic dramatic rules. There are no really dramatic rescues which see the team racing against time with the suspense getting notched up by the moment, opting instead for an an extended slapstick - chase movie from Tracy Island to the UK.
The animated opening credit sequence is a retro 1960’s affair (replete with a digital remix of the original theme) that looks like a cross between Yellow Submarine and any of the Pink Panther movies. It was actually a not-so-subliminal message of what was to come, that is to say, Spy Kids 3.5.
We arrive at a college in Massasachusetts where teenage Alan Tracy and Brains’ son, Fermat ,are pupils . Alan dreams of joining his brothers on missions which sets up the coming of age storyline. A feisty Lady Penelope (Sophie Miles) and trusty Parker turn up to whisk them back to Tracy Island in a flying pink FAB1 car for the spring break. Now, here’s a basic mistake due to messy writing. Masssachusetts is on the eastern US coast and with Tracy Island somewhere in the Pacific, when FAB1 flies off the cliff over the ocean, it’s the Atlantic and they’re heading the wrong way !. Either they did a big U-turn once airborne or they would have had to drive across the entire US to reach the coast !. Maybe this is just nit-picking, but the plotting is poor and predictable. When Thunderbird 5 is attacked by the Hood, played like a pantomime villain by Sir Ben Kingsley, Jeff and the gang rush off in TB3 to help in a sequence that provides one of the better moments in this film. There’s a wonderfully dizzy shot that follows TB3 up into space, so good, it’s repeated at the end of the movie at night.
But once there, it all goes pear-shaped for Jeff & Co who end up getting rescued by…well, you can guess, can’t you?. By having the story rest on the kids and with the Tracy family stuck in space, the plot sags badly with half the adult characters reduced to mere furniture. We don’t get an insight into Scott,Virgil,John or Gordon and so it’s difficult to empathise with anyone and so you end up sitting through light farce rather than high action. Still, the film looks good with great use of primary colours and retro-style set design. The ships look great too,with acceptable upgrading (I liked TB1 having a mostly transparent cockpit) .My favourite is the green trilobite, TB2. The space sequences are very well done but some other effects are messy and unconvincing. A shot where TB1 lands in London looks like it was done on a Playstation (UK readers who’ve seen the Thunderbirds related car commercial on TV will know the shot I mean). Performances are generally mediocre at best with only Lady Penelope shining through. Anthony Edwards looks embarrassed to be in the film at all, playing Brains for laughs and endlessly repeating variations on the same stuttering joke:
Brains (trying to say ‘fish’): Fffffff…..aquatic life
Repeat this type of gag a couple of dozen times and you’re there. Also, the scene where Brains is forced to activate the command centre with his palm-print, the Hood uses his powers to make him walk awkwardly in what is obviously a bad parody of the TV puppets movement, complete with Kingsley cracking and equally bad joke about puppets on string (yawn !).
Oh, and since when has an icicle (!!) been sharp or strong enough to cut rope bonds ?? – you’ll know the scene when you see it !.
Thunderbirds is a real disappointment. A film that lacks any real suspense, pacing (it’s an average chase movie) and that patronises it’s target audience with formulaic froth is about as exciting as flat lemonade served up with bland frozen pizza. Johnathan Frakes messy direction often leaves the whole thing feeling rather stilted, lacking any proper sense of direction or gravitas. Mercifully, that awful song by squeaky-clean Busted is on the closing credits, so escape quickly.
Final Verdict : Thunderbirds are….feeble !.
Ye-ouch. Alright, final word?
Hey Harry,
I havn't heard much about this movie on your site but, here in the UK we've been getting previews this weekend of Thunderbirds the movie so i thought I'd drop by with my 2 cents.
In brief, good stuff:
Brilliant opening credit sequence - animated to the thunderbirds theme, whole heap of fun.
Lady Penelope - gets all the laughs, kicks ass and looks great. Sophia Myles did a bang up job here.
Ben Kingsley as The Hood is also fun, though is way over the top but he and his 2 side-kicks make for a decent villainous trio.
Bad stuff:
Directing - Frakes fumbled almost all the "moments" in the film - laughs, romance and emotional stuff all seemed off the mark for the most part. A shame.
The Tracys - barely used in the film, we aren't even told the names of the Tracy juniors and have very little to do in the film other than get stranded. Plus theyall come off as assholes to be honest, not helped by Bill Paxton who really grinded on me here.
The Kids - it seemed a shame to centre the whole Thunderbirds movie around 3 kids, only one of which was a Tracy. The kids all do fine but, your enjoyment of the film will certainly depend on how much they annoy you. Only the one glasses bugged me slightly so I was ok.
Very Young - this movie skews YOUNG, aside from a few nods to the original series there ain't much here for the grown ups, the average audience age in my screen was about 5 to give you an idea, with me being 16 i was probably the oldest non-parent there.
Lastly i was kinda miffed about many of the predjudiced jokes in this movie - about fat kids, stuttering, making fun of ugly girls, all servants were of ethnic minority, etc. Not a huge deal but it felt a little off to have these stereotypes in a movie that kids might be looking up to. I dunno maybe I'm just being a lil picky.
Patrick
Anyways overall i guess i enjoyed the movie, but then again i enjoyed watching Torque last weekend, so it wasn't as awful as i had imagined but, unless you're a huge T-birds fan or have kids of the right age i would probably tell you to avoid this patchy flick and wait for DVD, if at all.
So, super-cool opening credits sequence, but bad acting and directing... Bring on Trey and Matt's TEAM AMERICA!
