Thunderbirds

Plot synopsis:
The Tracy family, led by former astronaut Jeff Tracy, operate International Rescue, a secret organization that aids those in need using the technologically advanced machines called Thunderbirds. The youngest son Alan lives at a boarding school on the mainland dreaming of being a Thunderbird pilot. He and his friend Fermat Hackenbacker, son of the Thunderbirds’ engineer Brains, are picked up by Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward and her butler Aloysius Parker. Lady Penelope is an International Rescue agent, travelling to Tracy Island in the South Pacific in her limo FAB 1. The Thunderbirds return from an oil rig fire, but Alan and Fermat play around in Thunderbird 1, discovering a strange compound splattered on the side. Unbeknownst to them, the compound is a tracking beacon being used by the Hood, a psychic criminal mastermind who has a vendetta against Jeff for not saving him in a collapsing diamond mine while his brother Kyrano was rescued.
The next day, the Hood’s submarine locates Tracy Island and fires a missile at the orbiting Thunderbird 5, sending the Tracys in Thunderbird 3 to rescue John Tracy. The Hood and his minions Mullion and Transom take over the island’s command centre, imprisoning the Tracys in Thunderbird 5 with depleting oxygen. The Hood reveals he plans to use the Thunderbirds to rob the major banks of the world. Alan, Fermat, and their friend Tin-Tin, Kyrano’s daughter, escape in the ventilation to the Thunderbird silos. Fermat removes Thunderbird 2's guidance chip and the teenagers flee into the island’s jungle.
While traversing the jungle to find the island’s remote transmitter, Tin-Tin displays psychic powers like her uncle. Contacting Thunderbird 5, Jeff tells them to wait for Lady Penelope’s arrival. The trio flee from Mullion, but Fermat and Tin-Tin are captured when Alan tries to pilot them to safety on hovercraft. Lady Penelope and Parker arrive, engaging the Hood’s minions in combat, but the Hood defeats them with his powers. Alan appears, the Hood forcing him to hand over the guidance chip, locking him and the others in the island’s freezer. The Hood, Mullion, and Transom pilot Thunderbird 2 to London, using the Mole to drill into the Bank of England’s vaults but sink a monorail. Alan and co. escape confinement and contact the Tracys, who regain control of Thunderbird 5 and head off to stop the Hood, while the teenagers, Lady Penelope, and Parker fly to London in Thunderbird 1.
Arriving in London, Alan and Tin-Tin rescue the monorail using the aquatic Thunderbird 4 before going after the Hood. The Hood locks Jeff and Lady Penelope in a vault, challenging Alan to defeat him. Alan dangles from a catwalk over the Mole, but Tin-Tin appears, using her own powers to turn the tables on the Hood, who is rescued by Alan as per his family’s beliefs. The Hood and his minions are arrested, while the Tracys return to their island home. Alan, Fermat, and Tin-Tin are inducted as official members of International Rescue, and depart for their first mission.

Tags: good versus evil, revenge

Review:
But a terrible storyline and bland acting obliterated this opportunity and it was soon apparent all that was destined for this film was a trip to the bargain bin of the kiddies' section.Instead of a film focusing on the five Tracey sons, their father and trusty geek Brain striving to rescue people and protect the world from villains, our hero in this drudge is a malcontent and bratty thirteen-year-old Alan Tracey, fourteen-year-old Tin-tin and ten-year-old brain-box Fermat, son of Brains (yes, Brains' son despite this being a man who could surely never score a woman if he tried; maybe he grew the kid in a petri dish).
The scriptwriter seemed more interested in ripping off 'Spy Kids' (which was at least quirky and original) instead of remaking the show people know and love.Although Sophia Myles and Ron Cook were excellent as Miss Penelope and Parker, they only had about three lines between them so their presence was barely felt.
The Hood, in particular, is not at all threatening or sinister and instead comes across as a campy, two-bit stereotypical villain as limp as a piece of rotting lettuce.Brady Corbet, who plays Alan Tracey, may well be a good young actor but it was hard to see that in a film where he plays a whinging brat who just grates and the same goes for Vanessa Anne Hutchinson as Tin-tin since the most she gets to do is look pretty and be all for 'Girl Power'.
Ironically, it is young Soren Fulton's Fermat who is the only interesting character of the film as Fulton delivers a natural and relaxed performance.'Thunderbirds' the series will be forever remembered as an excellent show that proves puppets can give solid performances!
As an admirer of the original television series and despite the 'mixed' reviews, I decided that I would go and see "Thunderbirds" (I did debate whether to go for some time but knew that I eventually would).I have to say that the film was not as bad as I had feared - unfortunately it wasn't all that good either.
"Thunderbirds" in its 2004 incarnation is incredibly bland and appears to have been made for those with a tiny attention span (key facts about the characters were repeated several times during the course of the movie).No-one comes out of this movie particularly well - Ben Kingsley probably gives the best performance as The Hood.
What they have done is taken a TV show, which was never aimed at young children & given it the George Lucas treatment (i.e. ruined it by kiddifying it to appeal to the younger audience).OK so the Thunderbirds TV show wasn't exactly the most cerebral of shows, in fact it was pretty formulaic, but it was always enjoyable to watch (especially when the models got blown up) and the voice cast wasn't too bad.This suffers from bad casting & bad acting (with the notable exceptions of Sophia Myles as Lady Penelope & Ron Cook as Parker, who seem to be the only cast members to have a clue about how their characters should be played) & after this travesty I wouldn't let Frakes direct traffic.The whole point of Thunderbirds was that it was about the whole Tracy family & how they worked as a team, preventing disasters or coming to the rescue of those involved in disasters.Avoid this rubbish like the plague.I only give it 1 out of 10 because a zero rating is not supported..
The CGI work was what I would have called leading edge - 5 years ago.The Dynamics of the main craft were just wrong; The original series models at least moved as if they had massAnother sore point is that the whole production seemed to be one long set of product placements, from every vehicle being built by Ford to the entire content of the Tracy Freezer being produced by Ben & Jerry's.My son (9) enjoyed the film but this cross between Spy Kids and 'Clockstoppers', aimed squarely at his age group, added nothing to the Thunderbirds legend.
Sophia Miles was, simply, fantastic, as Lady P and Bill Paxton, whilst not exactly who I envisaged Jeff Tracey being, was solid enough...but then the adults were taken out of the equation and we were asked to believe 8 year olds could fly 200 tonne machines.It's not so much the fact that the movie was centred around the children that made me feel like Jonathon Frakes was slapping me with a wet fish and laughing at my hard earned money spent on the film, it was the fact that Alan Tracey was so obnoxious in the film and that he seemed to be as able to fly the machines as well as his brothers...who were at least 19/20.
Being an ardent fan of the original Thunderbirds series, which was imaginative and entertaining (despite the strings!), I bought the DVD of the film for my grandchildren on the premise that they might enjoy it.
The whole moral message and 'goal' is set up in an excruciating way: Jeff Tracy (A new low for Bill Paxton) tells his youngest son Alan he's not yet proved himself to be a Thunderbird after Alan randomly and stupidly decided to go down into Tracy Island's bowels to fire up Thunderbird One. The whole film is then a series of events and miss-fires consisting of Alan trying to prove himself whilst his father and other brothers are trapped in space aboard Thunderbird five.The film relies on kid actors to carry the film: A 16 year old Alan Tracy (Corbet), a 16 year old Tin Tin (Hudgens) and a 14 year old Fermat (Fulton) who is Brains' son.
Also, the whole 'mind control' thing was very tiresome and basically dragged the film down as it was overused and offered a way for our heroes to see a weakness in The Hood  forced and incidental.I know that most 'film's for kids' these days try to integrate some sort of material for adults but in Thunderbirds it's done in a way that fetishises Lady Penelope.
Sophia Myles plays Penelope and I think it's no coincidence she's a little older than the rest of the kids  at 24 years old, it's almost too good to be true.
Twinned with this, her bright pink costumes that reveal just enough yet cover just enough are particularly outstanding as is the way she moves and talks with that posh, dominant, English accent; sounding like a commanding mistress (Well, she is LADY Penelope after all  and you'd better make sure call her that) The whole thing is laughable but the editing is so quick that the kids won't notice but it sure as hell is there.The actual plot of The Hood doing all that he does just to rob a few banks is very bizarre, the characters that are his bodyguards: a geeky looking woman and hard bodied black man who gets agitated a lot.
THUNDERBIRDS comes close to showing how pathetic childhood was (or wasn't).Fresh from the success of his Next Generation STAR TREK films (two of which he directed), Jonathan Frakes is back resting comfortably on his director's chair and at his first shot he really had good intentions...
My main reason for being interested in it is that I'm a Bill Paxton fan; he's a pretty good actor, and has turned in consistently good work over the course of his career.The other thing is that, while never really a fan of the old series, I kinda liked Thunderbirds for the ships and effect work.
I was prepared for a little bit of artistic licence, but the film is so far removed from the original plot lines that I wonder why the production team even bothered to obtain the rights to the "Thumderbirds" brand for the movie?
Thunderbirds is a fantastic franchise potential, in that there is very little evil in the show.I know there's the hood but he doesn't always appear, the only constant is peoples lives being saved in tense and action packed ways that require kid friendly super- machines.
The original was made for kids in as much as it was puppets but all The Century 21 series would have used live action if Gerry Anderson and ITC could have afforded it and the stories did not talk down to or patronise their audience with the result I can still happily watch them today with my little girl.
It doesn't have as much of the dual adult and kids appeal of the original and will probably appeal mostly to the younger children who (if they can get you to take 'em, it's a PG) aren't really going to mind the poor humour, and won't remember what Thunderbird 2 should look like or that Lady P wouldn't be seen dead in a Ford.
Except for the monorail, which for some reason looks more like a model than anything Derek Meddings ever did on the telly, the thunderbirds do pay reasonable lipservice to the original designs and there is still enough here to cling to the hope that it could be rescued by a sequel with a better plot, brains Jr and TinTin sent off to University and Allan doing a decent days work for a decent days pay..
The only time this turkey should be served up is at about 3AM on the day after Thanksgiving or 3am on Boxing Day when everyone is sleeping off their dinners.The characters in this movie are more plastic than the puppets in the original series, despite the actors best efforts.Unfortunately Jonathan Frakes not only missed the boat on this one, he missed the whole fracking ocean!
So not surprising that someone decided it was time to big-screen it.It's a pity that they just though "ah - a big target audience, so lots of moolah" and didn't also take the time out to think "I wonder what makes a show that remains popular for FORTY YEARS." Someone clearly decided to make this a film for *young* kids, and ignore the fact that the TV series was enjoyed by kids of *all* ages (I mean, anyone still breathing!) but I have to wonder, even with that dubious decision, why they had to ignore the obvious.For example.
While some purists may regard this as heresy, probably THUNDERBIRDS is a more nuanced, thoughtful film version than the original movies from the series, which simply tend to be elongated episodes.
Jonathan Frakes, as punishment for subjecting us to this dreadful movie, must be banned from any other director work.The plot is thin to the point of being transparent and ruined by children 'saving the world'.The acting quality provided by real flesh and blood humans was even more 'wooden' than that of the original Anderson puppets.My only conclusion with regard to Ben Kinglsey's appearance in the production, must have been from a desire of his to make some 'quick money' without the need to provide the acting magic that he so ably can provide.Also the Bank of England is not located in the National Gallery as the movie suggests.I'm eternally glad that I paid no money to see this 'tripe'..
They really seemed to 'get' the spirit of their characters.So, advice for the sequels:1) Get some real characters.2) Get a plot that makes a little bit of sense.3) Let the actors *act*!4) Get rid of Tintin-Sue and give the girl some flaws (this could come under point 1, but it was so glaring I felt it deserved an entry of its own)5) Get a director, producer and writer who were fans of the series.
A bit of a rickety plot - OK (hang on a minute though- the original wasn't exactly flawless), but mainly just plain a-z enjoyment including some, shall we say, more sophisticated humour than those with misty eyes may recall - I cringe at the original episodes ending with a cast laugh.Having bought the album, Hans Zimmers treatment of Barry Gray's theme and his specially composed music are rather good, again nice to have new technology enhancing the original themes.The basis is there, the sets and props have been built and the cast are contracted for sequels - call Universal, write to Fellner and Bevan and tell 'em to get cracking, buy the DVD - Alan's grown up - so can the next film - and the critics can grow up and become kids again, if you get my drift..
It's now nearly forty years since Anderson's television series debuted, and we come to find out that Hollywood, which cannot help but ruining anything that was good from the 60's, has now decided to disembowel 'The Thunderbirds.' By all accounts, they have succeeded beyond anyone's wildest expectations.In the movie version of the Thunderbirds, Jeff Tracy (Bill Paxton) and 'Brains' (Anthony Edwards) have teenage children: Alan (Brady Corbet) and Fermat (Soren Fulton).
The heart and sole of the Thunderbirds, Jeff Tracy and his sons, are locked up in the space station for most of the movie, leaving us to be entertained by the boy-band reject Alan and Ben Kingsley's imitation of a puppet.
One thing I didn't like was that now the characters and not just the machines are called the Thunderbirds, but maybe this is a PC thing as there really is now an organisation called International Rescue (inspired by the original series of course) which helps out at various disaster areas around the globe.
Alan (Brady Corbet), who longs to 'be a Thunderbird' i.e., part of the team and not a hulking great lump of flying metal, is not yet taken seriously by either his father Jeff or his brothers and is going through the sulky teen stage we all know so well.Basically the plot is that an evil (yet not very imaginative) villain (Ben Kingsley), who has monikered himself as 'The Hood' (see what I mean?), plans to steal the International Rescue machines and rob the world's major banks (I rest my case).
Maybe these will all be addressed in future.However, it's a great kids movie with a few titbits thrown in for us old 'uns  which is exactly how it should be, and if I, as a die-hard fan of the original, can accept it I see no reason why no one else should.One more thing - Regarding the suspension of disbelief  I could accept the Thunderbirds flying up the Thames and under Tower Bridge, but all that clear blue sky and sunshine?
But mostly it's harmless enough fun.Things I liked about the movie:The Thunderbirds machines were pretty cool, although the back end of T2 just didn't look right to me.
This kind of affectionate rib-poking made the whole film a lot more enjoyable in my book, and is clearly done as a nod to the debt owed to the series.Things I didn't like about the movie:Too many kids!
The adults roared with laughter at that bit, while the kids all remained stone faced.Lady Penelope, who looks identical to (and may have actually BEEN) the character in the Wonder-Bra adverts, makes constant references to the adverts, which is great fun, because ONLY those of the older generation will get those jokes.
If you can forget that the original series ever existed and that this is an original film, then it is quite enjoyable in a Spy Kids sort of way (although the way everyone refers to the team as the Thunderbirds rather than International Rescue still rankles).The special effects are pretty good (shots of Thunderbird 3 taking off into space are great), Brendan Galvin's photography is appropriately colourful and production designer John Beard's re-imagining of the Thunderbird craft are appropriately respectful to the original.
Instead all we get are some silly and quite frankly stupid shenanigans involving a sadly annoying Alan Tracy running around Tracy Island trying to save the Tracy family from an incredibly over-acting Ben Kingsley as The Hood.Too bad then, that he gets trapped by a tidal wave of terrible dialogue, unfunny moments that would make even the Spy Kids cringe with envy and most importantly a complete lack of respect to the original source material.Even Hans Zimmer's score is nowhere near the excellence of Barry Gray.When even your creator calls it the biggest pile of crap he's ever watched you know your film is completely doomed....
THUNDERBIRDS the film is a cheap and cheesy vehicle of excess that makes SPICE WORLD look like a movie classic.
But even with the effects I have a problem as although they are nice, they are way overused at moments and then put in really silly times, it is as if strategic effects are used to then create some kind of disaster waiting to come.One lasting hateful thing this movie does is ruin the massive legacy of the old puppet and strings TV series of the 1960's and really shows kids of this day the wrong message, one of silly jokes and silly characters(some of which are completely made up for this movie).
To be honest, children of all ages these days can take an adult scenario, they can take dramatic story lines but the story presented here is very poor and the standard of the acting is pathetic for the most part.Paxton and Kingsley worked hard against a paint by numbers script and Sophia Myles was fantastic as Lady Penelope (but did they have to have her fighting with martial arts moves ?) and for the Tracey brothers, they were cast too young and the young actors performances were quite dreadful.
On the plus side, the design of the crafts were pretty good and looked the part but this was only a minor plus amongst what is a disaster of a movie.From the awful cartoon credit sequence to the cringe factor 10 finale the film is painful to watch.It is too childish for adults, only kids around 8 to 10 years may enjoy it and as for lifelong fans ?