A truly shocking movie! This was an excellent opportunity to take a much loved franchise and update it for the 21st Century. Being of a certain age I grew up watching the Gerry Anderson series "Thunderbirds" on TV. 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? The original TV series was all about these five brothers who went around rescuing people, just in the nick of time. The five brothers are certainly in the movie, but three of the characters were so under-developed that straight after the movie I couldn't even remember what they looked like. Fair enough, but two of these characters were the characters that did all the action in the TV series!
One brother does all the rescuing, but rather than being old enough to be a renown racing driver in his spare time (TV version), in the film he hasn't even left school. Yet he manages to drive the complicated vehicles just by being able to sit in them!
The other thing that the TV series enthralled a generation of children with were the machines themselves, "The Thunderbirds". On TV, the camera lingered on the beasts, the camera provided the big picture. In the film, blink and you missed them, or the camera was so tight you couldn't actually work out what you are supposed to be looking at.
So, having dispensed with the main characters and the main technological hook of the original franchise, the production team then dispensed with anything resembling a "Thunderbirds" plot. Did they fish around in all the waste bins in Hollywood until they found a rejected plot from "Spy Kids"? For those who are aware of their work from the 1970s, the Children's Film Foundation in the UK did this kind of thing better on a fraction of the budget.
It's not all bad though: Sophia Miles' performance was enough to keep me watching until the end. A pity such a talent was wasted in such a hotch-potch movie.
Avoid at all costs!
One brother does all the rescuing, but rather than being old enough to be a renown racing driver in his spare time (TV version), in the film he hasn't even left school. Yet he manages to drive the complicated vehicles just by being able to sit in them!
The other thing that the TV series enthralled a generation of children with were the machines themselves, "The Thunderbirds". On TV, the camera lingered on the beasts, the camera provided the big picture. In the film, blink and you missed them, or the camera was so tight you couldn't actually work out what you are supposed to be looking at.
So, having dispensed with the main characters and the main technological hook of the original franchise, the production team then dispensed with anything resembling a "Thunderbirds" plot. Did they fish around in all the waste bins in Hollywood until they found a rejected plot from "Spy Kids"? For those who are aware of their work from the 1970s, the Children's Film Foundation in the UK did this kind of thing better on a fraction of the budget.
It's not all bad though: Sophia Miles' performance was enough to keep me watching until the end. A pity such a talent was wasted in such a hotch-potch movie.
Avoid at all costs!