I took my 3 nieces to see Spiderman 2 on Sunday but it was all sold out. As a consolation I took them to see an advanced preview of Thunderbirds.
I was dreading it, I hadn't seen any trailers, I knew nothing about the plot or even who was in it because I just thought the movie was going to be so bad. I would never have envisaged myself going to see it and had fate not stepped in I probably wouldn't.
I came out at the end pleasantly surprised. It was quite good actually. This is definitely a kids movie, but one which adults can enjoy and I think Thunderbird fans will see a lot that will make them smile, but die hard fans will be annoyed at the amount of liberties taken with certain aspects of the story.
The Good The look and feel of the Thunderbirds, Tracey Island, the Pink Limousine and all their International Rescue gizmos are spot on. They have managed to retain the retro sixties look while successfully merging it into a modern environment. I had goose bumps when the Thunderbirds launched and watching them in action took me back to all those lazy Saturday mornings when I used to watch the TV show. Some of the characters are a bit bland, but to be fair most of these do not have much screen time anyway. Of those that do, Ben Kingsley stands out as a decent version The Hood, but the two characters who steal the show are Sophia Myles and Ron Cook as Lady Penelope and Parker. They are spot on; playing off each other very naturally and providing a lot of the laughs for the movie.
There are also some wonderful references to the TV show, including an over the top mind control scene that makes one of the character walk like a puppet and one scene where a characters hand is very briefly (blink and you'll miss it) replaced with a puppet hand with string attached!
The Bad We don't see a lot of the Thunderbirds or the Tracy characters in the type of action the TV show was famous for. This is because there is only one official rescue mission at the beginning, which is over fairly quickly. The TV show used to build up the tension, making the actual rescues exiting and nail biting stuff. In the big screen version, most of the Tracy's are incapacitated early on (although I'm glad Bill Paxton wasn't in it any more than he was because I think he'd researched the show a little too much and was acting rather wooden) and the rest of the film focuses on three children in an annoying kids movie style 'coming of age' cliché. When will Hollywood realize that a Kids movie doesn't necessarily have to focus on Kids?
The eldest kid, Alan Tracey, is the main focus of the movie. The trouble is his character is annoying and useless. Even at the end when the story has taken the predictable turn of him and his friends saving the day; he's rubbish. It's quite funny actually; he claims to know The Hood's weakness, which involves him banging his own head repeatedly against a wall until The Hood gets tired. Not literally of course, but when you see it you'll understand.
The other two children are only semi-annoying, but because the movie tries to hard to ram down the message of how important team work is and respecting everyone, even those with a stereotypical stutter, the story sometimes gets lost in the mist of all the moral messages.
Oh, and I've got a message for Ford. ' YES, WE KNOW YOU PROVIDED THE CARS FOR THE MOVIE, GIVE IT A REST WITH ALL THE 'IN YOUR FACE' PRODUCT PLACEMENTS!'
Despite all that, in the end I had fun and my nieces (none of which like the TV show that much) really enjoyed it. If you go in like I did, not knowing much about it, not expecting much and as long as you realize this is a kids movie, you might be pleasantly surprised.
I was dreading it, I hadn't seen any trailers, I knew nothing about the plot or even who was in it because I just thought the movie was going to be so bad. I would never have envisaged myself going to see it and had fate not stepped in I probably wouldn't.
I came out at the end pleasantly surprised. It was quite good actually. This is definitely a kids movie, but one which adults can enjoy and I think Thunderbird fans will see a lot that will make them smile, but die hard fans will be annoyed at the amount of liberties taken with certain aspects of the story.
The Good The look and feel of the Thunderbirds, Tracey Island, the Pink Limousine and all their International Rescue gizmos are spot on. They have managed to retain the retro sixties look while successfully merging it into a modern environment. I had goose bumps when the Thunderbirds launched and watching them in action took me back to all those lazy Saturday mornings when I used to watch the TV show. Some of the characters are a bit bland, but to be fair most of these do not have much screen time anyway. Of those that do, Ben Kingsley stands out as a decent version The Hood, but the two characters who steal the show are Sophia Myles and Ron Cook as Lady Penelope and Parker. They are spot on; playing off each other very naturally and providing a lot of the laughs for the movie.
There are also some wonderful references to the TV show, including an over the top mind control scene that makes one of the character walk like a puppet and one scene where a characters hand is very briefly (blink and you'll miss it) replaced with a puppet hand with string attached!
The Bad We don't see a lot of the Thunderbirds or the Tracy characters in the type of action the TV show was famous for. This is because there is only one official rescue mission at the beginning, which is over fairly quickly. The TV show used to build up the tension, making the actual rescues exiting and nail biting stuff. In the big screen version, most of the Tracy's are incapacitated early on (although I'm glad Bill Paxton wasn't in it any more than he was because I think he'd researched the show a little too much and was acting rather wooden) and the rest of the film focuses on three children in an annoying kids movie style 'coming of age' cliché. When will Hollywood realize that a Kids movie doesn't necessarily have to focus on Kids?
The eldest kid, Alan Tracey, is the main focus of the movie. The trouble is his character is annoying and useless. Even at the end when the story has taken the predictable turn of him and his friends saving the day; he's rubbish. It's quite funny actually; he claims to know The Hood's weakness, which involves him banging his own head repeatedly against a wall until The Hood gets tired. Not literally of course, but when you see it you'll understand.
The other two children are only semi-annoying, but because the movie tries to hard to ram down the message of how important team work is and respecting everyone, even those with a stereotypical stutter, the story sometimes gets lost in the mist of all the moral messages.
Oh, and I've got a message for Ford. ' YES, WE KNOW YOU PROVIDED THE CARS FOR THE MOVIE, GIVE IT A REST WITH ALL THE 'IN YOUR FACE' PRODUCT PLACEMENTS!'
Despite all that, in the end I had fun and my nieces (none of which like the TV show that much) really enjoyed it. If you go in like I did, not knowing much about it, not expecting much and as long as you realize this is a kids movie, you might be pleasantly surprised.