hazel wrote:Far too many years ago for my peace of mind, a grown-up cousin dragged me along to see the cartoon version of ‘Jungle Book’. She did this so that it would look as if it was an adult taking a child to see the film, rather than what it was – a child taking an adult.
I myself have no such inhibitions. If I want to see a film, I don’t care if it’s for children or adults, or whether I have someone to go with. But it was with great pleasure that I, along with a significant fraction of The Magnificent Seven, not to mention the child of one of the Seven, strolled along the Marble Arch Odeon yesterday to see the new ‘Thunderbirds’ film.
This film has had mixed reviews in both the general and the trade press, but let me say right at the outset – I liked it. I liked it very much. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s fun.
Let’s get down to specifics. Someone has described this film as a prequel to the series, in that Alan is still at school and not yet ready to be a Thunderbird. OK, I can live with that, except that the first episode of the original series, ‘Trapped in the Sky’, specifically says that International Rescue is a new organisation, and the rescue of the Fireflash is its first mission. But let’s gloss over canon-breach.
My main problem with this film is that even by the end, the only Tracy Brother I could identify was Alan (and that was only because he had the most screentime!) The others are interchangeable and anonymous – this film was almost the length of two episodes, and by the end of episode two on the telly, I could CERTAINLY identify each of the brothers by name and their associated Thunderbird.
Bill Paxton is an adequate Jeff, but he suffered rather from some overly-mawkish lines (“Sometimes, you can’t rescue everybody, however hard you try.”). Anthony Edwards (late of ‘ER’) made a surprisingly good Brains. I was expecting his trademark stutter to get a bit tedious after a while, but sensible scripting and an underplayed performance made it amusing instead. The three ostensible stars of the show, Brady Corbet as Alan, Vanessa Anne Hudgens as Tintin, and Soren Fulton as Fermat, Brains’ son (…b-b-b-but Brains is a specky nerd living on a remote island! How did he come by a son? And where, and who, is Mom?) were better than I expected. There was some amusing by-play between Alan and a ‘blossoming’ Tintin, hinting at the hinted-at romance between them in the series.
But for my money, the real stars of this film are Ben Kingsley as a magnificently barking-mad Hood, and the superb double-act of Sophia Myles and Ron Cook as Lady Penelope and Parker. Ben Kingsley looks as he’s thinking “I played Gandhi! What the hell am I doing here?” but deciding to make the most of it and have fun. Lady P is an action heroine in the proud tradition of Emma Peel and Modesty Blaise, and also has most of the best lines. After landing a punch in the face of one of the villains: “Do you KNOW how much a manicure costs!”, and while slung over the shoulder of said villain and being carried off to be locked up: “Put me down, you oaf! This suit is couture!” She also manages several costume changes and new hair-dos in rather improbable circumstances. Parker is wonderfully dead-pan whether he is bringing tea to a bathing Lady P, piloting the air-borne FAB1, or courteously ensuring that his social superiors exit their place of imprisonment before he does. Yes, these three are definitely the stars, and if someone cared to make a film featuring them, and forgetting the rest of International Rescue, I for one would go to see it.
“But,” you say, “what about the vehicles?” Well, they’re all there. All five TBs, as well as the Mole and the Firefly, get their moment of glory, and the CGI renditions are updated without losing the charm of the originals. But they looked too new. Gerry Anderson paid great attention to detail in all his productions, and the models were all ‘dirtied-down’ for the camera, to look substantial and used. The CGI vehicles GLEAMED. Having said that, though, they were impressive and by-and-large convincing. The controversial Ford FAB1 might not have the elegance of the original Rolls Royce, but it’s the right colour, it can travel on water just like the original, plus it can fly. I want one…
I could go on and on about the little details: the cartoon opening sequence (which I could really have done without – what about showing us the TBs’ launch sequences instead?); the little nods towards the original series (the palm trees still flop over to allow TB2 to take off, the swimming pool still moves aside to let TB1 out, the round-house is still TB3’s launch platform) but I won’t. I’ll just say that if you grew up with the puppet Thunderbirds, as I did, this film will probably irritate and amuse you in equal portions. If you’re of the younger generation, with limited exposure to the original, you might enjoy it more. For what it’s worth, I thought it was great.
*cough* Yes after seeing this...film I'm not going to say much. I guess it's ok if you haven't seen the original but it's very much a kids film. From my view it lurched along like a three legged horse not knowing where it was going or where it had been. Obviously someone had not seen the original much at all.
As for Mr Frakes's directing I think it might be prudent to taken out and shot quickly. For all the hype and such I was expecting much better but never mind. It left a bad taste in the mouth if your going to make a movie of something that at least two generations have seen do it correctly or don't do it at all. This mockery of TB's has to go in room 101.
No more directing by Mr Frakes of any GA production please. In fact someone please beam him up very quickly. This should have been 'phasered' out of existance with half if not all of the Cast. I'm not sure if it was the Mysterons taking their revenge because CS hasn't had a decent film either. It certainly sent a shockwave throught the fans who remember the orginal. A camp film made by people who are better off sticking with what they know. In Mr Frakes's case this would be star trek TNG. Lets face it he's always going to be known as Commander Riker or Number one, this film all in all was not worth the hype behind it. A travesty from start to finish. The only good thing about it was the song by Busted.
You will pay in full as the Mysterons say and did we ever, in return for buying or watching this in the cinema we got a right lemon.
Posted: Tue May 30, 2006 12:13 am
