Thunderbirds

Thunderbirds is a 2004 British-American science fiction action-adventure film directed by Jonathan Frakes, based on the 1960s TV series of the same name created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. The film, written by William Osborne and Michael McCullers, was released on July 20, 2004 in the United Kingdom and July 30, 2004 in the United States.

Plot
The Tracy family, led by former astronaut Jeff Tracy, operate International Rescue (IR), a secret organization that aids those in need during disasters using the technologically advanced machines called "Thunderbirds", operating out of Tracy Island in the South Pacific. The youngest son, Alan, lives at a boarding school in Massachusetts and dreams of becoming a Thunderbird pilot. He and his friend Fermat Hackenbacker, son of the Thunderbirds’ engineer Raymond "Brains" Hackenbacker, are extracted by Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, an IR agent, and her butler Aloysius Parker, using her limo FAB 1, as the Thunderbirds return from an oil rig fire off the Russian coast. Unbeknownst to them, a tracking beacon used by The Hood, a psychic criminal mastermind who has a vendetta against Jeff for not saving him from a collapsing diamond mine, has been planted on the hull of Thunderbird 1.

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 as their oxygen runs out. The Hood reveals that he plans to use the Thunderbirds to rob the major banks of the world, which would plunge the world's monetary system into chaos and the IR organization will be blamed and disgraced for it. Alan, Fermat and their friend Tin-Tin, Kyrano's daughter, use a ventilation shaft to reach the Thunderbird silos. Fermat removes Thunderbird 2's guidance chip, delaying The Hood's plan, 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. Alan insists on confronting the villains, but Jeff tells them to wait for Lady Penelope's arrival. The trio flees from Mullion, but Fermat and Tin-Tin are captured when Alan tries to tow them to safety on a hovercraft. Lady Penelope and Parker arrive, engaging the Hood's minions in combat, but the Hood defeats them with his powers. Alan appears, but the Hood forces him to hand over the guidance chip and locks him and the others in the compound's walk-in freezer. The Hood, Mullion and Transom pilot Thunderbird 2 to London and create a distraction by using the Mole to sink a monorail line into the Thames. Alan and co. escape confinement and contact the Tracys, who regain control of Thunderbird 5. While the adults head off to stop the Hood, the teenagers, Lady Penelope and Parker fly to London in Thunderbird 1.

Arriving in London, Alan and Tin-Tin rescue the submerged monorail car using the aquatic Thunderbird 4 before going after The Hood. Together, Fermat, Tin-Tin and Parker manage to defeat the Hood's henchmen. The Hood locks Jeff and Lady Penelope in a vault and challenges Alan to a fight. Alan dangles from a catwalk over the Mole's spinning drill, but Tin-Tin appears and uses her own powers to turn the tables on her uncle. The Hood goads Alan into letting him die like his father did, but Alan, knowing that his father had tried to save The Hood, saves him because "that's what (they) do". The Hood and his minions are arrested and the Tracys return to their island. Alan, Fermat and Tin-Tin are inducted as official members of IR, and depart for their first mission.

Why It’s Not F.A.B.

 * 1) The main problem is when this was made. Thunderbirds was a puppet show from 1965 and back then, after the show was done, they made 2 films. Thunderbirds Are Go in 1966 and Thunderbird 6 in 1968. These (while not as bad as this movie) were not received nearly as well as the show. By the time this film was released, interest in making another Thunderbirds film was well out the window.
 * 2) The Thunderbirds themselves do not have much screen-time. In fact, it is more focused on the young characters.
 * 3) None of the characters bear any resemblance to their original designs, particularly with the Tracy family, Tin-Tin and The Hood.
 * 4) Excessive amount of product placement, such as Walls, Ben & Jerrys, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Ford, to the point it gets a bit too much to handle.
 * 5) * And speaking of Ford, FAB-1, instead of being based off of a Rolls Royce like the original, was based off an early-2000s Ford Thunderbird.
 * 6) The film diverges so much from the source material that the official Wikipedia page has a list of inaccuracies.
 * 7) * The International Rescue outfits look like they belong in Star Trek: Enterprise.
 * 8) * In the show, they don't allow the Thunderbirds to be photographed, even going as far as to erase camera footage. In the film, however, they allow themselves to be filmed or photographed, which destroys the main point of the Thunderbirds.
 * 9) * The Hood gets weaker every time he uses his powers, making it hard to take him seriously.
 * 10) * Tin-Tin, for some reason, has powers like the Hood, even though she never had any in the original show.
 * 11) * FAB-1 is able to turn into an airplane, even though it could only turn into a boat in the original.
 * 12) The film itself is almost an obvious rip-off of the Spy Kids films, as it has the same type of humour and the plot is similar to it.
 * 13) Laughable and weird fight scenes, such as the fight between Lady Penelope and Transom.
 * 14) Unnecessary and overused cartoon sound effects are inserted into the fight scenes, which will get annoying after a while.
 * 15) Fermat (who was NEVER a part of the original show) is an extremely annoying and unlikable character.
 * 16) Cringeworthy and corny dialogue, such as The Hood's "Like a puppet on a string!" when mind-controlling Brains. (Though this is a homage to the original show)
 * 17) Brains' signature stuttering is over-exaggerated, even more than in the original, to the point where it gets annoying fast.
 * 18) Unnecessary usage of gross-out humor, which the original show had none of.
 * 19) Executive Meddling: Originally, Peter Hewitt and Karey Kirkpatrick were supposed to direct and write the film, their take on which would've been extremely faithful to the source material and appealed to older fans of the TV show. However, Working Title decided that American audiences wouldn't understand the film and demanded that they take it in a more kid-friendly direction, which led to Hewitt and Kirkpatrick quitting the project in frustration and being replaced by Jonathan Frakes and William Osborne.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) The models and VFX are pretty decent by 2004 standards.
 * 2) The Thunderbirds' designs look great, and (mostly) stick close to the original designs from the TV show.
 * 3) Busted's cover of the Thunderbirds theme song is very catchy.
 * 4) Decent acting, especially from Bill Paxton, Sophia Myles, Ben Kingsley and Ron Cook.
 * 5) Amazing soundtrack composed by Hans Zimmer and Ramin Djawadi.
 * 6) * Speaking of the soundtrack, the full original soundtrack by Barry Gray (which was also fantastic) was only available to Fanderson members only. But the 2004 film soundtrack is available to the public.
 * 7) The set designs are very well done.
 * 8) The cinematography is gorgeous.
 * 9) At least there is no smoking in this film unlike in the TV show.

Reception
Thunderbirds was heavily panned and criticized by both critics and audiences. Accusing the filmmakers of abandoning the concepts of the original series in favour of a Spy Kids-esque approach, Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 19% "rotten" rating and a consensus calling the film a "live-action cartoon for kids". On Metacritic, the film has weighted a score of 36 out of 100, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews", as well as a 4.2/10 on IMDb.

The late Gerry Anderson, who created the Thunderbirds series, watched the film and said "It was disgraceful that such a huge amount of money was spent with people who had no idea what Thunderbirds was about and what made it tick. It was the biggest load of crap I'd ever seen in my entire life!".

However, not all of them are negative, as some of them praised the acting and the models for being accurate to the show. Even the co-creator, Sylvia Anderson, said "I felt that I'd been on a wonderful Thunderbirds adventure. You, the fans, will, I'm sure, appreciate the sensitive adaptation and I'm personally thrilled that the production team have paid us the great compliment of bringing to life our original concept for the big screen. If we had made it ourselves (and we have had over 30 years to do it!), we could not have improved on this new version. It is a great tribute to the original creative team who inspired the movie all those years ago. It was a personal thrill for me to see my characters come to life on the big screen."

Trivia

 * Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio were both considered for the role of Alan Tracy.
 * Rosamund Pike, Kristin Scott Thomas, Joanna Lumley, and Elizabeth Hurley were all considered for the role of Lady Penelope. Pike would eventually voice the character in the 2015 CGI reboot TV series.
 * This is the 3rd Thunderbirds film ever made. The first 2 being Thunderbirds Are Go in 1966 and Thunderbird 6 in 1968. Though these weren't very well received either.

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