THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!
Or are they? I went to see the new Thunderbirds movie at the cinema yesterday and whilst the film is certainly called Thunderbirds, can it really
be "Thunderbirds"?
Over the last few months I've tried to remain as impartial about this movie as possible. I've heard plenty of awful things about it - to quote:
- "Fermat - son of Brains" - (that would imply Brains had had sex as some point in his life!)
- Alan Tracy being 14 - (Sure, he was always a spoilt brat in the original series - but 14?!?!)
- FAB1 being redesigned, and worse still, branded a Ford!!! ("Parker, get out the Ford, doesn't have the same ring to it, does it!)
But on the flip side I've seen some good things...
The Thunderbird craft themselves have been pretty much left alone, TB2 perhaps suffering the most from unnecessary re-design - but they look fairly snazzy. Lady Penelope and Parker (aka Sophia Myles and Ron Cook) look to fit their respective parts extremely well, and the sets and models all look reasonably nice.
Fast-forward on a few months and the film has premiered, had it's first run of reviews and has been critically panned. Why? Well, as I said at the beginning, it says it's Thunderbirds, but it's clearly not.
Does that make it a bad movie? Well in my opinion, no, or maybe it does.
I have to state here for the record that I'm not clinically insane or demented - just a tad off balance ;-)
I like the film
'I' like the film
I '
like' the film
"I LIKE THE FILM!?!?"
Surely that can't be right, can it? As I've said to many people on many occasions, I'm the kind of movie-goer who normally finds *something* worthwhile in every film I go and see. And in this case I think there are a lot of good "elements", it's simply the whole that lets it down.
Sophia Myles (who is only 3 months older than me) was absolutely superb as Lady Penelope, she's a bit like Mrs Peel in pink! Her tone and delivery are quite different to Sylvia Anderson, but in this case, not "wrong-different", just different, and more often than not bought a smile to my face.
Whereas
Bill "Jeff Tracy"
Paxton is utterly awful. He says "Thunderbirds are Go!" several times during the movie, but I think they must have removed all exclamation marks from his script, because there is no sense of urgency or excitement anywhere to be found in his performance. And then there's the scene at the end when he is watching his youngest son perform brave deeds with a tear in his eye, GAGH!!!!! awful! Absolutely terrible, the man should be shot!
So they are just two examples of how I can go from loving a film, to absolutely hating it.
Rather like a trauma victim, I think I must have already supressed the naff elements of the film into the back of my mind, and a pyschotherapist will uncover them in thirty years time. But I don't really care what anyone else says about the film, or about me - I'm stupid enough not to notice and/or care ;-)
Swanny says .... "F...F...F... no way"
posted by LAMPS at 08:37
