a5c7b9f00b Having narrowly averted a major disaster on an oil rig, the Thunderbirds have just returned home to their secret base when TB5, their space based station, is critically damaged in a suspected meteor strike. Unbeknown to them, the attack on TB5 is a deliberate ploy by international master criminal Aristotle Spode to get them off the island. He takes over the island and forces Brains into submission, using the power of his mind. But Spode has overlooked one key factor: Alan, Fermat and Tin Tin are still on the island. When The Hood finds and invades International Rescue's secret base and traps most of the Tracy family, only young Alan Tracy and his friends can save the day. I can vaguely remember that I watched some chapters of Thunderbirds when I was a child, but I haven't got a clear memory of them to judge the series. I mean, I haven't got many references to judge this adaptation so I'm gonna talk about what I've seen in the cinema.<br/><br/>In this adaptation the heroes are the children, what it means that it's a movie addressed to the youngest people, with characters that are stereotypes and a plot that's rather clumsy. It's supposed to have some comedy touches, although I didn't found'em.<br/><br/>What's more attractive about this version of "Thunderbirds" are the special effects and the digitally-made sequences. In short: the kids will probably enjoy watching' it...<br/><br/>*My rate: 4/10 ba ba ba boring...... this is next to battlefield earth in science fiction slumberness. genie francis (aka general hospital's laura) has a small role as a reporter and that in itself should tell you that this movie must be bad.... there is ben kingsley (an academy award winning actor) in this stinker and a few others decent actors. You have to wonder what possessed them to decide to do this awful movie. The music dramatically goes up and down like it's a major dramatic story. Even if you pay attention the plot is impossible to follow. The effects are mediocre as well and seem really dated. All of the actors speak in a monotone voice and have no realism to their dialogue. I could go on and on on how this is a bad movie. At least with Battlefield Earth it's so bad it's funny but this is just b o r i n g. Avoid unless you want to be lulled to sleep. As the dapper Lady Penelope, Sophia Myles tries to infuse the enterprise with some "Charlie's Angels" verve, but she's only one life vest, and the movie is a downed plane. According to publicity material, the film is set in 2020, six years before the first episode of the series. This may appear not to be canon to the TV series, and in fact isn't, but this is not a fault of the filmmakers. In the Christmas episode "Give or Take a Million", we see a calendar with the year 2026. It has since been stated that this year was a mistake by the propmaker and should have been 2065, the year that Gerry Anderson wanted the series to be set in, and is generally accepted to be the case. But where Alan Tracy is 21 in the series, in the film he is 15, so the year corresponds correctly. Yes, there are quite a few:<br/><br/>Characters' ages: Many of the characters are younger in the film than in the show. As this film is supposedly set six years before the series' pilot (ignoring the fact that the episode features International Rescue's first mission) then this is feasible. However this is not applied to everyone; Lady Penelope and Parker are clearly around the ages given to them in the show (27 and 55, respectively) and Brains is also older - although that may because of another change; he's a father!<br/><br/>New characters: Yes, Brains has a son in the film, Fermat. Along with Onaha, wife of Jeff Tracy's manservant Kyrano, these two characters were created specifically for the film, as were The Hood's associates, Transom and Mullion.<br/><br/>Pilots: Jeff Tracy is seen flying Thunderbird 2 at the beginning of the film, with Virgil seemingly his co-pilot. Virgil is never seen flying her solo. The most obvious change is that Gordon Tracy is shown here to be the pilot of space rocket Thunderbird 3. In the series he was the aquanaut in charge of submarine Thunderbird 4, a role apparently given to Alan at the end of the film, going by the yellow colour-coding of his International Rescue uniform. <br/><br/>The Hood: Sir Ben Kingsley's character actually calls himself by this name in the film, as well as being referred to as The Hood by other characters. The Hood was never mentioned by name in the TV series, only in other media such as comics and publicity material.<br/><br/>FAB 1: Lady Penelope's famous pink Rolls Royce limousine of the TV show becomes a modified Ford Thunderbird car in the film. This is due to BMW, holders of the Rolls Royce marque, refusing to allow the filmmakers to use it. The new version does bear some trademarks of its TV counterpart, such as the glass canopy, six-wheel drive, and "special features" - although the version in the series did not fly...<br/><br/>Tin-Tin's powers: Unlike the TV series, in the film Tin-tin is shown to possess and use the same telekinetic/mind control powers as her uncle, The Hood.<br/><br/>Uniforms: International Rescue uniforms are completely different in the film than the TV series, although they are colour-coded like those in the show. Also, there are no hats, although an ice cream seller (a cameo by the film's visual effects supervisor, Mark Nelmes) can be briefly seen to be wearing a white version of the original TV series hat in the sequence where Thunderbird 2 lands in London. Jonathan Frakes confirms in the DVD commentary that this was a deliberate reference.<br/><br/> This footage was originally part of the sequence in the film where FAB1 approaches Tracy Island by sea. This scene originally concluded with The Hood firing a missile and destroying the car, forcing Lady Penelope and Parker to make the rest of the journey in the pedalo, but this was cut, and the pedalo footage moved to the end of the film. Simple answer: because Ford paid a lot of money for them to be there! The company struck a product placement deal with the filmmakers, which included Lady Penelope's car, FAB 1, being a modified Ford Thunderbird as opposed to the original series' Rolls Royce, though this was as much the fault of the marque holder, BMW, not allowing it to be used. The placement of Ford vehicles throughout the film is so blatant and almost absurdly extensive that director Jonathan Frakes even suggests on his DVD commentary that it is detrimental to the film as a whole. He has a point.