WOWZERS!!! What a classic of sixties cinema silliness! TV's Thunderbirds are brought to the screen for a feature-length outing complete with goofy anonymous foreign perpetrators, bizarre dialog and lots of flying animated toys! This is a film that really should be seen at least once by everybody interested in film-making. Before I discuss the plot, let's talk about what the film is really about. Because the plot is just a distraction. This film is about making a film with marionettes and toys in the place of actors and special effects. Now, before you close your browser and head to Blockbuster to NOT RENT Thunderbirds, think about this - the film-makers, improbably, ACTUALLY PULL IT OFF! This film is entertaining and watchable, but more for its inventiveness and experimentalism than anything else.
The plot is honestly not worth discussing, and would have made for a truly awful film had it not been done with puppets and toys. It is a purely fantasy vision of the 21st century, though some of the technology used in it is no less ridiculous than - say - that which appeared in Star Trek Voyager. If you've seen the Thunderbirds TV show you already know exactly what to expect, and this film really amounts to two or three episodes stitched together with a very fine thread. Basically, the Thuderbirds are a family (all boys, of course, one has to wonder how they reproduced), and a couple of mystery women (one is an elegant but unpretty female James Bond type, and the other seems to serve no real purpose) who live in and run an International security base, and have incredible technical and piloting skills, allowing them to carry out very dangerous aerial missions at very high speed (it helps that they are made of wood, I guess). The central plot, if there is one, involves NASA's first manned space flight to Mars and two attempts (one sabotaged by a very unpleasant looking spy) and the second ... well... I won't spoil it. Of course, it's the Thunderbirds to the rescue in both cases.
As a rule, I do not like masks, elaborate costumes and puppets. In fact, I remember despising the Thunderbirds TV show when I was a very young hardcore sci fi fan, because of the scary bobbleheaded characters and the poor use of the sci-fi genre. I was too young to understand what was really going on. What saves this film for me today is its very good sense of aesthetics. The sets are interesting and detailed. Even the monsters (occupying a very short segment about 2/3rds of the way through) are innovative and interesting. Despite the fact that the special effects are ridiculous, you keep watching because its fascinating to see how the film-makers accomplish each effect. You also keep watching because even though the voice talent is unrelentingly average the animated marionettes manage to do better body language than many contemporary flesh and blood actors.
I am not sure Thunderbirds is a film I will see again, but I am glad I saw it once.
