Thunderbirds Vs Thunderbirds

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Thunderbirds Are Go
​(1966)

Directed By	David Lane
Screenplay By	Gerry & Sylvia Anderson
Based On	​Thunderbirds by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson
Starring	​Sylvia Anderson Ray Barrett Alexander Davion Peter Dyneley Christine Finn David Graham Paul Maxwell Neil McCallum Bob Monkhouse Shane Rimmer Charles Tingwell Jeremy Wilkin Matt Zimmerman
Music	​Barry Gray Songs: Cliff Richard The Shadows
Release Date	​12 December 1966
Distributed By	United Artists
Run-time	93 Minutes
Budget	£250,000

Thunderbirds
​(2004)

Directed By	Johnnathan Frakes
Story By	Peter Hewitt William Osborne
Based On	​Thunderbirds by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson
Starring	​Brady Corbet Bill Paxton Anthony Edwards Sophia Myles Ben Kingsley
Score	​Ramin Djawadi Hans Zimmer
Distributed By	Universal Pictures
Release Date	​23 July 2004 (United Kingdom) 30 July 2004 (United States)
Run-time	95 Minutes
Budget	$57 Million
Box Office Takings	​$28.3 million

While I did have fun making the Review above, it does highlight a glaring problem within Hollywood right now where existing and Iconic properties are adapted into major motion pictures and the film makers clearly have no clue in what they're doing.

The case and point with the 2004 movie is that from what I understand is that Frakes only saw the first episode from the original series 'Trapped in the Sky' that was of International Rescue saving the Fire-flash on her maiden voyage to Tokyo and having her land safely and preventing a bomb from being set off that was attached to her under-carriage.

The things that they got right with the movie is the score where Hans Zimmer produced a competent piece for the movie that also updated the original Thunderbirds theme from the TV series.
The vehicles got a modern makeover where they have a sleeker designs that make look more aerodynamic yet still retaining the core recognisable designs from the original counterparts.

Those I do not have a problem.  They do their job competently.

The writing and cast however....

Someone boil a coffee.

The writing does the story a huge disservice where the movie is pandering to the Spy-Kids where it makes the kids the main protagonists of the flick that end up saving the day unlike the TV series where the Tracy Brothers are either all fully grown adults or with at least 4 adult Brothers and 1 late teen Brother.  It varies depending on which media of Thunderbirds you follow from the TV series or the comic as the sources vary.

That and the movie spends the first 20 minutes being a Thunderbirds movie with the other Tracy Brothers and Jeff doing a rescue and then it spends nearly an hour on Tracy Island keeping a guidance processor chip from Thunderbird 2 from falling into enemy hands that just really drains a lot of fun and enjoyment out of the movie.

Also, a major plothole that the late YouTuber, He11sing920, highlighted in his reaction and review of the movie is if whoever is in control of the command post at Tracy Island is able to take out Thunderbird 3 & 5, should they also be able to take control of the other ships including Thunderbird 2 therefore preventing the last act of the movie from happening and stopping the Hood from stealing Thunderbird 2 to fly to London?

And the man was absolutely right.  Why the writers didn't fill that plothole is just lazy writing and does more than just hurt the credibility of the movie.

Mind you, that would imply that this flick was credible to begin with...

The Hood having hench-people was a huge red-flag as he was a one-man army in the show and could quite easily pull off crimes by his lonesome without the need of a heavy or a female hacker.

Frakes had said in interviews that this movie was a prequel set 10 years before the TV series.

There's a problem that contradicts that...

The first episode states outright that Trapped in the Sky is their first assignment of which Jeff tells his sons before sending Scott off in Thunderbird 1 for it's first Mission.

So to say that this movie predates the series is laughable.

The only three cast members I felt that actually put in any effort were the late Bill Paxton as Jeff Tracy, Ron Cook as Parker and Sophia Myles as Lady Penelope who had the same sophisticated charm as depicted by the late Sylvia Anderson but with a slightly sassier demeanor.

But even they couldn't save this movie from tanking at the Box Office when it only took in under $30 Million with a budget of $57 Million.  That is bad.

And it's no wonder the makers of the 2015 revival series Thunderbirds Are Go waited long enough before people have moved on from the 2004 movie before even approaching to revive the Franchise again with the part CG/Miniature set series.

But unlike the movie, they did right.  They honoured the source-material whilst updating the series to where a new audience could appreciate while the audiences of the original series from the 60s and the re-run generations in the 90s and early 2000s could also appreciate it.

The 1966 movie has aged quite well from the actors retaining the chemistry that they had with each from the series whilst upping the quality from writing, miniatures, sound effects and overall production so that the story had a bigger feel to that of the series.

That movie would be followed up with a sequel called Thunderbird 6 2 years later before Thunderbirds would fade away into obscurity before being re-run on BBC in September 1991 that would introduce Thunderbirds to a new Generation and showing that the show had aged so well that kids of that decade went crazy for it spawning new toy lines including the elusive Tracy Island set, that some would go and make their own via how-to-guide from Blue Peter where you could make your own Island with scraps.

In all honesty, you're better off sticking with the 67 movie and avoiding the 2004 movie altogether.  That movie tries to be anything but a Thunderbirds movie.  It's like it's ashamed of trying to be what it's supposed to be.

​If that was the case, why make it at all?

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