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Yep, watched that movie. Was expecting a fun adventurey kind of romp. Possibly that is what I would have gotten were I not so grouchy a person. Well, I do not in fact remember the show very well but I do still have a set of toys of the vehicles lying around somewhere (I lie - I know exactly where), and 'action figures' of the Hood and one of the Tracys. Probably Scott. My favourite was Thunderbird 2, I think, because of it was like a flying swiss army knife. And after that, Thunderbird 3 because it went into space. I never quite saw the point of Thunderbird 1 until this movie but hey, I was (am) young. Anyway.
As a matter of fact I feel a little silly complaining about details from the movie because after all it was either true to the source (which I suspect it was in the ways it bugged me and not true in the other ways that bugged me) and irritating for things which were acceptable back then but are not acceptable now, or deviating from the source and therefore not really a Thunderbirds movie at all.
So, yes, perhaps it is silly to complain that the only non-white people on the side of the heroes are their servants (and they have a stuttering nerd to do their science stuff for them) while the other side had a sort of generic diversity. I can't tell if the Hood was meant to be Asian and played by a white actor in make-up or if he was meant to be a white man who drew his power from some kind of mastery of eastern culture although judging by his relatives I am going with the latter. And his minions consisted of generic black tough guy and generic woman who is somehow meant to be both ugly and sexy at the same time (she wears glasses and has teeth that stick out - oh my! - but her first appearance features lingering focus on her tights). But I really do not feel confident talking about such things so maybe I should switch to topics of less foot-flavour.
For example, who puts sensors in a space station to warn of impending impact without any defences against an impact? Especially in a setting with hypersonic jets and reusable single-stage-to-orbit rockets. It seems rather lonely up there with one character in a space station to himself, but apparently the creator of the show hated that guy.
Howsabout when hero kid is explaining to nerdy kid that it felt like the villain was inside his mind and can possibly control minds, nerdy kid says "Don't be silly, everything can be explained by science." Which I might let him off for except this is the supergenius kid who supposedly can identify chemicals in a goo by sight, so he becomes an example held up of the clearly mistaken and closed-minded scientific mindset.
What is worse, a few minutes later, girl kid saves hero kid from a scorpion with the power of telekinesis and as they walk onward to the next scene, hero kid asks nerdy kid "Still think everything can be explained by science?" to which nerdy kid replies "Not girls."
So the purpose of this scene is apparently to a) reinforce nonsensical ideas about the limits of scientific inquiry wert the supernatural, b) reinforce the idea that girls are fundamentally different from and incomprehensible to boys, and are not sensible//rational creatures and c) incidentally establish that Tin tin also has mind powers.
And they somehow go from re-entry in 90 seconds to geostationary orbit at the push of a button? Please!
Apart from that it was kind of fun.
As a matter of fact I feel a little silly complaining about details from the movie because after all it was either true to the source (which I suspect it was in the ways it bugged me and not true in the other ways that bugged me) and irritating for things which were acceptable back then but are not acceptable now, or deviating from the source and therefore not really a Thunderbirds movie at all.
So, yes, perhaps it is silly to complain that the only non-white people on the side of the heroes are their servants (and they have a stuttering nerd to do their science stuff for them) while the other side had a sort of generic diversity. I can't tell if the Hood was meant to be Asian and played by a white actor in make-up or if he was meant to be a white man who drew his power from some kind of mastery of eastern culture although judging by his relatives I am going with the latter. And his minions consisted of generic black tough guy and generic woman who is somehow meant to be both ugly and sexy at the same time (she wears glasses and has teeth that stick out - oh my! - but her first appearance features lingering focus on her tights). But I really do not feel confident talking about such things so maybe I should switch to topics of less foot-flavour.
For example, who puts sensors in a space station to warn of impending impact without any defences against an impact? Especially in a setting with hypersonic jets and reusable single-stage-to-orbit rockets. It seems rather lonely up there with one character in a space station to himself, but apparently the creator of the show hated that guy.
Howsabout when hero kid is explaining to nerdy kid that it felt like the villain was inside his mind and can possibly control minds, nerdy kid says "Don't be silly, everything can be explained by science." Which I might let him off for except this is the supergenius kid who supposedly can identify chemicals in a goo by sight, so he becomes an example held up of the clearly mistaken and closed-minded scientific mindset.
What is worse, a few minutes later, girl kid saves hero kid from a scorpion with the power of telekinesis and as they walk onward to the next scene, hero kid asks nerdy kid "Still think everything can be explained by science?" to which nerdy kid replies "Not girls."
So the purpose of this scene is apparently to a) reinforce nonsensical ideas about the limits of scientific inquiry wert the supernatural, b) reinforce the idea that girls are fundamentally different from and incomprehensible to boys, and are not sensible//rational creatures and c) incidentally establish that Tin tin also has mind powers.
And they somehow go from re-entry in 90 seconds to geostationary orbit at the push of a button? Please!
Apart from that it was kind of fun.
