It also made me remember that awful Thunderbirds live-action film. You remember, this one?
Yeah. Remember how the original Tracy's get stuck on Thunderbird 5 for the majority of the film, like in the show? Remember their kids, who end up doing all the cool stuff - like in the show? Remember Busted?
Like Stallone's Judge Dredd, it definitely felt like just another British sci-fi franchise that went completely over the heads of the producers and filmmakers involved. Gerry Anderson's wishes on the outcome of the film were apparently outright ignored by those involved. They obviously saw a franchise that could provide cool eye candy (it wasn't) and thought it could be something that the kids would want to see more of (they didn't). They wanted the kid characters to be the main focus because they wouldn't think that kid audiences would be interested in the adult Tracy's. Maybe they'd be right, that they wouldn't enjoy watching adult actors. If only they were something else, something removed just enough from actual humans. Something like - oh, I don't know - marionettes?
People of all ages have proven to love watching adult characters saving the world. The MCU is nothing but adults, as was 2009's Star Trek, and decades prior to that, Star Wars was all adults. Shoehorning kids into a film to relate to kids is alienating the majority of the audience who grew up on the original show, and also insulting to everyone. Children characters do not work well as plot devices in stories like this, as it's too unrealistic to accept that a child can use any Thunderbird equipment that aren't toys or Burger King cups that say 'Thunderbirds' on them. Audiences can buy that 3 aircrafts are stored under a fictional island, but not that children can use them.
Perhaps the adult characters were forgotten about for the majority of the film because the filmmakers didn't find the cookie-cut jocks to be interesting enough. However, that's where another problem comes in: nobody ever watched the original show because the characters were complex, they watched it because puppets and cool action sets! Cookie-cut characters and simple premises are good frameworks for hanging very visually creative filmmaking techniques, because they don't distract from the action, and it's possible, using puppets, to walk the fine line between comfort in familiar scenarios and 'boring' talking scenes. It's classic comic book rules - a lame story can potentially be saved by intelligent and engaging art.
Besides, there doesn't need to be another Thunderbirds film. They already rebooted Thunderbirds for the modern world, it was called Team America and it's ones of the best satires ever put on the big screen. It was about a group of freedom fighters who save people from terrorists, and while it's obviously not related to Thunderbirds in any way, a post 9/11 Thunderbirds would never exist in the same way it did during the Space Race, the world is too different. It might be weird to bring 9/11 into this but of all the things it changed, American action/sci fi films were no exception. Thunderbirds aren't as cool as they are when in a 60s retro setting, because it was simpler times, and it's fun watching the All-American-type characters when it's in a simpler setting. But Hollywood don't remake things, they update them. And unfortunately, they missed the point and made it too American, without any of the British charm.
Times have changed, Thunderbirds needs to stay in the past. The only thing we need more of is Supermarionation.
(Drinking game: read this again and drink every time I mention Thunderbirds.)
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