AVENGERS DAY AFTER
(ie: I was too busy to post this yesterday)
3: THUNDERBIRDS
Oh its easy to link the Thunderbirds movie with The Avengers movie. They are both inferior versions of a televsion classic, right? Wrong. As I posited here – a straight Thunderbirds movie (a la Thunderbirds Are Go or Thunderbird Six*) would be deathly dull. A straight Avengers movie could still have been great.
So what went wrong in The Avengers and links it with Thunderbirds. Lady Penelope and Parker. There is a terrific film in Thunderbirds dying to get out and stamp on the annoying kiddies. That film is The Avengers starring Lady Penelope and Parker. Despite being too young for the role, and without Sylvia Anderson’s Honor Blackman growl, Sophia Myles essays a perefect reinterpretation. Rather than the tedious kids being the “secret” that saves International Rescue, why not actually use International Rescue’s own secret agent. They play Parker a bit too much for laughs, but he still exudes dignity – and you really believe that Lady Penelope’s no nonsense fighting style can win the day. Well it does of course. She even gets to change in no time at all into her own nattily pink IR jumpsuit.
The script and story for this movie version originally hashed out by Peter Hewitt actually makes a lot of sense. It was the person who de-aged Alan to thirteen that fucked it up. That said, taking Alan out all together would have been even better. Thunderbirds is cheap, shonky, kids fun spoiled not so much by its poor execution as being a hairbreadths away fromt being the most exciting camp extravaganza in years. And hey, the music is great too.
*What was Thunderbird Six? I always felt sorry for the Mole, which I think was used more than Thunderbird Four and yet never had a proper number.