Good movie but grossly overrated

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Blistering performances.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

if you watched this movie you're hopelessly shameless. if you even bother to remember this stuff you're probably kind of shameless too. my mother never heard of this and didn't even remember or know my brother and i were avid watchers and fans of this Saturday morning brain mush. i've even met other baby boomers who barely took note of this show and others who were embarrassed by it to the point of denial. so it's not retro nostalgia for everyone. this kind of thing is not always for everyone's taste.do i like this? well, yeah, i guess. but i'm not sure that my opinion isn't a little warped or damaged about movies like this. i was a brain washed kiddie consumer like most of my generation and i was always partial to cartoons and fantasy shows and TV shows with puppets.i think the main question to be asked of any cinema buff or student, is whether 'Supermarionation' is a pure cinema process that makes any real contribution to the techniques and art form of cinema. i mean nobody even uses marionettes in movies these days except in farce or to purposely freak people out. i don't even know how much i actually warm up to the technique here. when i was a child i was both strongly drawn and simultaneously repelled by the whole thing. the marionettes kind of scared me and i even remember having nightmares about this show. i guess i also equated the show a little with the whole 'Curse of the Doll People' thing.whether or not you find 'Supermarionation' disturbing or scary or just plain kitschy, this is the place it started and pretty much perfected it. the 'Marination' here is equally as good as the 'Team America' spoof decades later, but the plot and concept here are much simpler and corny. you do have to be somewhat "hardcore" to even like this.

By the time this belated TV spin-off appeared, Captain Scarlet had come and gone and Thunderbirds was yesterday's news. Such was the shallow fickle values of us kids back in the 60's. I was very surprised to see this announced for production in TV TORNADO. I recall the vast amount of hype the original film received and assumed for years it had been a box-office success. However, the whole Anderson supermarionation empire was in its decline as fashions changed by the late 60's. Joe 90 was to appear to a less-than-rapturous reception and The Secret Service was virtually stillborn. At least Joe got his own comic and a Big Rat toy. All I recall of The Secret Service was a clip on Magpie and a Sweet cigarette picture card of the Rev Unwin. This might not have mattered so much if the Anderson's had learnt the lesson of the previous film. How many producers get the opportunity to make a sequel to a film that flopped? While the plot against the Tracey's by Black Phantom (is it really a suddenly vain toupeed Hood?) is a more satisfyingly personal drama as opposed to the Zero X launch, the whole plot is, again, a bog-standard TV episode dragged out with whimsical foreign interludes that exercised the model makers ingenuity but fatally kill any sense of pace. The finale of the Skyship delicately balanced on the aerial wrenches up the tension but is too little too late - and it drops onto a missile base for added pyrotechnic value. I recall some publicity being raised on national TV news by the live-action shots of the bi-plane roaring over an unfinished motorway. I suspect Anderson was more interested in these as a calling card to show he could handle live-action as opposed to puppetry so - like The Secret Service - this serves as a transitional film to the human-based melodramatics of the 70's with UFO and Space 1999. While Anderson could handle full-sized action, endowing his non-marionette figures with any breath of humanity often proved beyond him.

Having just completed on working as an expert contractor on the production of "Airship One" – a revolutionary new airship – with a private airline company, Brains is tasked with performing his day job. Despite the thunderbirds generally able to cope with the problems facing them, and no other siblings to drive the bloody thing, Jeff Tracy decides he needs a new ship – Thunderbird 6. While Brains tries to design something without Tracy giving him even a hint of a spec to work from, Lady Penelope, Alan, Tin Tin and Parker are guests of honour on the maiden voyage of Airship One.I could criticise it on the basis of plot but that would be akin to clubbing a baby seal because, despite howlers in logic and such the story pretty much does what it is required to do in setting up various adventures for the Thunderbirds to get into. It has elements of bigger themes but seems happy just to stick to the basics and doesn't do anything that interesting and lacks any real excitement or tension. Of course this has something to do with the delivery which is, obviously, quite wooden. To fans though this is all part of the appeal and those that enjoy the series will find more of the same here and will enjoy it as such. Casual viewers will be distracted by it for its novelty value but (like me) may struggle to care enough to stick with it.The puppets are just what you expect and the models are good for their period – we're not talking Star Wars here but it has an unique feel that is unmistakably Gerry Anderson. Again it is not really fair to criticise it simply for being what I knew it would be so it did look good for what it was. The voice cast are solid enough but Finn (Tin-Tin) is the weakest of the lot, making her young woman sounds like some old woman in the post office.Overall though, you know what you are getting when you start this. It is a solid and dated affair which won't win over too many children nowadays but fans will enjoy it because it does just what the series did – if you liked that then you should like this.

With all due repect to the user who somehow remembers the ancient Republic serials doing a better live action/effects mix that this high-tech Sixties extravaganza, you really won't see the join in Medding's seamless recreation of a British motorway (built in one third scale and mixed with real motorway shots for the climactic Tigermoth escape sequence). Indeed, so realistic is this shot that on the DVD commentary Sylvia Anderson (who spends most of her time pointing out the live action shots vs the model shots, like we really need to know) exclaimes "now that's definitely not a model shot!". Sorry Sylv, love, it is and it's quite likely the best you'll ever see (or be hoodwinked by). If you love Thunderbirds, the Andersons or just damn fine effect work, come worship at the alter of Derek Meddings: see Thunderbird Six.