This is a truly awful film. What they have done is taken a TV show, which was never aimed at young children & given it the George Lucas treatment (i.e. ruined it by kiddifying it to appeal to the younger audience).

OK so the Thunderbirds TV show wasn't exactly the most cerebral of shows, in fact it was pretty formulaic, but it was always enjoyable to watch (especially when the models got blown up) and the voice cast wasn't too bad.

This suffers from bad casting & bad acting (with the notable exceptions of Sophia Myles as Lady Penelope & Ron Cook as Parker, who seem to be the only cast members to have a clue about how their characters should be played) & after this travesty I wouldn't let Frakes direct traffic.

The whole point of Thunderbirds was that it was about the whole Tracy family & how they worked as a team, preventing disasters or coming to the rescue of those involved in disasters.

Avoid this rubbish like the plague.

I only give it 1 out of 10 because a zero rating is not supported.

As a young female teenager who is very fond of the original 60s TV series, I was really disappointed in this film. It is all the case of all style, but no substance. Starting with the few redeeming qualities, it looks great. I loved the look of the scenery, the retro-futuristic design and of course the Thunderbirds machines. Plus the music is pretty good. If only the same could be said about the dialogue and the plot. Here we have a plot that I quite frankly didn't really care about, it was very reminiscent of Spy Kids but inferior to that. Plus the adventure is rather slow, and takes time to get going. The dialogue also is very weak and when it tries to take on new ideas it falls flat. Also I didn't care for the characters. The Hood is an in general poor villain not helped by the fact he is badly underwritten, and the core members of the Tracy household are criminally sidelined while the focus is on the sulky adolescent Alan. In fact, the only characters with any class or kitsch are Lady Penelope and Parker. Finally, the acting is nothing special. Sophia Myles is deliciously frothy and captivating, and Ron Cook is amusing, but Bill Paxton is given little to do and Ben Kingsley, who is a great actor, struggles with an underwritten role overacting as a result while Brady Corbet is bland as Alan. Overall, very disappointing, not the worst movie ever, but I would be lying if I said it was great. 2/10 Bethany Cox

At some point in Hollywood's history, somebody had the genius idea of making a live action version of the classic puppet show THUNDERBIRDS. Being Hollywood, at the same time they made it suitable for American audiences by destroying all of the old fashioned British style that people loved it for in the first place. So in this version of THUNDERBIRDS, we get dumb humour, sexual innuendo, martial arts, and extremely exaggerated acting.

What's most amazing about this film is that they somehow wasted fifty-seven million dollars on making it. Pity poor Jonathan Frakes, STAR TREK actor and director, for ruining his movie directorial career with this film (he's only worked in television since). Watching it, you'll wonder where all that money was spent. THUNDERBIRDS the film is a cheap and cheesy vehicle of excess that makes SPICE WORLD look like a movie classic. The whole thing looks like it was filmed on a green screen with awful CGI effects throughout.

The character work is even worse. Pity poor old Bill Paxton, who has never been so stiff as the senior Tracy. Sophia Myles, an actress I usually love in most stuff, is awfully wooden as the plummy Lady Penelope. Only Anthony Edwards and Ron Cook as Brains and Parker respectively get close to their original puppet characters. The less said about Ben Kingsley's ham acting, the better. As for the kids, they're the worst thing about this; they look like boy band rejects and it comes as little surprise that the awful boy band Busted sing an updated version of the theme song over the closing credits. As an action lover, the worst thing about this for me were the fight scenes, which are among the worst ever seen; stars like Myles throw their hands around randomly and are doubled for every little leap. It's cringe worthy. THUNDERBIRDS is the type of film that'll make any sane viewer want to tear their own eyeballs out; it really is that awful.