Michael Bay is Quaking in His Shorts
Posted on | October 20, 2004 at 10:30 pm | Comments Off
I haven’t yet mentioned that I saw Team America: World Police last weekend, mostly because I wasn’t sure what to say about it. I laughed a lot, though mostly it was a one-joke movie. Luckily, it was a funny joke. I felt they went a bit overboard with the skewering of the leftist actors, but not because of any political views I may hold. I just thought that theme/joke got tired pretty quickly and lost steam with it being beat into the ground so relentlessly. I would’ve felt the same if they had been going after conservative figures.
But that’s Parker & Stone for you – always going over the top. It’s almost predictable in it’s unpredictability. There were lots of neat surprises and easter eggs though.
But more importantly, what did I think of the movie as a Thunderbirds fan? Well, I was impressed that they were able to get a wider range of expression and action out of the marionettes. They also did a spectacular job with the sets and a pretty decent job with the model work. Do I wish that the live-action Thunderbirds movie had used marionettes like this instead? Probably not. I do wish that the live-action Thunderbirds movie had been a better movie though, and had like an actual plot… and some interesting rescues… and characters (Lady Penelope and Parker were okay, but the rest: ewww)… and better use of the machines… and better (un-McDonald’s PlayLand) set design & CGI. But I digress. Team America stands as a decent homage to all the Gerry Anderson puppet shows, and displays what Gerry & his gang could’ve really done with a decent budget etc (though I still contend the model work in the original TBs is some of the best ever, especially for its time). And even though Trey Parker keeps talking smack about “having to work with those f**king puppets!”, the love of supermarionation shows through in every shot…
Funniest part: Gary wildly flailing his “in distress” signal. I couldn’t get enough of that. And you couldn’t do that with live actors and have the same impact…
Latre.