Starring Brady Corbet and Debora Weston. Rated general.

For boys of a certain age--and those who remain there--few sights are as thrilling as the glimpse of a spaceship. Swift and purposeful, bristling with thrusters and gadgets, futuristic craft levitate our geek hearts. The excitement is so real that it hardly matters if the thing is not.

Consider: the opening scene in Star Wars, as the rebel blockade runner is hunted down by the ridiculously massive Imperial destroyer; Capt. Kirk flying over the space-docked Enterprise in Star Trek: The Motion Picture; the bone turning into the spacecraft in 2001: A Space Odyssey; scientists jamming with the mothership in Close Encounters of the Third Kind; and the invasion of Klendathu in Starship Troopers.

If your reaction to this list is a desire to send in your own better examples, then we understand each other. And our interest owes much to Gerry Anderson, the veteran British television producer who has built a career around the appeal of flying exotica, from the puppet-based Supercar and Fireball XL5 to the live-action Space 1999.

Anderson's vehicular inventiveness reached its peak with his 1964 series Thunderbirds, named after the five "fab" ships in the private fleet of Jeff Tracy, zillionaire industrialist and ex-astronaut. Tracy created the Thunderbirds to carry out the mission of International Rescue, the service he funds from his own pocket and staffs with his five sons. With the help of dilettante superspy Lady Penelope and her faithful manservant, Parker, the Tracy men go anywhere to save the doomed.

The long-gestating Thunderbirds film is reasonably faithful to Anderson's characters and ships. The main change is that the film is something of a prequel, with Alan (Brady Corbet), the youngest son, still in school and not yet flying for IR. Nonetheless, he has the familial heroism, which is pressed into service when the Hood (Ben Kingsley) invades Tracy Island and cripples Thunderbird 5, with dad Jeff (Bill Paxton) and the older brothers aboard.

Director Jonathan Frakes (Star Trek: First Contact and Clockstoppers) moves the action along briskly but provides character moments for the young cast. He also inserts a quick visual joke for Supermarionation fans. Some plot threads are underexamined, in particular, the mystical connection between the Hood and Alan's young ally Tintin (Vanessa Anne Hudgens). I also wanted more, much more, from the bathtub scene with Lady Penelope (Sophia Myles), but these matters will await the inevitable sequel.