Thunderball (1965)
1965
PG
130 Minutes
A criminal organization has obtained two nuclear bombs and are asking for a 100 million pound ransom in the form of diamonds in seven days or they will use the weapons. The secret service sends Jam...
User Review
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WHAT I LIKED: There are certainly things to marvel at in 'Thunderball,' as the underwater sequences are very impressively filmed (especially for their time), and Ted Moore's high-contrast cinematography is more appealing on the whole to my eyes than the work seen in Goldfinger. There are also a number of very well-executed scenes, where Terrence Young's direction of suspense and unfolding mystery through the visual medium shines through strongly, and Connery's Bond is able to be his usual brutish self - particularly in the MI6 scenes.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: The trouble with Thunderball however is a fundamental one; we're told the villain's plot right from the start, and are then forced to watch every intricacy of it unfold with Bond simply playing catch-up. Now agreeably this is somewhat how the masterful From Russia With Love plays out, but in that film the plot is directly against Bond so the stakes are personal, and there are still a number of interesting mysteries surrounding the execution that are left for us to uncover along with Bond. Here, we not only see Spectre plotting their bomb-stealing scheme, we then see - in a sequence that seems to last about three years - exactly how they steal them, so whatever Bond is uncovering is no surprise to us.
That may not be such a problem if the film had him stick to his usual reckless and provocative tactics, but here the character's approach is far more covert, and (dare it be said) intelligent, with lots of creeping around and reconnaissance. That means Connery loses much of the underdog likeability and out-of-place brutishness of his previous ventures, and often seems as bored as we are slowly finding out all these things that we already know. Couple that with the fact that the finale attempts the explosiveness of Goldfinger's but falls hilariously short with its messy underwater fights and ridiculously edited boat chase, and the fact that there are countless side-characters introduced with little-to-no development at all, you've got yourself a film that's significant in its own way - for being the first real flop in the Bond series.
VERDICT: 'Thunderball,' is nice to behold in places, but this Bond entry falls flat because the villain's plot is laid out so clearly, and Connery's Bond is merely playing catch-up in a far more covert - and slightly bored - manor than we've seen from him before.0 member like this review.
