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Comments
This is exactly how I feel too. A film that leaves no favourable impression whatsoever isn't going to suddenly grow on you.
SP is also the first time I've considered leaving the cinema before the film ended (I was with company when watching it, so I couldn't).
I missed Judi Dench lol
No offence to Ralth Fiennes but he's not her.
I dont think Craig himself was satisfied with Spectre which is partly why he's coming back again to do NTTD. If the trend of his films continue then his fifth outing should be a cracker!
History is not on Craig's side though considering every previous actor has had a fairly poor outing to finish; DAF, AVTAK, LTK, DAD.
That bad?
The only films I’ve ever considered walking out the cinema on were Last of the Mohicans and Love Actually. And they were both years ago.
LTK is not a poor outing by any means. It’s far superior to DAF, AVTAK and DAD. If anything, it’s a very strong outing, I’d say.
INTENT: Normal reaction to Spectre, won't be ranking it on the bottom. Normal as in commonplace, regular, frequent reaction.
I didn't refer to persons here as "abnormal" or invoke the word "abnormal" toward a person.
I agree. These boards have always been a place of mutual respect regardless of one’s personal opinions, let’s keep it that way.
Me too. Even tho the experience makes me always think about the Queen song "Pain is so close to pleasure".
Not sure they will. SP had a serious identity crisis, odd pacing, poor use of locations and bland characterisation. Plus the whole 'Brofeld' thing will always be a huge black mark on the film, for a lot of the fan base at least.
Glad you liked it, though. And that's the beauty of threads like these.
Oh I know that GG haha !!
Jolly good :)
Damn right,he is isn't my favourite Bond but I watch his films the most for sure,pure escapism and a great ride !
Agreed.
I love LTK.
I find DAF,AVTAK & DAD weaker but equally watchable.
I think I just love Bond films (although SP is pushing it big time )
I could try to argue why, using the text of the picture as evidence to support my claims, why TB is far from boring, but to be bored is such an incredibly subjective reaction that I have no other choice but to respect it. Even some that recognize it as a "good" film still confess to being bored by it. It pains me greatly, but you gotta' respect it.
I've written at length on these boards about the movie (in piece meal fashion, a little here a little there) but perhaps someday I'll compile my thoughts into a longer form review/essay that attempts to articulate just why I find it so enthralling, exciting, unique, and frankly the pinnacle of what the cinematic Bond has achieved.
Exactly how I feel. To me it’s the most entertaining and satisfying Connery entry, and only behind OHMSS of the awesome 60s run. It effortlessly combines the styles of FRWL and GF. For someone looking to tick all the boxes of what’s in a Bond film and have it done excellently, I’d say TB is arguably the most bang for your buck experience in the series.
The earlier films were probably better films, and some of the later ones were better too, but there’s a certain bouquet of Bond which only Thunderball has. It’s marinaded in Bond. It seems to ooze Bond from almost every frame.
I'm going to be reductive so hopefully detractors don't tear me apart for being this reductive (I promise I can elaborate in an eventual longer piece, but I recently returned to school after many years away and I'm now a graduate student so the time I can devote to something like this is unfortunately really minimal at best). There are certainly many other factors, and as I said this is reductive, but I think part of Thunderball's excellence can be attributed to its director's Bond background as well as its position within the Bond "timeline," if you will.
Terence Young's first two pictures, in my opinion, ooze a lot of Fleming. They feel like Fleming's prose, and even if Dalton's portrayal is a bit more Flemingesque than Connery's, I think those first two Bond films feel the most like a Fleming novel in their cinematic grammar (cinematography, editing, mise en scene, movement, pacing) than any others in the series. Young's Bond is also dangerous and lethal, much like Fleming's.
In comes Guy Hamilton with Goldfinger (easily one of the best in the series, if not the best) with a bigger budget, more polish, more glamour, more bravura. It's bigger, looser, laced with more camp and irony and absurdism that would come to define the series. It was the series' first blockbuster. In it, Bond is far more playful, with Connery's charismatic magnetism taking the front seat and the lethality of his performance playing second fiddle.
In short, Thunderball, with its gigantic size, scope, and budget, is a flawed but masterful amalgamation of the two incarnations of Cinematic Bond we had gotten to that point. Young was able to maintain, and even exceed, the level of sheer aesthetic spectacle that Hamilton strove for. The big plot machination, the bombast. He fused it with his intrinsic 007 sensibilities. The Fleming remained, moreso than in its predecessor, namely in Connery's performance, the way he looms over the beautiful beaches like an omen of death. There's also a Flemingesque sexuality to the film that is in keeping with Young's preoccupations. The action scenes, which some view as slow, allow us glimpses of just how dangerous these situations are. A knife flashes. Oxygen is running low. Two bodies struggle in the dimly lit waters for an advantage. They fight for their lives against their assailant as well as against the environment in which they do battle -- what will be their end? The knife? Or will their lungs flood with water as they violently struggle beneath the surface?
Thunderball is cinematic Bond at its apex. It is flawed, but it's as good as we've gotten of a merging of Hamilton's established "cinematic Bond" elements with Fleming's Bond which differs considerably. Balancing the two so well is something I don't think we've seen since. The breathtaking blockbuster and the cold thriller both functioning not in spite of the other, but in tandem.
(It looks like I wrote a lot anyway, and I apologize, I'll definitely be saving this for notes on my eventual essay on my favorite of the series).
@FoxRox Ditto, though I think Connery's fatigue with the role was really setting in somewhere between his 4th and 5th, and I think the extreme paparazzi/fandom that seemed to be especially strong in Japan (from what I've read??) was ultimately what pissed him off. If we could get another Young/Connery film with the same level of charisma he brought to his first four outings, I totally agree.
It is paced in an unhurried manner, especially for a Bond film. It takes its time visually, leading viewers through SPECTRE's plot/process. I can see how and why people view it as slow (for a Bond film, it is). I don't view slow(er) as unexciting or boring in any way.
Also, when I was very young, the underwater sequences bored me to death because as an American I had been conditioned to respond and be stimulated by or compelled by a very specific set of "action" in cinema. I demanded a level of extreme kinetic action that the film doesn't bend over backwards to accommodate. As I've gotten older, however, and as I tried to articulate (briefly) in my post when talking about the underwater scenes, I think they are truly some of the most thrilling and gripping and compelling in the series.
I love the Bahamas locale, Domino, Connery's superb performance as Bond, Domino, the wonderful Barry score, Domino, the great villain that is Largo, the superbly beautiful Ted Moore scope cinematography and Domino.
Good things can't be repeated enough! :-bd
My number one favorite Bond girl for decades now, and that unashamedly affects my ranking of the film.