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I'd love to hear more!
That Silva pulled such an operation which would demand vast amount of resources and the loyalty of his henchmen in a scheme (where there were no clear benefits for them) makes more sense IMO if someone else had an interest in Silva's success on the long run. Besides it makes perfect sense with an organisation such as Spectre to be aware of Silva's activities and using them to their advantage.
Basically Austin Powers was answering a question nobody asked or cared about. It would be like watching a western and asking: "Where do all these desperados come from?"
I actually don't remember that, but that's about right I'd say!
It's been a long time since I've seen any of the Austin Powers' films. I think the last time I saw one was just before SP's release, which was unfortunate timing to say the least.
Here's another controversial opinion: the foster brother plot point is the only thing I dislike about SP. Blofeld could have even played a role in the murder of Oberhauser and while contrived I would have accepted it.
But yikes, the sets--especially Kananga's lair--are terrible.
I wouldn't say it is the only thing I dislike, but I am much more bothered by how botched the "C" c-plot is than the brother thing. I don't like Brofeld, but screwing up the thematic basis on which Bond films have to operate for the foreseeable future - and the actual villainous scheme of the film! - is much more problematic. SP is the first and so far only Bond film post-Snowden i.e. the biggest disruption of the western intelligence establishment since the end of the Cold War. And they kind of half-way go in that direction but just completely screw it up. None of it is interesting, it barely makes sense and it has no real bearing on what Bond does.
Now I'm annoyed again 😂
Edit: Plus, I suspect this isn't much of a controversial opinion, so I am just shitting on that film unnecessarily. Sorry.
I think that's one of my gripes with LALD, I don't find the locations/sets very atmospherical...
It's an improvement on DAF, but I think I prefer all the other pre-DAD entries to it.
It looks like a contractual obligation Bond villain lair.
Also with Kananga's lair, there's just him and Whisper in there, no other guards or henchmen milling around, save for those couple control room guys he knocks out and the search party, who we don't actually see I don't think.
It also bothered me that they chose to add a monorail train but It just sits there and sets up the cut to the actual train. On a trivia note, though, it's one of the few villain lairs that survives the end of the film and isn't blown to hell.
Ah yes, excellent!
I suppose Silva's island might count then, too? Even though it only features for about 15 minutes and it's in the middle of the film? :-?
A lovely shaded garden and pool area, to boot!
'Well presented throughout' it says on Right Move.
To be controversial: I don't think the volcano base or supertanker are particularly great sets. They're great construction projects of course, but the volcano base is only very interesting or impressive in distant shots, where you can't see what anybody's doing anyway. In YOLT, they keep pulling back and doing establishment shots to remind you "We really built this whole thing" but there's no real way to shoot anything interesting on it because when you get down to where you can see faces and action it's just a lot of brown rock.
Ken Adam's best work was easily on Dr No, though he did make some great large sets on Moonraker, where it's not overboard in scope and you actually have things to look at even when you're up close. The non-volcano sets in YOLT are wonderful too.
I think together with @FatherValentine's submission from TLD we've got them all now.