Review of Thunderball (1965) by Stefan G — 02 Apr 2015

The enormous success of Goldfinger seemed extremely hard to top, and unfortunately, Thunderball would end up seeming all the more inferior because of it. Once you get past that, there's the other problem: it's one of those films that runs in excess of two hours.

The problem with that is that the story doesn't make use of those two hours, and so what we get is an overstretched action flick that tries to turn 100 minutes into 125 minutes. Thankfully, the film is saved by Sean Connery's predictably magnetic performance.

In a film that features more acting than action, this is a necessity. The film looks as though nothing has changed since its predecessors, which is understandable since it was released only a year after the last Bond film, and to the film's credit, the visuals and music are still very lovely indeed.

The film also has a number of beautifully shot underwater scenes, and for me, those are the film's best moments because they make the film stand out. Though it could never reach the heights of its predecessor, it's still a good film by its own merits, and it still has that classic Bond atmosphere.