Review of You Only Live Twice (2007) by Mitchell Z — 01 Oct 2015

I think You Only Live Twice suffers from the same mistakes that Thunderball made, which is trying to too much different. The first three Sean Connery Bond films are each terrific in their own right but they follow the same structure just in a slightly unique way. With You Only Live Twice (YOLT), I once again felt like I wasn't watching a Bond film at all.

This film takes Bond all the way out to the Japan area and closer (but really farther away) to the inter-workings of Spectre. I'm on record saying that I have grown tired of seeing the leader of Spectre teased and teased in each film without any actual payoff. We get that here, but the Japanese structure gives this film enough uniqueness to hold me off one more time. Why it took them so long to reveal who is behind Spectre is beyond me, but I just think this and Thunderball were missed opportuities.

The problem is that I can't help but think the reason to bring Bond to Japan was to appeal to a broader audience. That's fine, but if you lose the fans you had in the first place, it does no good. Another strange thing about YOLT is that much like Thunderball dealt with underwater sequnences, this film dealt with space exploration and Spectre's interest in capturing American spacecrafts. It's just too out there for a James Bond film.

But unlike Thunderball, YOLT only has maybe one cool action sequence and music that isn't as fresh or exciting as Thunderball. Although the climax of the film does give us action packed thrills and our first look at you know who, it doesn't save the rest of the film for me. The Japanese aesthetic ends up growing tiresome after you spend 80% of the movie there. I wish the franchise would have integrated the more interesting characters back at MI6 at this point in the series. Understanding that Bond is a man coming back from the dead in this story, I wish the films themselves would do the same. Return to what made the franchise so exciting and entertaining.

+Spectre finally unveiled, sort of.

+New aesthetic.

+Ambitious.

-But the change to the setting seemed forced and money oriented.

-Silly at times.

-Why space?

6.1/10.