This review of Thunderball (1965) is part of a wider rewatch of the James Bond series to mark its 60th anniversary. 007 has always been my favourite movie franchise, and I wanted to see where each film ranks within the series. Please check out the main blog post for my rankings of this and the other twenty-four official films and links to the movie reviews for the rest of the franchise.
Long Review and Film Summary
Thunderball is one of those Bond films that I’ve seen only parts of in the past. This is the first Bond movie to be made in Panavision, and with that comes a new gun barrel sequence with Sean Connery, which uses a circular vignette as a transition. The main reason for not seeing Thunderball all the way through is that I have always got bored part way through. However, for this rewatch, I have watched through the whole thing, and sadly, it just failed to grip me. I think there are just too many silent underwater scenes with slow pacing for my liking. It seemed like the first 30 minutes when we meet the NATO inspector’s body double, the bombs are stolen, and then the meeting of all the double-Os. The last 30 minutes with Bond and Felix (Played by Rik Van Nutter) finding the boat, the (very long) underwater fight scene, the Disco Volante being attacked by the Navy and the bombs getting recovered had all the story in it. The rest of the film felt like filler and added very little to the overall mission and storylines. Having said all that, there are things I did enjoy during the film, including the Jet Pack during the pre-title sequence, and the song is up there, just not quite as good as Goldfinger. I liked the visuals of the shark tank being connected to the swimming pool, although if that were my pool, I’d be a little on edge when swimming in it. I think some future 007 movies will do a better job of utilising sharks in the story. All in all, Thumberball is okay. I certainly wouldn’t choose to watch this one over the preceding three films. However, if it is on TV one evening, then I’d probably give it a watch.