Film Review: Thunderball (1966) B-

Date Viewed: 7/15/06
Venue: DVD

Thunderball is the fourth James Bond film to hit the silver screen, and unfortunately takes a step backward from the great Goldfinger and From Russia With Love.

Interestingly enough, Thunderball was set to be the first Bond film while in development, but was eventually pushed down the line, leaving Dr. No to come first. That explains the similarities in tone and pacing between Dr. No and Thunderball. There’s very little of Goldfinger's gadgetry or playfulness found here. Thunderball is much more reminiscent of the first two Bond films.

Thunderball’s setup is good one. Evil terrorist group SPECTRE steals two nuclear bombs from the RAF and holds the world hostage (sound familiar? Austin Powers directly parodied this, along with much else from Thunderball, including SPECTRE’s numbering of members (“Number 2,” etc.) and even the villain’s eyepatch!). Of course James Bond is sent to track down the missing bombs, and his investigation leads him to the Bahamas (echoing the tropical Jamaican setting of Dr. No).

But the film really bogs down in the second act as Bond tracks down the bombs via the villainous Largo. There’s really not much intrigue as we the audience already know Largo has the bombs, it’s just a matter of Bond figuring out where they are. And Largo himself is a rather blah entry to the Bond rogue’s gallery. He doesn’t have outlandish flair like Auric Goldfinger, nor is he a physical threat like Red Grant. Largo doesn’t even have the ubercool mysteriousness of Dr. No. He’s just a chubby middle-aged eyepatch guy in a wetsuit.

What few action scenes there are mostly take place underwater in scuba gear. The underwater photography is cool the first time, but gets very tedious very quickly.

Claudine Auger’s turn as Bond girl Domino is a nice one, but her character arc is telegraphed halfway through the first act, and she doesn’t have much to do until the third act.

Released at the height of the 1960s spy craze, Thunderball was the first Bond film to be shot in anamorphic 2.35:1, it’s just too bad it can’t fill the extra space with something more worthwhile.