Based on the first four Bond films alone, I would say that Connery peaked as the nation's greatest spy in From Russia With Love, the series dropping considerably in quality thereafter. Thunderball is perhaps a minor improvement over Goldfinger, but still nowhere near as good as his sophomore adventure.
The main issue I have with this film is its rather thin storyline, which displays very little in the way of imagination: SPECTRE steals a couple of nuclear bombs and holds the UK and US to ransom; Bond investigates. The fact that I have been able to sum the plot up in so few words gives some idea how pedestrian it all is.
Thunderball also suffers from some incredibly ill considered moments, the 'rack' on full speed and the blatant use of back projection and speeded up footage during the car and boat scenes being particularly cringeworthy; the less said about Bond blackmailing a hot health spa nurse into having sex with him the better...
The film's spectacular underwater finalé is well staged and the cinematography is good, but it lacks a sense of genuine excitement, the action seemingly moving at half speed, failing to generate the adrenaline rush one might expect from a climatic Bond battle. It all gets so tedious that the camera even occasionally wanders from the fight to explore some of the colourful underwater wildlife.
On a more positive note, the opening fight scene is full of energy and sexy SPECTRE assassin Fiona Volpe (Luciana Paluzzi) has a very impressive rack.
The main issue I have with this film is its rather thin storyline, which displays very little in the way of imagination: SPECTRE steals a couple of nuclear bombs and holds the UK and US to ransom; Bond investigates. The fact that I have been able to sum the plot up in so few words gives some idea how pedestrian it all is.
Thunderball also suffers from some incredibly ill considered moments, the 'rack' on full speed and the blatant use of back projection and speeded up footage during the car and boat scenes being particularly cringeworthy; the less said about Bond blackmailing a hot health spa nurse into having sex with him the better...
The film's spectacular underwater finalé is well staged and the cinematography is good, but it lacks a sense of genuine excitement, the action seemingly moving at half speed, failing to generate the adrenaline rush one might expect from a climatic Bond battle. It all gets so tedious that the camera even occasionally wanders from the fight to explore some of the colourful underwater wildlife.
On a more positive note, the opening fight scene is full of energy and sexy SPECTRE assassin Fiona Volpe (Luciana Paluzzi) has a very impressive rack.