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<blockquote data-quote="Willie Oleson" data-source="post: 438890" data-attributes="member: 8">The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)[ATTACH=full]58828[/ATTACH]The pre-opening credits sequence shows that the James Bond team has upped the ante, and in fact so much that it hints at a return to form in the style of Thunderball and On Her Majesty&#039;s Secret Service.Bond girl Barbara Bach has revenge on her mind although she has yet to discover her target, and this adds some Cold War suspense to her working relationship with Bond.The collaboration between the British and Russian Secret Services and especially the magnitude of the crime are the ingredients for a fantastical international spy spectacle.The villain&#039;s lair Atlantis is a beautiful monstrosity and the obligatory disloyal Villain Girl is killed in a tense and twisty fashion.To cut a long comment short, this film&#039;s in the bag.Until it isn&#039;t.The big problem is: the Mad Scientist angle doesn&#039;t work in the spy genre, and the only thing that&#039;s left to do for James Bond is to be a superhero in command of the captured submarine crews.Furthermore, the characters employed by the villain need to have a reason to do their job. It can be as simple as money when it&#039;s about an epic extortion scheme, it can also be a matter of not having a choice when they&#039;re employed by an evil regime or a dangerous organisation like SPECTRE.The fact that Stromberg&#039;s men are willing to nuke the whole world and continue to live underwater (!) indicates a cult-like attitude à la Logan&#039;s Run, but zero effort has been made to make them look like Stromberg worshippers.They&#039;re just ordinary sane-looking men pressing various control room buttons and there doesn&#039;t seem to be any profit or a promise of something better.To add insult to injury, even Stromberg&#039;s motive is pretty vague. It doesn&#039;t matter how wacky the motive is, it needs to make sense from his point of view.Stromberg&#039;s demise is very underwhelming and he doesn&#039;t even need to watch the destruction of his life&#039;s work.Similar to the destruction of Scaramanga&#039;s island it&#039;s just blowing up a lot of concrete which doesn&#039;t mean very much if there&#039;s no sense of casualties or suffering.It would have been more rewarding if they had turned Atlantis into a fabulous underwater hotel.It&#039;s a frustrating experience when all the successful ingredients are in place only to be squandered on a nonsensical plot.SPY also has one of the best theme songs sung over the best opening sequence so far. This love/hate combination will make it a tough one to rank.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Willie Oleson, post: 438890, member: 8"] The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) [ATTACH type="full"]58828[/ATTACH] The pre-opening credits sequence shows that the James Bond team has upped the ante, and in fact so much that it hints at a return to form in the style of [I]Thunderball[/I] and [I]On Her Majesty's Secret Service[/I]. Bond girl Barbara Bach has revenge on her mind although she has yet to discover her target, and this adds some Cold War suspense to her working relationship with Bond. The collaboration between the British and Russian Secret Services and especially the magnitude of the crime are the ingredients for a fantastical international spy spectacle. The villain's lair Atlantis is a beautiful monstrosity and the obligatory disloyal Villain Girl is killed in a tense and twisty fashion. To cut a long comment short, this film's in the bag. Until it isn't. The big problem is: the Mad Scientist angle doesn't work in the spy genre, and the only thing that's left to do for James Bond is to be a superhero in command of the captured submarine crews. Furthermore, the characters employed by the villain need to have a reason to do their job. It can be as simple as money when it's about an epic extortion scheme, it can also be a matter of [I]not[/I] having a choice when they're employed by an evil regime or a dangerous organisation like SPECTRE. The fact that Stromberg's men are willing to nuke the whole world and continue to live underwater (!) indicates a cult-like attitude à la [I]Logan's Run[/I], but zero effort has been made to make them look like Stromberg worshippers. They're just ordinary sane-looking men pressing various control room buttons and there doesn't seem to be any profit or a promise of something better. To add insult to injury, even [I]Stromberg[/I]'s motive is pretty vague. It doesn't matter how wacky the motive is, it needs to make sense from his point of view. Stromberg's demise is very underwhelming and he doesn't even need to watch the destruction of his life's work. Similar to the destruction of Scaramanga's island it's just blowing up a lot of concrete which doesn't mean very much if there's no sense of casualties or suffering. It would have been more rewarding if they had turned Atlantis into a fabulous underwater hotel. It's a frustrating experience when all the successful ingredients are in place only to be squandered on a nonsensical plot. SPY[I] [/I]also has one of the best theme songs sung over the best opening sequence so far. This love/hate combination will make it a tough one to rank. [/QUOTE]

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