You Only Live Twice (1967) Review

One thing anyone would notice about the James Bond films is that they have very little continuity, you could watch them all in any order and it would make sense, this was the same for the books with one exception. The Novels Thunderball, On Her Majesties Secret Service and You Only Live Twice were all part of one trilogy you HAD to read in order called the Spectre trilogy. The filmmakers intended to follow this trilogy after Thunderball but as the film would be filmed in Sweden which had had very little snowfall they decided to go with the third book in the trilogy, You Only Live Twice, to adapt instead. This didn’t really matter that much anyway since the films adapted the books out of order anyway and were very loosely based on the source material, You Only Live Twice especially was changed drastically. Famous author Roald Dahl wrote the screenplay for the film and changed nearly everything apart from the setting, Japan.

This film frustrates me, not because it’s bad it’s because the first half is very ‘meh’ but the last 40 minutes are excellent classic Bond and so I rarely watch it because I have to sit though an hour or so of alright, slightly dull film just to get to a brilliant last half.

So what makes the first part as dull as it is? Well it’s not as bad as I am making it seem but through the dull performances and uninteresting characters and plot you don’t feel much for the film at all, it’s when you get to the volcano lair that things begin to pick up.

First of all the set itself is amazing, huge in scale and amazingly shot. The action that takes place is fast paced, intense and incredibly entertaining. In fact that’s a great way to sum up the last forty minutes. Blofeld made for a brilliant villain, probably at the best he had ever been, this made up for most of the first half’s flaws making it an overall worthwhile ride if not a tedious one.

In conclusion it was the opposite of Thunderball, a slow first half but a brilliant last half, I still had a lot of fun with this film and it is a classic which any Bond fan should watch.

6.5/10