You Only Live Twice (1967)

I watched this movie on Amazon Prime.

So... I had seen some of the older Bond movies, including this one, a long long time ago. Like about 20 years ago, renting them from the Library as a kid. Most of them I hardly remembered but I wanted to finally start my journey of going back and watching all the old Bond movies again. Some a long over due re watch, others seeing for the first time.

Ugh. Where do I start with this one? I feel like giving it 2 stars, for disliking it, is a bit too harsh. But it's not quite 3 stars where it's just OK either.
if I could, I'd give this one a 2.5 stars

Where I found Goldfinger disappointing but still liked it OK, then Thunderball... meh.
this one is just under meh. But not quite a dislike.

Anyways... where to begin? The plot with them stealing ships from space is just too ridiculous. Space flight was still new around this time, and even if it's science fiction having the technology for someone to make a ship that can capture other craft in space like that just stretches it way too far, looking back now. We can't even really do stuff like that with today's tech. Bond faking his own death really seems to go nowhere or benefit him very little. The side villains are very forgettable, the Bond girls almost even more so. The idea of hiding a secret base in a volcano is pretty cool, but this movie just cemented that I think that Spectre and Blofeld... are just not good villains. Donald Pleasence does a fine job in the part here, but I realise now I just never really liked that character. Especially how he's always treated different or recast in every film. And I never really get what his ultimate end goal is, which also seems to always change in each movie. Especially when they make him stupid in the movies.
The end fight with all the ninjas just comes across as way over the top and nonsense. And this coming from a guy who's second favorite movie of all time is Ninja Assassin.
The helicopter battle is kinda cool but Bond looks silly in that little yellow thing.
Hell. The more I'm talking about it the more I'm convincing myself this is a 2 star, I don't like it. Movie. So yeah. I think that's that. I don't like this one.

Side note... the fact that Bond fights The Rock's grandfather is a bit of a cool trivia and movie history.

Mistake Status: No plans to do the Bond movies except the Brosnan era.

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