Dr. No - 93/100
Time to start my annual run of James Bond films during the month of October, also kind of nice considering it will line up nicely with SPECTRE to release next month.
So the film, I think what gets me the most in this film, is the scenery. I absolutely love the look of Crab Key. It just has so much vibrant scenes, like the intro of Honey or when they are running near the land mines with Quarrel and Honey. Also, Honey; I absolutely love her. She's probably my favorite Bond girl. To be fair Carrie Fisher, Ursula Andress, and Ann Margret were all childhood crushes I had. But even so, I am in love with her character as well, the story when she told about killing her attacker with a female black widow. The way she kind of asks if she did okay by that; while many view it ditzy, I think if a woman with some sort of innocence of the world. Something we hardly get in films, or we do get them but always made to be like a damsel or so. In the scene when she is holding Bond's hand and going to see Dr. No and she says, "It's nice to know your hands are sweating", with Bond replying, "I'm scared too". It's a moment where both are strong as characters, braving over their fears of what's to possibly come. I could keep going on and on, her love for her father, her business with the shells, her stance on why Bond had to kill the lone wandering guard. She wasn't really made as a nuisance to Bond's survival or just overall annoying.
What I had to deduct was kind of the slacking of character build up or just the loss of character. For example I find it kind of poor how Bond and Quarrel are fighting and Leiter comes in saying, oh ****; we're all a team here. Then Bond and Quarrel are all like, "Ah ****, my bad brother. We cool". I think it could have been a bit more smoother. Then you have Quarrel's downfall. I found it very short and just like a cop out. Then you have Bond and Ryder on the boat at the end taking in their attraction and no sort of grief for Quarrel. I get the point of being a 00 slightly requires a control of emotions, but the writing could have made some sort of notion or something.
Music was okay. Nothing extraordinary, but I guess it follows the tone of the setting. What it doesn't really fit is in the story; and I don't know how many I could really take listening to 4 different covers of "Underneath the Mango Tree". But sound effects weren't bad especially for a 53 year old film. Opening credits also weren't too shabby, didn't really follow a method, but just a mood conveyed of ecstasy.
Dr. No as a character was okay, not a fan of how they made him seem like this all calculating bastard. It's little stupid phrases like when Bond and Ryder are checking the aquarium and he makes a note of how much it cost, and that was what Bond was thinking. Maybe it's just me, I normally think how long something took to make, and much later the cost of it; but that's just me. Another thing that bothered me is why he had an assumption Bond would join SPECTRE. I mean it just seems lazy, then you have the brawl between the two. Dear God, how is a guy with literally iron fists incapable of taking down Bond. His downfall was just too quick, but makes sense as you can't really expect Bond to last long in a battle after being beaten and flushed down a radiation pipe cooler. Lastly, his vengeance seems like something of a little *****. Who cares if neither Eastern or Western powers want your work, I can understand getting shot down as insulting, but to lead to massive slaughter seems a bit extreme. But can't have villains be rational now in days, I suppose.
Connery is just a great Bond, always get a kick from him. Very suave, even still now when you could compare him to the other Bonds. Not going to go into too much detail, but overall still a good film. I love starting off this marathon especially with such a kickass first film.
