Much to the chagrin of my fellow Euroceat psychohazard hunters, I require more assistance finding an item. Where is the buddy key? I’ve looked in everyone’s inventory and talked to all I could about Arkady, but I can’t get to him. I did want to try to blow down the door, but I’m out of breaching charges and can’t buy anymore. Is there another way in the room?
Does anyone know where to go to stop the bomb threat? I accidentally started the quest not knowing it was gonna have a time limit. I’ve failed it a few times now and have to keep resetting my save, but I have no idea where I actually need to be.
I’m really curious about this, I’m just not quite sure why everyone hates this film. At least, it seems like most people on this subreddit do. Is it because of the weird legal/copyright battle? That I do understand, but outside of that, I think this movie is way better than Thunderball for a variety of reasons.
I will concede that Domino’s character is not quite as interesting or impactful, and also that this film’s Blofeld, talented as Max Von Sydow is, is a bit bland. But other than that, I think all the characters are improvements. Bond being older and also being believably still capable is cool. Max Largo’s henchwoman is very hateable (in a good way) and very entertaining. But the biggest thing for me character-wise is Max Largo himself. He is *so much* better than Emilio Largo. Emilio, in my opinion, is so boring. I like the eyepatch, I like the shark thing, and it’s cool that he’s second in command at SPECTRE, but he has absolutely no charisma and no character. He’s just not an interesting villain. Max, on the other hand, has excellent charisma, is definitely a little psycho, and his relationship with Domino makes her killing him feel more impactful because they were actually seriously in love. He is just way more entertaining to watch, and he absolutely steals every scene he’s in, whereas Emilio just feels like he’s “there.”
I don’t have much to say about the plot, as it’s roughly the same as Thunderball, but I think Never Say Never Again has more entertaining scenes in general. Bond in the clinic at the beginning and the fight scenes there are a lot of fun. The casino scene where he plays a game against Max is for sure a little silly, but I was thoroughly entertained by it, and I found it quite thrilling to see if Bond would actually win or not. The part where Bond is chained up in the castle is cool, I always enjoy the somewhat “stealthy” escape scenes in Bond films. But I think the most important part for me is the final fight. In Thunderball, I know it’s super impressive and cool that they did the underwater stuff, but it absolutely drags. It is way too long and way too repetitive. Contrast that with Never Say Never Again, which has fighting above and below the water surface and is a far superior length.
Overall, I just think Never Say Never Again is so much better than Thunderball, and is in fact likely to be in (or at least very close to) my top 10 Bond films whenever I finalise my list.