Original vs Remake:Thunderball(1965) vs Never Say Never Again(1983)

(For the Thunderball/Never Say Never Again story see the "Film Feud" post)

This is a comparison of the two:

Pre-Credit Sequence:
Thunderball:Bond is at a memorial service for a lost colleague. Inside he encounters what appears to be woman morning the lost man. Bond sees through the disguise and attacks her. It is revealed that “she” is actually a male assassin. They fight and Bond kills him. He is chased after some other men but escapes on a jetpack and to a car driven by the woman he was with.

Never Say Never Again:None, the credits are done over a scene where Bond is rescuing a girl from her hostages. She suffers from Stockholm syndrome and as a result, turns on and stabs Bond.

Song:
Thunderball:”Thunderball” by Tom Jones is a relatively good Bond song and the art on the pre-credit sequence is well done. Here is the video itself

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luE0c90Cs-U

Never Say Never Again:”Never Say Never Again” by Lani Hall is a classic example of a cheesy ‘80’s song and sounds extremely different as compared to other Bond songs. Here is the song itself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKFrA8NspI8

Opening Scene:
Thunderball:An older man arrives at a building in France. He arrives in a conference hosted by Ernst Stavro Blofeld, who previously appeared in “From Russia with Love”. Like in that movie Blofeld’s face is unseen only his body and voice is heard. They discuss current events going on with their organization SPECTRE. Upon hearing news, Blofeld elect cutes one member of the organization.

Never Say Never Again:Bond is told by M that he is terribly out-of-shape and needs to improve on his work, exercise, and diet.

Character Depiction:

James Bond:

Thunderball:Suave, quick, and highly intelligent

Never Say Never Again:Aging, facing retirement but still athletic.

Largo:

Thunderball:First name is Emilio. He is an older Frenchman

Never Say Never Again:First name is Maximillian. He is portrayed as a bit younger, but seemingly towards the range of 30-40. He also has a tad more of a personality than the Thunderball version of him. He sort of reminds me of Max Zorin.

Domino:

Thunderball:A brunette who is initially seen swimming underwater. She is Largo’s mistess. She is also more European

Never Say Never Again:Like Largo, she has more of a personality and has blonde hair. More of an American-esqe accent.

Felix Leiter:

Thunderball:At first presented as an old man who greets Bond. After Bond takes out an assassin, it is revealed that he is Felix.

Never Say Never Again:At first, Felix seems to be an assassin after Bond, but it turns out he was just throwing something as a practical joke. This is the first time that Felix is portrayed as an African-American. It wouldn’t be until “Casino Royale” that the idea of Leiter being African-American was used again. He plays a bigger role in this film.

M:

Thunderball:Standard M with the job of handing out assignments to Bond

Never Say Never Again:A different M that seems less intent on using Bond and other 00 agents.

Q:

Thunderball:Vacationing in the Caribbean. He is laid back as usual and presents Bond with weapons in his cabin.

Never Say Never Again:He seems to be more of a cockney Brit and is referred to as Algernon. Less laid back and more aggressive.

Blofeld:

Thunderball:Figurehead of SPECTRE. In this film his face is not shown only body

Never Say Never Again:Is actually seen in this version. He seems more German than Russian as he is normally portrayed.

Moneypenny:

Thunderball:Still a tad flirtatious with Bond but still does her job.

Never Say Never Again:Portrayed normally. No changes to her whatsoever

Assassination Attempts:

Thunderball:Man dressed as woman, Massage machine turned up all the way, Man tries to break into hotel but Bond shoves his head through window and strangles him with a phone cord. When Bond first meets Felix, there is a man in the shower. Bond turns on the hot water and beats him up.

Never Say Never Again:A tall man dropping a weight bar on Bond repeatedly. Bond fights back and the fight goes all over the building until he breaks a beaker containing a urine sample of Bond’s on his face. Fatima Blush attacks him with her men, nearly kills him, but is killed herself.

Other Differences:
Thunderball:Bond meets Largo by playing cards

Never Say Never Again:Bond meets Largo by playing the game “Domination”

Thunderball:A character called Fiona Volpe tricks Bond and her and her men kidnap him. He escapes but he traps her at the Kiss Kiss Club. He sees the reflection of an assassin in her eye, turns her and the bullet kills her.

Never Say Never Again:A character called Fatima Blush plays a similar role to Fiona, in which she tricks and tries to kill Bond. Fatima is much more of a feminist with a wild personality and is just as ruthless as Largo and even more than Fiona. She is killed when he shoots a bullet from his pen and it incinerates her.

Thunderball:Domino and Bond meet when he rescues her

Never Say Never Again:Domino and Bond meet at a massage therapy

Thunderball:The climatic scene takes place on a boat

Never Say Never Again:The climax takes place in some kind of cave like area.

Much of the plot is different. Thunderball strictly focuses around Bond hunting down Largo and SPECTRE while Never Say Never Again seems to focus somewhat on the “aging Bond” storyline. The Domino/Bond love story is more explored. Largo is featured heavily in NSNA and even attempts to execute Bond and Domino after their love affair is revealed. There is a middle east setting during one scene.


Simularities:

• As in Thunderball, there is a festival going on.
• The film surrounds the idea of two stolen nuclear warheads with threats of detonation.
• Use of underwater shots
• Taking place at an island like area

Overall Thoughts:
Thunderball:One of the better Bond films but not the best within the Connery series. The action scenes and story were well done but I felt it was a tad slow at times.

Never Say Never Again:Fast paced film, the plot is inferior to Thunderball as are the characters.

Overall I feel that Thunderball was superior to Never Say Never Again but there were elements of the latter that I did prefer over the original.

Film Feud:The Battle of the Bonds

Welcome to the first edition of "Film Feud". In this first edition we will talk about the highly controversial and publicized "Battle of the Bonds". As everyone knows, James Bond is one of the most popular characters in cinematic history. His first appearance was an Ian Fleming novel Casino Royale. The novel was a hit and there were many attempts at an adaptation of the character on-screen.

In 1954, the first James Bond adaptation was released as the television show Climax!, an anthology series where each week different stories would be told. The show purchased the rights to Fleming's first Bond novel and on October 21, 1954, it aired. There were talks of the show adapting more Fleming novels but it was canceled and so Fleming moved on to try and get the character on the big screen.

In 1959, Fleming, Jack Whittingham, and Kevin McClory began to work on a screenplay for the first Bond movie. However, failure to come to a deal for financing canceled the project and Fleming used the screenplay's story for his novel Thunderball. In 1961, Albert R. Broccoli and his associate Harry Saltzman purchased the rights to all of Fleming's novels except for Casino Royale. They struck a deal with MGM to make the first Bond film, Dr. No. However, while this was transpiring a bigger issue was arising.

The year production began on Dr. No, the novel Thunderball was released and McClory with Whittingham filed suit claiming that the story was there idea and that Fleming had stolen it(Whittingham would drop the suit). The battle headed to court over whether or not Fleming plagerized McClory. However, before a settlement could be made, Fleming died of a heart attack induced by the stress of the suit. As a result, the suit was changed and now McClory found himself in a lawsuit with Brocoli and Saltzman. They came to a settlement as the courts ruled in favor of McClory.

However, needing cash, McClory gave the rights to "SPECTRE" and "Ernst Stavro Blofeld"(characters from Thunderball he created) to Saltzman and Brocoli as part of a 12 year deal. In 1965, Thunderball was released to theaters and was a hit. The producers gave McClory credit for the story and would use Blofeld and SPECTRE for the films You Only Live Twice, On Her Majessty's Secret Service, and Diamonds are Forever. The next two Bond films, Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun would not include SPECTRE or Blofeld. However, Saltzman and Brocoli planned on revisiting the two for the film, The Spy Who Loved Me.

But, there was a problem, McClory was unwilling to let them have the rights to the characters and as a result, the film had to be rewritten. It was that year(1976), that McClory and former James Bond actor, Sean Connery, would begin work on a remake of Thunderball. MGM/UA tried to block the remake but were unsuccessful. In 1981, McClory and producer Jack Schwartzman began work on the Thunderball remake. At the same time, MGM/UA with Brocoli began work on the 13th Bond film entitled Octopussy.

The media hyped up the feud and focused on who has been the better Bond, Connery or at the time Bond actor, Roger Moore. Initially both were set to be released on the same weekend, however, due to the release of Star Wars:Return of the Jedi, it was decided to release them seperately. The Thunderball remake entitled Never Say Never Again was mostly notable for its lack of usual Bonde features, mainly due to the fact that they could not use any of the elements of the MGM/UA series. This included...

• The pre-credit sequence
• James Bond's trademark "gun barrel" opening
• Bond's theme song
• Bond's trademark drink of "Martini, Shaken not Stirred"

On June 6, 1983, Octopussy was released but failed to reach Number 1 at the box office. Overall it managed to gross 187,500,000 dollars at the box office and 152,500,000 positive in budget cost. On October 9, 1983, Never Say Never Again was released and was Number 1 in the box office for 4 consecutive weeks making 160,000,000 dollars in the box office and 124,000,000 positive in budget cost. As a result, financially Octopussy was declared the winner, however, critically most saw Never Say Never Again as the superior film.

Over the next 15 years, McClory would attempt to remake Thunderball once more and in 1997, with Sony announced a rival James Bond series with Timothy Dalton(who portrayed Bond in The Living Daylights and License to Kill) as 007 once again. However, MGM would trademark the series and agreed with Sony to give Sony the rights to the Spider-Man film rights if Sony doesn't make the Bond series with McClory. In 1999, McClory attempted to sue MGM again claiming that he should have royalty rights to the series. However, the next year the lawsuit was dismissed with the judge ruling that McClory waited too long to file claim.

On November 20, 2006, 4 days following the release of Casino Royale, McClory died of natural causes at the age of 80. As of June 9, 2009, the fate of his rights to Thunderball remains unknown. As of this day, many nowadays perceive Never Say Never Again as the worst Bond film ever made. However, Octopussy, itself isn't seen too highly upon either. I personally watched both and felt that Never Say Never Again was superior in the sense it felt like a true Bond story. Currently, MGM does not consider Never Say Never Again as a real Bond film and neither do most of the fans. However, MGM does own the rights to the film nowadays.

The Premise

At the movies is simular to y2sports, in the notion that it is exclusively about movies from articles to opinions. Enjoy some columns such as "Film Feuds" and "Original vs Remake".