Review Detail

I like Thunderball quite a bit, but it certainly suffers from a bloated runtime, too much speed ramping, and way too many unnecessary underwater scenes, usually showing us every single second of some henchmen moving a nuclear bomb around. I think the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang edit is an interesting experiment with several things I like very much that are certainly improvements, but overall, I don't feel it can replace the theatrical for me, even with the admitted downsides listed above.

On the plus side of this edit, the cold opening fight scene and the final battle between Bond and Largo aboard the Disco Volante are much improved with some excellent work on mitigating speed ramping. Similarly, many of those glacially paced underwater scenes are either completely excised or edited down to a tolerable length. Overall, the video editing is pretty crisp; there are some jarring transitions throughout, but mostly they're invisible. Similarly, audio editing can be a bit abrupt on occasion but generally is ok.

So let's get into the two downsides as I see them.

The first is a technical note: the volume level of the dialogue was a little low on my system compared to the sound effects and score, which were almost deafening at times when the dialogue was at a discernible volume. (I have a 6.1 surround sound system with high end speakers and receiver.)

The second downside is a more general note. In the editor's effort to cut out unnecessary scenes and quicken the pacing, I felt it went a little extreme in the other direction. A scalpel would have sufficed, but instead a machete was used. Certainly, the first major section of the film where this becomes obvious is at Shrublands. Reconfiguring the scenes between Bond and the nurse really doesn't work, not only for the relationship between them which now runs hot and cold all over the place, but also because Bond is clearly suspicious and watching out for strange activity when he doesn't yet have any reason. Similarly, it doesn't make any sense when Bond goes spying on the Disco Volante and comes back to a beach so far from town that he has to hitch a ride. In the original cut, he's chased off and thrown off course to make his escape. In this version, he's never discovered, so why swim back to a place so far away from where he's staying? (There's the added confusion of the bad guys talking to each other about Bond's spying on the boat and arguing over whether they should have tried to kill him.)

Those are just two examples. There are quite a few more I could list where narrative and clarity suffer to appease a faster pace; a pace that, while by no means breakneck, is perhaps a little aggressive for a film of this time period in this franchise. Part of the appeal of the 007 films (for me, at least) is the leisurely slow build and escalating tension that leads to an exciting finale. While the theatrical cut is more glacial than leisurely, I feel that this edit takes it a bit far in the opposite direction.

All that said, this is an admirable effort and there was certainly talent and skill applied here. I would love to see a more restrained edit that implemented the best features of this version. In conclusion, I do recommend this fan edit but with reservations.