Dr No

Film 1 - Monday 6th January 2013

The film opens to the song three blind mice, three men who then proceed to kill two people, with extremely good aim with shotguns for blind people. However the fake blood used in these scenes was extremely poor quality, being far too orange to be passed as realistic.

Moving into a casino where we first meet Bond showing off his blackjack skills leading us to question whether the character is autistic, unfortunately this matter is never addressed, though he’s difficult to spot amongst all the Brylcreem being used so the viewer is almost thankfully for his ever clichéd personal introduction.

Primarily, I would question Mr Bond’s poor choice in women, his first, conquest of the film, Miss Sylvia Trench starts by breaking and entering into Bond’s hotel room only to proceed to parade round in Mr Bond’s clothes, play with his golf set and ultimately delay him in his important trip.  Secondly Miss Moneypenny, a character quite easy to sympathise with, if she had more about her she could sue for sexual harassment in the workplace but instead she will remain forever besotted.  The third young woman he then gets arrested, presumably for her bad acting skills but only after he ruins her nail varnish, there can be little surprise as to why she proceeded to spit in his face. The fourth female Bond encounters, Honey Ryder, has a very rare and powerful skill, keeping her makeup and hair in pristine condition; despite the hot climate and a fairly traumatic change to her usual routine, her makeup remains perfect even when forced through a powerful shower; though instead of using this to her advantage she has chosen to concentrate her life looking for shells.

At one point we see Mr Bond trying to sleep when he discovers a spider, which we can only assume is not expected to be present at that moment.  Dramatic music ensues, surely this spider must be trained to kill, it seems all James can do is wait for the spider to decide when to administer the fatal blow.  When suddenly in a highly dramatic unexpected twist the spider makes his move, onto the other pillow only to be killed mere seconds later by shoe – how heroic.

The elusive Dr No is not met by the viewer until the final portion of the film, supposedly designed to build an air of mystery around the character. A seemingly intelligent individual with a flair for interior design with a good grasp on his personal priorities and the value of materialistic goods; one can only wonder that if under the influence of better parenting he could of done a lot of good in the world.  Clearly his main motivation for world domination is lack of much needed attention as an infant.

Overall I found the plot lacking somewhat with several loose ends left unresolved.  Being my first viewing I found it to be watchable, keeping my attention throughout; however I will not be rushing towards a second viewing of this film.