Veteran 007 Sound Designer says SKYFALL's Bond is "too much of a Superman"

Quote :

A SOUND effects wizard who won an Oscar for his groundbreaking work on the first classic Bond films says the popular hero has become too much of a “Superman” in the latest blockbuster.

Norman Wanstall of Burford, near Tenbury, worked on six Bond films including Dr No, From Russia with Love and Goldfinger for which he won an Academy Award for sound effects.

Mr Wanstall said Casino Royale was a spectacular return to form for Bond but he fears the new film, Skyfall, billed by some as the best ever, may be a bit over the top as the British intelligence agent celebrates his 50th birthday by coming back from the dead.

The 77-year-old, who went to see the new film on the day of its general release at the Odeon in Worcester, is surprised the film has received so much acclaim although he admitted it was “technically superb” and there are great performances, notably from Ralf Fiennes and Javier Bardem as a sinister super villain.

He believes M, played by Judi Dench, appears “too much like someone’s aging grandmother” rather than the head of MI6.

Mr Wanstall, who found one part of the film so far fetched he was tempted to walk out of the cinema, said: “I put on Facebook that ‘I have just been to the movies to see Superman. Did I say Superman? I meant Skyfall’.

“To make him into a superhero was acceptable but don’t make him into a Superman where he comes back from the dead. It’s ridiculous.”

Mr Wanstall, who became a plumber after he retired from the movie business, created sounds in the most iconic moments of the Bond movies, including the sound of Oddjob’s deadly hat and a laser beam which threatened to cut the hero in two.

Bond, played by Sean Connery, says: “Do you expect me to talk?”. Goldfinger replies: “No Mr Bond, I expect you to die,” in one of the most famous scenes in movie history.

He believes From Russia with Love was the best in the series because of the strong, straight story without too much focus on gadgets and Sean Connery – in his view, the best ever Bond.

Mr Wanstall got quite hot under the collar trying to devise the weird and wonderful sounds of the Bond films as he tried to create sounds to match the increasingly futuristic themes.

The grand finale of Dr No, which involved a nuclear reactor meltdown was particularly challenging and at times he thought there must be ‘an easier way than this’. Thankfully, now there is. Gone is the clutter – synchronisers, moviolas for bits of film and cans for film – replaced by a man at a computer who can create sounds at the touch of a button.

Mr Wanstall believes Bond needs to return to the format of Casino Royale which injected new life into a franchise which had “run out of steam”.

http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/local/10026487.James_Bond_s_Skyfall_is_beyond_belief___007_sound_guy/

Largo's Shark wrote:

Mr Wanstall, who found one part of the film so far fetched he was tempted to walk out of the cinema, said: “I put on Facebook that ‘I have just been to the movies to see Superman. Did I say Superman? I meant Skyfall’.

Which part was this? Without giving too much away, that is... :bounce:

Mrs Aural Sects wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

Mr Wanstall, who found one part of the film so far fetched he was tempted to walk out of the cinema, said: “I put on Facebook that ‘I have just been to the movies to see Superman. Did I say Superman? I meant Skyfall’.

Which part was this?

I think he means Bond falling 300 ft off a viaduct and surviving.

Bond's fall from the viaduct was no more far fetched than him surviving the parachute failure in QoS.

Interesting piece on unlikely descents at: http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/survival/stories/4344037

It's so weird that Wanstall got quoted just now, because earlier today, I was rereading that a-z GOLDFINGER book and it had an interview with him that was pretty interesting. He got out of the business because he hated all the politics and backstabbing and he became a plumber in the 70s, and he only came back into the biz, once, for NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN.

Maybe someone should remind Wanstall that Guy Hamilton once said he regarded Bond as 'a kind of joke Superman'.