James Bond number 23: Sky Fall is beyond imagination

James Bond number 23: Sky Fall is beyond imagination

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”.

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Posted by Fahad Zafar on Nov 5 2012. Filed under Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry