I used to proudly lay my allegiance with the fans who believe OHMSS is an underrated classic; now I'm not so sure, though I wouldn't say it's among the worst -- all told, it's a mixed bag.
The first third is an unusual (for Bond) love story, which unfortunately seems quite hollow after Casino Royale did the same thing so brilliantly. Finally the actual 'Bond film' gets underway, complete with proper spying... and a ridiculous kilt-based outfit. The final third holds all the action sequences: crammed into 40 minutes there's two ski chases, a toboggan chase, a car chase, a helicopter raid, a large gunfight and an avalanche; the latter is especially well realised. This unbalanced structure undoubtedly helps unbalance some fans' view of the film.
Elsewhere there's an effort to remind us this is the same series: the titles are full of clips from the previous films and there are numerous other references. While the reasoning behind them at the time is clear, we're now familiar with Bond's changing face and they're just intrusive. As the new Bond, Lazenby is certainly no Connery, but he could be worse. His performance helps sell the final scene, which is still incredibly sad (indeed, while Casino Royale's romance plot may be more convincing overall, the death scene isn't a patch on this).
The direction is largely fantastic (though there are some dire sped-up shots) and the score is perfect; the instrumental main theme is probably my favourite ever.
There's still a lot to be said about OHMSS, but my opinion (for now) is that it's neither as bad nor as great as most of fandom would claim.
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