SPOILER
Basically Blofeld has look alikes, and you think that this going to have a big pay off, of some sort. But then it doesn't. I actually thought that maybe Blofeld wasn't really killed in his final scene, with the escape boat, and it was just a look alike, and the real him was just going to turn up on the luxury liner, or something.
But after introducing it, the story forgets about it. Unless I am wrong?
You're not wrong
1 mark deducted for not being Curse of Fenric. Insert 'The' into previous if you are Ant-Mac
The use of clones is solely to toy with the audience. They think Blofeld is dead only for him to show up again halfway through. It's a plot device and nothing else.
shareDAF is a rather scattershot affair, plotwise.
Now, this is a signature gun, and that is an optical palm reader.
But I was always expecting Blofeld to return. I mean did we really believe that the head of Spectre, and Bond's nemesis that killed his wife, would be forgotten about after the pre-title sequence?
Having a look alike show up later was no surprise for me. Especially once you find out that Blofeld is played by Charles Gray, cause Charles Gray gets third billing in the cast. So you know Blofeld is the main villain already, after the title credits.
I mean did we really believe that the head of Spectre, and Bond's nemesis that killed his wife, would be forgotten about after the pre-title sequence?We? Probably not. Then again, your premise was accepted in FYEO. So, maybe, some, though not you or I. Or at least, if so, it still could have worked as a plot.
Especially once you find out that Blofeld is played by Charles Gray, cause Charles Gray gets third billing in the cast. Well, I would not call it fair, exactly, to impinge a plot based on what we can garner by the credits or pre-screening media. Yes, you're right that a viewer has all indications before watching DAF that Blofeld will survive past the PTS. Though when getting all explicationist with plots, its best to cull the plot from the surrounding material if possible. Its only fair.
Then again, we repeatedly get treated to faux intrigue about whether Bond himself is dead during multiple PTSs. I just don't think its fair to impinge these plotpoints as lacking (eg FRWL, YOLT, SF) because we know that Bond isn't really dead.
I personally think Bond plots need to be evaluated differently than pure plot plots. Basically, there are a whole bunch of rules, expectations, conventions, and unsurprising requirements at play during a Bond story that would hinder any "from scractch" story about others. This is a variation of my bugaboo that its misdirected to whinge about Bondholes because its either confusion or an act...because we all pay to receive spins on these Bond plotholes; we know they are coming beforehand and we are supposed to enjoy them. Whether its a villian's foolish monologue or a girl's unrealistically motivation towards Bond's bed, to the way cars crash bullets fly bombs explode conveniently rather than realistically. Of course they do and of course the ESB surprise isn't exactly surprising. Rather, find fun in the knowing way, whether winking or gritty...that they dress up these machinations. That's where I find Bond joy, at least. Not in looking for genius in the screenplay...the value is in the style not the substance.
That all said, DAF's story is a hodgepodge of ideas that are more fun as a weird, contrasty, trippy, tawdry Bond experience moreso than a cohesive slick elegantly told story. This ain't high craftsmanship...this is a period-specific Bond story entry via throwing a few too many ideas on the wall and thinking, sure, that works because your attention span is drug addled. Not because the script is a masterpiece, in most areas other than funny dialogue.
Now, this is a signature gun, and that is an optical palm reader.
I have seen a security hologram of him.....killing younglings.
"Worthington, we're being attacked by giant bats!"
SPOILER
Basically Blofeld has look alikes, and you think that this going to have a big pay off, of some sort. But then it doesn't. I actually thought that maybe Blofeld wasn't really killed in his final scene, with the escape boat, and it was just a look alike, and the real him was just going to turn up on the luxury liner, or something.
But after introducing it, the story forgets about it. Unless I am wrong?
According to Steven Jay Rubin's book The James Bond Films, it's actually a discarded idea from an earlier script draft for OHMSS. Originally, the plastic surgery device would've been used to explain why James Bond now looked like George Lazenby instead of Sean Connery. When they later made DAF, they decided to have Blofeld use plastic surgery to make doubles of himself instead in order to confuse MI6.