It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
Not as painful for me. Probably because my love for Bond grew a lot bigger since SF came out.
...But, by all means, avoid the GoldenEye remake and 007 Legends. :))
For Quantum to Skyfall we had Quantum of Solace the video game Blood Stone and Goldeneye to keep us going but now uhm uh I have no idea
I was in the same boat as you two, hoping for a fresh start, but I'm fairly optimistic about the next one. I enjoyed the last two movies a lot. Can't say I'm not disappointed that they don't seem to be going the YOLT route though. Yeah the dead wife/girlfriend thing is played out but for the first time in 50 years they had an opportunity to do the story of the book justice, with the perfect actor for it, and instead they seem to have thrown it away because Spectre was divisive (my guess is it'll be an Unforgiven/Logan esque stand alone movie).
Still though, I am optimistic. Mostly because I think EON have been delivering for the last few years and because I think Craig is really keen to go out on a high, so I'm excited to see what they have in store. I do think it's coming out two years too late though. I know he's only done four movies but 13 years is still a very long time for anyone to be Bond. I'd have been much more excited for another Daniel Craig film if they got the ball rolling after Spectre. Instead, after two years of speculation, it just felt a bit anticlimatic imo. We waited two years to find out we're getting more of the same.
That's a very good point. I can imagine that all of the 2nd films have been seen as relative disappointments apart from FRWL (I can certainly say that was the case for TND & QoS for me). Sophomore blues seem to be par for the course for EON.
TND was my favourite of the Brosnan era. Perfect formula Bond. Over the top villain, sacrificial lamb, brassy score with the Bond tune all over it. I hope we get to hear more of the theme in Bond 25. I really want Arnold to return!
I also have a lot of love for TND, the point I (we) were making is that generally the immediate follow up is rarely feted as being ‘superior’ to the debut, whatever we as Bond fans think.
I think GE is still seen as the best film of the Brosnan era by most and is the most successful on an inflation adjusted basis. If I remember correctly, QoS was also seen as being a bit disappointing (and also underperformed on an inflation adjusted basis), and we know that LTK & TMWTGG didn't do too well compared to their predecessors so they can't have been much loved.
I think only FRWL surpassed the box office (on an inflation adjusted basis) of the first film in an actor's tenure and is generally highly regarded.
So it appears that there is a sophomore effect.
Even if Bond 25 is a critical darling, it's hard to see how the law of diminishing returns won't take affect at the box office.
With the latter, there was a reason you could understand (if not like). In both cases, MGM's weakness as a studio was the root cause of events that caused delays. During the 1989-95 period, you had Danjaq/Eon suing to protect its interests. In 2008-2012, you had MGM in bankruptcy.
With the 2015-2019 gap, there's no obvious reason. MGM has been gradually improving its financial position. All we've gotten publicly is, "Everybody's a little bit tired." (Daniel Craig at The New Yorker event, fall 2016)
So they lost a year and then waited another 4-5 months for Craig to get on board (by his own admission he signed on sometime in the April to June timeframe).
I certainly don't feel 4 years add quality to the writing. I thought, for instance, FRWL had an amazing script, great dialogue, characters, and only one year had passed since the previous film.
That's because the plot, characters, and preliminary dialogue were already supplied by an excellent novel. Writing a Bond film from scratch is a much greater challenge than adapting one from an already good Fleming novel.
That said, though common sense suggests taking more time to write something would increase its quality, the three years between Skyfall and Spectre resulted in a script that felt like the work of three weeks. Evidently many drafts were written and rejected or reworked, resulting in a lot of wasted time, since I get the impression there was no central figure guiding the writing process; no central authority with a vision of what the film should be and do. Instead the producers, director, star, and Sony bigwigs produced a muddle of decisions, resulting in a farrago.
An efficient production team should be able to take advantage of a three/four year period to produce a script that has been perfected by time. For whatever reasons, the Bond team is unable to do this.
To me, this wait is frustrating because I was disappointed by the last film. But I can never be burnt out by the franchise - whatever lies ahead, I can put in a disc of Goldfinger, Thunderball, OHMSS, Casino Royale, QoS, LALD, TLD, FRWL, DN or SF and everything's good.