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I think it's a bit different with Madeleine @CatchingBullets ? Bond essentially is giving up his job to be with her, a la Casino Royale with Lynd. They 'love' each other which is different - the usual ending on a dinghy as parodied by Austin Powers never gives you the feeling that Bond is in it for the long haul with that particular girl. I think it's that nature of choice between settling down or being a spy that makes it different - it parallels it with CR just as the scene on the train parallels the scene in CR where Bond and Lynd are eating before she gets kidnapped.
Loved reading your book by the way, made me reminisce about all my first viewings of Bond films.
At the end of the day, I don't think he loves her at all. She's his way out. He's running and she's providing the getaway car (figuratively of course, because Mendes had to show us that the DB5 is back and running for the finale).
Yes, I agree the Tosca and the opening car scene are the best action sequences in the film. I found the finale a bit dull (apart from the Adam style hotel in the desert and Greene acting like a lunatic with an axe).
One of the standout scenes for me was when Mathis was shot. It's not so much Craig's acting here that I was impressed with, but Kurylenko's. Unlike many, I found her somewhat wooden in the film, and would have preferred if they had cast a real latin actress rather than a Ukranian/Russian one with a fake tan. However, I found her especially effective in that scene, shocked at the brutality and seemingly uncaring attitude of her 'horribly efficient' cohort. That and the Matthis intro scene with Jemma really impressed me, as did the final scene with Yusef (Craig's look was as menacing as they come).
Yes I agree he doesn't love her, that's why I put love in quotation marks. My theory is that they both want an easy excuse to not live the lives they are living. 'Falling in love' is an easy answer to that, so that they can live different lives - e.g. Bond walking away from his life as 'Her Majesty's loyal terrier' to quote Sean Bean. But of course he will return to the MI6 fold once this 'love' has ended.
These are my thoughts exactly.
The Tosca scene where Bond gets all the conspirators to stand up and be identified is one of the great modern 007 moments.
First I loved the chase scene at the start directly before the opening credits (the one dangling on ropes), due to its originality. Its pretty hard to come up with original and interesting yet engaging and fast-paced action scenes nowadays, and QoS succeeded in making me impressed and engaged. On the other hand, the Rome chase in SP was not that original (car chases are almost a cliche nowadays in action flicks), wasn't engaging enough (the scenes with MP ruined it a bit imo) and most of all wasn't that fast-paced (I blame the score. Backfire had a great melody but it was a little too slow-paced. I would rather have a simple melody-repeating the same note over and over again could do it too-and a very fast paced music).
Second, since I'm onto the score, the Opera scene (especially the Night at the Opera track) was one of the best soundtrack I've heard. And thats saying something. It sets the posh mood perfectly, ominous yet not blaring loud, and its melody is simple and charming. On the other hand, SP was introduced with almost no clear melody...at least remix the Night at the Opera track and make it SP's theme! Come on Mr Newman, you could have done much more...Quantum's meeting was a gem. Original too, which I really appreciate.
Third, I liked the plot, and the villain's plan. I'm not going to criticise SP about this, as the latter had actually done a decent job in creating a realistic plan for SP and a decent plot too. Quantum however, was much more original. Monopolizing a country's water supply? I didn't see that before. Also, it touches on a very real issue about our world today-climate change/environment.
@Sark, when watching that scene, I felt almost as though they were reading from cue cards during rehearsals which were then digitally edited out. The words did not match the expressions on either actor. It was as if they were just getting on with it without any passion for what they were in fact saying. I swear I noticed Fiennes looking at it in shock. Connery during the wedding scenes in YOLT seemed far more engaged than this.
Moreover, in the space of 1 hr, Madeline goes from saying she wants nothing to do with Bond, to then saying she loves him after a quick shag in a train, to then saying she's leaving him, to then driving away into the sunset with him at the end of the film, all with the memory of Sam Smith's overwrought (imho) song as the preamble.
There must have been some plan/vision to all of this, because Mendes is an accomplished dramatic director, but it is completely lost on me. Even some high schooler would have probably done a better job of ensuring some emotional credibility to the relationship.
QoS, despite having some flaws, didn't confuse me like this.
Also, yeah, never bought for a single second that Craig and Madeline are in love. No way. Is that what the movie wants us to believe at the end? I don't believe Bond does, and I don't believe she does even though she said it.
That one crazy theoretical essay about Bond being dead in Blofelds chair sounds less crazy than Madelaine and Bond being truly in love.
On top of that the film has so many great moments, some of them being the best throughout the whole film series; e.g. the scenes with Mathis on the plane and his death.
A meeting online? Very visual. If only you'd written the screenplay.
The RN Opera scene is decent, but serves a different purpose than the QoS scene. If we were to compare, the QoS sequence knocks it out of the park IMO.
I do like the RN scene, it's choreographed really well. There's just something about Tosca. Forster elevates it with the direction, the editing, the score. The way the scene moves is beautiful.
Agree, it looks beautiful that scene, pluss the score is amazing.
QoS has some great elements. Craig, the score, the tone, the car chase at the beginning, the girls, the cast (bar the shit villains).
I'd like to think it isn't the case, but maybe EON are effectively trying to brush QoS under the rug as much as possible considering how slammed it gets ad nauseam by people who likely only bothered seeing it once or worse, didn't see it at all and went on word of mouth alone to convey their opinion.
Greene still gets a mention from Blofeld and an appearance on Q's laptop.