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PS re formula, the irony is that both MI and Avengers (we could also include ST) have bad guys who want to destroy/wreak havoc on Earth. It's not purely a "Bond thing" - they are executed in such a different way re tone/dynamic/style that we dont think "this is a Bond rip off" I never thought of Thanos as a Bond villain but his plans are very similar to previous Bond villains.
It will always be a mystery to me how they kept basically the entire top level creative team and screwed that one up so badly...
To each their own. Again, at risk of being overly vague, I think the key to a good Bond 26 and beyond will be doing something fresh with the substance of the stories (main plot, Bond girl, villain, Bond himself etc) while still keeping it recognisably Bondian, ideally that isn't just superficial iconography as in the Craig era. There are many ways in which it can be done though.
Yes - all of this.
That's a good observation. I guess part of the issue is the old ways had only actually returned to the series in Skyfall after sitting CR and QoS out.
Just on a design basis look at the funky new version of MI6 and their office that we got for QoS, never to be seen again.
True, but I always preferred the one on one briefings between Bond and M from the first two Connery films. It just gave more of a sense that the mission Bond was about to go on was top secret, for his eyes only as it were. I think by TMWTGG and TSWLM they brought more faces into the room to give the sense that the 'stakes are now raised' and these other important Government officials, even the head of the KGB, had to be there.
I think to the filmmakers at the time making MI6 this ultra modern, densely populated building in QOS made sense, but it's a case where what would be 'realistic' doesn't work in a film. In this universe, Bond is an agent who works on top secret assignments. That feeling has to evoked through the cinematography and set design. Perhaps they could lean into it in Bond 26/have a contrast between one part of the MI6 building (colder, more open, more densely populated etc.) and the upper floors/M's office (darker, warmer, more insular).
True.
I am constantly struggling between wanting Bond films to more accurately portray how someone like Bond would fare in the modern MI6/intelligence world and accepting that that wouldn’t really be Fleming‘s Bond anymore. It’s a hard balance to strike. The Denbigh plot in SP would have been a great way to explore that and it didn’t work, so what do I know.
I suppose we've never really seen Bond 'in the office' going through his daily routine as he did in the MR novel. Nowadays the equivalent would be Bond reading PDFs on a computer and answering emails... not sure if that's great for a Bond film but I can imagine him at the shooting range like at the start of the book, and perhaps with an office of his own and an assistant to the 00's like Loelia Ponsonby. That or just have Bond making his way through the large, densely populated lower floors of MI6 to M's quieter, darker office in a separate part of the building. Again, could be interesting and really evoke how covert Bond's job is.
Arguably, we've never had an M scene quite like the briefings from the Fleming novels either. Some of them take place very early in the morning, fog rolling outside the window, the room dark with the pool of light coming from the green lamp on the desk etc. There's just that very insular feeling that comes through reading those passages I've not truly seen in the films.
1. Bond the connoisseur
2. Bond as the best man in mi6. Capable, competent, suave, sophisticated
3. A score that has jazz and swing.
4. Bond escaping inescapable situations with invention, wit and balls.
5. A villain with a clear motivation who gets a lot more screen time than the last few.
6. The bridge scene from Moonraker
1. Bring back M's military background (Major Admiral).
2. Have Bond do spy things.
3. Have him knocked off like in the classic films.
4. Bond the connoisseur
5. Bond the gambler
6. Bond using an alias, doing disguises.
7. Have the ending between Bond and the Bond Girl similar to Moonraker and the first pages of From Russia With Love.
8. 00 mission briefing like in Thunderball, TWINE.
9. A ballad-jazz theme song
10. Skiing
11. A villain who has a clear motivation, and also realistic plot, maybe a bit more similar to that of Argo.
12. Realistic action scene
13. A bond girl who is Bond's opposite, who has a sense of humor/funny, outgoing, have many friends, extrovert, and very intelligent tough that she can challenge Bond, and can be a contrary to Bond's persona of being quiet, loner and serious.
I like a scene where she finds Bond weird, awkward and boring because her personality was different to his, and her making jokes and pranking at him, these traits will make Bond appreciate her more because of her distinct personality.
14. Bond acting like MacGyver at some situations.
15. Bond escaping using his wits being a survivor.
16. A Bond Girl who bleeds and gets dirty in a fight, think of Camille.
What I don't want to see:
1. French Bond Girls, please get a different nationality for a change, French actresses have been many in the Craig era, all of his Bond Girls were French, time to rest from them a bit.
2. Italy as the location, again overused.
3. Aston Martin DB5, let the car rest for a while, how many times we saw the car got destroyed?
4. Bond as being the only man in MI6, missions revolving around Bond himself to the point that he compromises England and MI6 because of his mission, think of Skyfall and SPECTRE.
5. MI6 staffs acting like Scooby gang.
6. Age gaps and lack of chemistries.
7. Bond Girls who ends the movie clean, no injuries and wounds.
Well, that’s basically one of those things. Bond nowadays wouldn’t have an office in MI6 HQ. In Fleming‘s world and time nobody officially knew MI6 existed let alone where it’s headquarters were and who worked there. Nowadays, it’s very well known where they are and at least who the Head of the SIS is. I guess they have their ways of concealing entries and exits to the building, but as far as I’m aware, most people working there just walk in through the front door. No Universal Exports cover, no elaborate phone tricks like at the beginning of TMWTGG, no plausible deniability. I’ve been banging this drum for way too long, but the one good thing about Carte Blanche by Deaver is that he re-situates Bond, M, Tanner and all the rest into a super-secret separate entity that is basically just an Operations Section with the 00s at the top, Q Section for tech and a handful of assistants and analysts for support.
Penelope Cruz would be quite good.
Yes, yes!
Yes I like all that too. I think a similar rethink of the Double O section and how Bond operates would be great. Make him deep cover, make him top secret so no one in MI6 even knows about him, have M as a sort of radical maverick who masterminds and controls this section rather than the boss of the entire service. I still think that showing M creating the Double Os and recruiting Bond wouldn't be a bad way to start. Maybe Bond even comes up with the idea somehow, I don't know.
"Knocked off" ? You mean, knocked out, unconscious ? "Knocked off" sounds like contract killer assassinated.
Ah, fair enough, I get you now. That could work as a way of doing something different with the series. The idea of M, Tanner, Bond (perhaps even Loelia Ponsonby as an assistant etc) and the 00 section in general having to operate separately as this individual, generally secret entity from the rest of MI6 sounds interesting. I know there have been posters (me included) who want to see Bond's rogue qualities of the Craig era transposed onto M (a sort 'play by his own rules' type) so that could be a good way of justifying this. It could potentially add some tension to the story with the 00 section at odds with the bureaucracy of the rest of MI6. It'd also create some background for the 00 section which we've never really gotten in the films. And it'd really emphasise that idea of M/bond's briefings being more insular and covert. Good catch. Admittedly I'd blocked most of Carte Blanche from my mind so wouldn't have thought of that.
Spot on mate
Yes, I wouldn’t mind that sort of thing either. Mission Impossible Ghost/Rogue were the modern day equivalents I’d say.
I think it just has to feel very different and new, whatever they do. I’ve enjoyed the last few films a lot, but for all the stick they got from fans for deviating from the formula, I do think they seemed to be almost in reverence of that old iconography. Which was fun for the 50th in SF, but it’s probably time to create some new icons now.
Not if it's only for the hand off of the assignment. Literally a couple of minutes. And it doesn't need to be a staple or anything. I always liked the scene where M visits Bond's apartment in LALD, for example. Bond being sought out rather than called in suggests urgency.