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Comments
I think they either cleaned up the sound or used a different take on the second
Trailer, as it was more obviously not him, in that one.
Still it all helped to keep ( some of us ) guessing. ;)
I eat my words. After SKYFALL, I was one of those people who was an advocate for a more back to basics Craig film. I wanted Craig's Thunderball. A more of a traditional outing for Craig's Bond. And that is exactly what we got. It's most certainly Craig's "biggest" film yet. And yet I was ultimately left disappointed. Most of the gags and humour didn't work, with some scenes fitting for a Moore film (and that's coming from a Moore fan) - the Mickey Mouse line, the Aston radio gag, the OAP driving slowly cliche, the couch gag, Bond talking to a rat (reminscent of DAF). I felt it jarring that these scenes had made it into a Craig film - I now realise that this is what I don't want to see in a Craig film.
Not a fan of the story, either. The surveillance subplot distracted from proceedings most of the time, and Denbigh being a member of SPECTRE I saw coming miles away. It doesn't help that Denbigh's ultimate scheme felt far-fetched. After the destruction of Blofeld's lair in Morocco, the subsequent scenes in London felt tacked on and unecessary. The action in the ruins of MI6 HQ just left me bored, and felt cliche. As for ESB - this is where my greatest issues lay. I'm going to say it outright that I don't like one bit ESB's backstory, nor do I like the fact that he was behind the events of CR-SF. It's all too convenient, even contrived. Disappointing.
The love story was rushed and cack-handed. It was unecessary and felt too soon after Vesper. Their relationship on screen isn't a touch on what we saw in CR. I felt that both Bellucci and Seydoux were wasted - we saw too little of Bellucci, and Seydoux was handed some poor material to work with (that drunken scene was a bit odd, also). Swann positively pales in comparison to Vesper Lynd.
The elements of Skyfall that I didn't like are turned to eleven in SPECTRE. M, Q, Moneypenny are in this film far more than they should be. Add to that Tanner who makes an inexplicable appearance in the denouement. Dench makes an appearance, which I felt was gratuitous and failed to explain how she knew of Sciarra and his operations. And of course, the DB5 had to make an appearance (I mean, it just had to) - granted, it's in the closing seconds of the film, but still...
The score was literally a cut and paste job from SKYFALL, with the theme song being shoehorned in once and not woven in like it should. Newman's contribution was a phone-in, lazy to the extreme.
That's enough harping on about the negatives. These are the elements that I thought were great:
-The PTS is the best part of the film. It's beautiful. That tracking shot was absolutely sublime. The action was draw-dropping. A PTS second to only TSWLM.
-The title song works so much better with the titles, and has made me finally dig Smith's song.
-The fight with Hinx on the train was absolutely enthralling and is without doubt one of the best fights in the series. It was marred only by Hinx's "oh shit" line.
-The SPECTRE meeting was excellent, a 21st century version of the scene we see in THUNDERBALL. Great stuff.
-The action in Austria is outstanding and features some of the very best stuntwork in the series.
-The scene with Mr White is excellent, and Christensen's performance is a standout.
When all is said and done, I think SPECTRE had potential to be one of the greats- it had an excellent cast, great action sequences, a talented crew. I think the basic premise of the film is what hurts the film most for me, and it is something I can see I'm not going to warm to in the future. I think the negatives far outweigh the positives at the moment - it's not as offensive as DAD, not as OTT as MR, no where near as drab and lifeless as TWINE. But I don't like it better than the rest. There are elements of this film that just bug me to no end, and for those reasons, it's my least favourite Craig film.
I really need to see the film again without the Imax screen so I can focus more on the dialog and not be distracted by the bangs and whistles. I think this will be the last film I see in Imax as I always feel it distracts my attention from the film as I am too busy thinking about how glorious the imagery is on a big screen.
Still going through the tweets, almost all are very positve! And the audiences are what count. The everyman, who already say, he is going to see it again soon.
Many like this:
#SPECTRE, absolutely incredible. Just superb
I did think that for a moment Mr Hinx (don't think his name ever came up) might have been a Jaws type can't-be-killed character - thankfully not!
Moore doing it. :) Whether that's a good or Bad thing is up to the viewer. ;)
Absolutely.
I just think @DrGorner, Moore does humour very well, as much as i don't rate his bond films, he is very good with humour. Personally, of the four Craig film's i have seen, in my opinion CR was the funniest, but i think my sort of humour is different to other peoples.
However, the acid test is whether I left the film with a big old smile on my face, and I must admit that I did. It's common knowledge that as each Bond actor gets further into their tenure their films become more fantastical and SPECTRE is no exception, although it is done with far more grace than it did with the films of Brosnan, Moore and Connery.
I was happy for SPECTRE to embrace the cheesier aspects of the franchise, and Craig still appeared to be happy in the role (indeed, I felt he seemed far more at ease here then he did in Skyfall, with fewer puns that caused me to wince!)
Christoph Waltz was just being Christoph Waltz so I'm not sure if he really had an impact on me yet as he was precisely as expected. I'm not sure the 'author of your pain' aspect really works because it rather makes SPECTRE seem like an organisation devoted to making Bond miserable and little else!
Anyway, I'm sure like all recent blockbusters the internet will be full of people moaning about what it isn't, and how it didn't make sense, but for me the film contained so much of what I had been wanting to see (gadget car! evil lair! gun barrel!) that I could not be disappointed!
I can't wait to see it again!
I have habitually seen every Bond film (commencing with Dr No) six times upon its release. I shall not be watching SPECTRE a second time.
and it added to my enjoyment of the spectre board meeting. ;)
And a small bug bear of mine that whilst it was great to have the GB back at the start, why could we not have had the immediate reveal to the Day of the Dead parade as opposed to the fade to black of "The Dead Are Alive" caption? It seemed utterly pointless.
I have to say I always thought it was Waltz. Now I've seen the film I've been trying to track down what info was leaked in those hacks at Sony. Sony people at one point made a suggestion that C become Blofeld and possibly then have Waltz play C.
TWINE - loved it as an impressionable 13 year old, was disappointed first time after seeing it in the cinema.
DAD - Appalled, what are they doing?
CR - Exhilarated, why can't the next Bond film come out now!?
QoS - Okay, that was ok, but quite disappointing
SF - Underwhelmed overall, but Craig was brilliant and Bond's past, wow!
SP - Big grin on my face, disappointing that there wasn't a better more believable connection with Bond and Swann, but hey this makes me want to watch all the Bond films again and read all the novels again!
It's a good thing because it's definingly Bond.
again this afternoon.