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Tomorrow I'll see it for the fourth time. I'm like an addict out of drugs. I tremble, I sweat, I have a queasy feeling.
It has been a whopping 50 hours since I've seen it last.
After 3 viewings I swear I could recite about half of the dialogue in Spectre, every word is a direct hit, every scene is already a classic.
The PTS left me breathless, the main titles brought tears to my eyes, Rome is so utterly romantic, tense, gripping and the spectacular and funny.
Austria is OHMSS meets GoldenEye which is like a 30 minute orgasm.
The train sequence is so FRWL that I'm speechless of joy.
The desert and the lair in the crater is mysterious, utopian, fascinating.
Waltz's every move and word and accentuation is simply irresistible and genius.
Oberhauser forcing Swann to see/hear her father's suicide is so dark and evil.
The torture scene is unparalleled in the franchise, Blofeld is deliciously insane.
The end-game in London is such a perfect contrast to the lair in the crater.
I could watch this backwards it's so fabulous.
Not to mention how beautiful everything and everybody looks in Spectre.
Even the score works for the most part. Spectre is that good that even Newman couldn't damage the movie.
Damn, still 17 hours to go until I see it again.
Hmm so after a positive review from Rolling Stone for SP just the other week now they're also putting the boot in.
They didn't kill Bond. Bond isn't dead.
Biggest LOL of the day! =D>
After months if hearing arguing and insults and outright pointless mean negativity your positive posts are oh so welcome.
=D>
"And by teasing a broader mythology for no other reason than because they had to, the folks responsible for maintaining 007's legacy have now retroactively tainted the best run of Bond movies since Sean Connery's heyday."
Sadly, that may be the overall impression left on many viewers who are not die hard fans, since even many die hards on this very site (myself included) have some feelings on this. A pity, especially when it was an entirely unnecessary plot contrivance.
I'll tell you DIE ANOTHER DAY is my LEAST favorite Bond film, for so many obvious reasons, but I'll tell you this. I STILL LOVE IT. After watching SPECTRE the first time, I admit, I missed a lot of details that turn out to be HUGE. Does SPECTRE miss a few things, yes, of course it does. From the BIG...like the third act to the small , like Bond racking the slide on the Walther when it should already be loaded, Q joking about his work, the music for 009, and countless other annoyances that truly get you as a Bond fan.
The BOTTOM LINE... I came to the film with the wrong expectations. Now that I've seen it 5 times. I absolutely love the things they got right, and just like Bond says, It's a matter of perspective!! Think back across 50 years. There's plenty of little screw ups, missing details, and rather lame parts of lots of the films...maybe folks forget the Tarzan yell, the awful CGI wave of DAD, way too many satellites and diamonds, etc.. I think us true Bond fans just get over it, and love every film. We do have to wait years for each one.... no sense in hating them. The cinematography and scenery alone in this film take you to a special place and every part of the film that takes you back in time to another Bond moment that made some of us fans to begin with is truly touching.
Everything up to the third act (with exception to Batista's "SHOOT") was truly remarkable. After that, yeah.. fire the writers, but love BOND and love SPECTRE!
Yep, it could have been much, much worse. The moment I saw the telescopes in Blofeld's lair... I thought.. Oh God, not another satellite.lol
This makes sense. I think Eon handled this very well. One didn't need leaks to figure out that Waltz would be cast as Blofeld, especially given the title of the film. Eon had their reasons for playing coy. As @RC7 explains it promoted discussion.
Even the more careful among us, didn't want to jump to conclusions and there was much discussion on these boards as to "is he or isnt he". Personally, there was no doubt in my mind, what was going on, so I didn't indulge those discussions, but still the matter made for much lively discussion.
Also I notice that the Dec leaked script underwent radical revision regarding the Morocco reveal scene.. The Dec draft involved much more chit-chat between the two about their shared past.
I'm thinking Eon picked up on fan backlash about this childhood connection even existing, never mind being overplayed, and toned it down accordingly, with a major revision of the reveal. In the final product, Bond does not indulge discussion of their shared past, such as it is. He's about the mission, ie destroying Franz.
The history remains, but the story tellers have downplayed interplay between the two regarding the matter. Again, the background is much more interesting to Ernst than it is to James. The young Franz was apparently and understandably, a person of little interest to the young James.
Eon has focused on a more creative fan-friendly exposition of the Blofeld reveal. ie the presence of the cat, which was not included in the Dec draft. There was no mention of the trademark Nehru-like jacket either in the Dec draft. We didn't catch wind of this outfit until the trailers came out and we got our first look at the obvious Ernst.
This is an interesting article. Well penned. Interesting observations, but I can't agree with the conclusions it's trying to sell. Nothing has gone amiss. The series will continue to roll along unabated. SP may not be as huge a hit as SF, just as it took 19 more films to finally top the inflation adjusted TB box-office, it might be a while before SF's totals are matched again.
What the author is going on about doesn't matter IMO. Eon knew exactly what it was doing. The Blofeld reveal was for the fans, designed to drum up interest. It wasn't supposed to be a surprise and didn't need to be. Eon was simply trying to drum up interest regarding the return of Blofled. For fans this is a big deal, and even the less hardcore Bond fans are aware of the big-bad with the cat, and many also do know his name.
The films are very much alive on blu-ray, dvd and other formats. Bond compilation sets are big sellers.
Bond knowledge is not some obscurity among the filmgoing public. People know who the main players are and the various tropes.
I mentioned at work this weekend that I had seen SP. This mention prompted a surprisingly knowledgable discussion regarding the series among three co-workers, all trying to outdue each other with their opinions and knowledge. I did not participate other than with little chirps here and there, as I wanted to see where these guys could take the discussion on their own.
They were able to get into past Blofeld films. They were conversant with names such as Lazenby, at least one of them was, and the other two at least knew who he was talking about. The name Dalton came up along with the usual suspects.
The so-called casual moviegoer is not as Bond-stupid as some of us like to think. They just aren't as invested in the minutiae and the overall scene as we are, but they do have understanding of the series, just as I have passable knowledge of the Marvel universe and Star Trek etc even if I am not part of those dedicated fan bases.
And generally what bugs the hardcore Marvel and Trek fan bases might also bug me. I just don't care to invest time in kicking it around.
So if the hardcore fan base doesn't like something, its usually an indication that something is off, which will also resonate with the more casual fanbase.
Bottom line, both hardcore and so-called casual, are fan bases. The hardcore are just a more vocal subgroup of the broader base.
Any good business listens to it core customer base, ie the ones that make noise, and adjusts accordingly, so I don't find the distinction between hardcore and casual fanbase to be that profound.
The common element is fanbase. People only have so much time and money to invest in movies, so all regular Bond filmgoers are fanbase.
There are plenty of moviegoers that have no interest in Bond or the broader action-spy genre at all.
;))
I think Mendes said this movie was supposed to stick to the old Bond formula, and, well, he didn't lie. We are back to the bells and whistles, and the lame but hilarious trademark, very much Moore era-like slapstick from the Brosnan era is back, as are the gadgets and the associated concept ot the Chekhov Gun; we have a ton of nods to earlier movies, the best Bond soundtrack in years (with the worst song), FX by ILM (first time in a Bond movie. I dunno if Apogee was associated to ILM) and a histerical set of villains.
It's like they wanted to go back to DAD and its fandom nods and fix its many flaws to offer an unoriginal yet unbashed blockbuster with the sole purpose of make ends meet and maybe (just maybe) finish the Quantum arc for good.
On the negative side, another classic Bond trope: Deus Ex Machinae are back, this time in the form of a convenient random plane (that, or I miss something). And there is Mrs. Bellucci... I expected something more than a glorified cameo from her. With 50 years she has way more sex-appeal than Léa Seidoux.
Yes, CR and SF are better movies, but this one is a serious contestant as the funniest Bond romp of the Craig era. At the moment, this ranks high to middle position in my Bond ranking.
Edit: Awfully sorry to ask, but... Is this the right thread?
That Rolling Stone article is very well written and quite interesting but again, nothing is amiss. Its just analysis that's open to varied conclusions.
Nothing IMO is tainted. I'd say the opposite is true. Eon has deftly found a way to bring back the legacy of Blofeld and Spectre with a new backstory etc.
SP I think is a new beginning, and as I said earlier it's existence was broadly hinted at in both CR and QoS. I'd even go so far as to say, that Eon was allowing that they might be able to bring Spectre into the mix at some point.
SF put those plans on hold, and there has been some, after the fact retconning to make all three previous films fit with the fresh SP continuity, but IMO it does all fit.
Even looking back to the '60's, Blofeld and/or Spectre featured in 6 of the first 7 films, but for the GF interlude, but I like to think that even in that original film continuity, that Spectre had some understanding of what Auric and his grandiose criminal enterprising was up to. GF was not a Spectre tentacle, but surely he was on their radar, and might at some point have had to reconcile with Ernst as we learn Silva had to do in the new continuity, even if he had his own independent designs and ambitions.
Once the title was called "SPECTRE" everyone and their mother knew Blofeld would be in the film
Yes, and yet still we discussed it, as did much of the world's media and chatteratti (made that word up)
If I'm Eon, I'm thinking mission accomplished, and I can honestly say, as a huge fan of the Spectre mythos and the original Eon continuity I was overjoyed at first mention of the cat, which I read about on these boards, in the first missives from those who had seen the film in UK. And when cat first appeared on screen, I think I might have bounced in my seat. When we got the close-up of its face, in the second cat shot, I had immediate flashbacks to Ernst and pussies of yore.
New cat I'm sure shares same bloodlines with the original Blofeld felines.
That's why the Screencrush writeup does not resonate at with me, other than as article of interest. I love the way Eon has engineered the return of Ernst.
Its irrelevant that re-boot Bond has no understanding of the significance of cat or the ESB name. Doesn't matter. Eon is servicing the fanbase as well they should.
Much appreciated. The whole thing with the scar is great too. I love that Bond will forever be credited with the bequeathing of it.
I just hope they can find some good writers to really milk the Bond vs Blofeld and Spectre dynamic going forward.
Personally, I am good with Purvis and Wade. They know the series. They are not going to do anything crazy. They don't have an agenda to do anything radical.
Unlike say Logan who was going to make Mallory, our new Bernard Lee like M, a traitor and have the erstwhile Tanner, suddenly lose his mind and commit suicide.
Fortunately the Logan madness was reigned in.
Good one!! and btw I'm glad you are also reveling in the new film. I have been waiting a long time for a Bond movie I could really latch on to.
I do like that others though are critically breaking it down. That's what we do.
There are also fans on this board, that don't think DAF ranks as one of the best Bonds of all time too. Imagine. :P
I saw SP 3 times since it came out last Friday, so that should suggest I really dig it. Is it perfect? No, there are definitely some things I could have done without and some things I could have liked more of (like Monica Bellucci), but I have to say I really, really like SP a lot. The first viewing was so peculiar because I don't think I was ready for a Craig Bond film that tried to fit the mould of a classic Bond film.
I liked it on Saturday, I really did, but there was a part of me that was somewhat confused. Was this the Bond I had wanted? I guess I was so accustomed to the Craig films playing the game a little differently that the classic Bond vibe actually caught me off guard. With the second viewing, I just let the film be what it wanted to be and liked a lot more. By the 3rd viewing i simply wanted to live the film alongside Bond.
So, I'm definitely in the pro Spectre camp, quite resoundingly so in fact!
I speak French and found your discovery quite interesting. Kind of gives the French version of SP a different slant, does it not?
Dude, the ONLY thing that drives ME nuts is that I can't own the Blu Ray of SPECTRE for some months! ~X(
Here here... My sentiments exactly.
I agree 100%
Personally I find that sensory overload. I plan to spread around my 10 or so threatre viewings.
But good work on your part, and save those tickets. Cherished keepsakes.
I still only have one viewing, but I hope to get in two more this week, and then at least once a week until it leaves. I am aiming for 10 total.
re sensory overload, as a kid my pals and I used to spend entire afternoons in theatre watching Bond double bills until our mommies made us come home, so yes go nuts!