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Comments
It's a confused mess of a film. It's fatal flaw is linking it with the previous films and the 'brother aspect' that should have been scrapped at script stage.
The film makes little sense. Its obvious Blofeld wanted to meet Bond otherwise what's the point? So why is Hinx trying to kill him before Bond even knows what's going on? Hinx I assume works for Spectre after all.
It's a poor muddled script. The film has been dropping in my ratings with every watch.
The PTS is brilliant as is the train fight. Not much else excites.
Same here. Last time I didn't even finish watching it. Never happened to me before with a Bond film.
I wouldn't consider either sequence "brilliant," but they're definitely the highlights for me, past a couple of quick moments or shots in Rome.
Beyond that, it's merely large, lengthy sequences that drag or bore, punchlines or quips that are total cringe (a mixture of a piss poor script and lazy delivery) and horrible retconning. The absolute worst sin these films can commit is being boring, and as ridiculous or over the top as the likes of, say, AVTAK or DAD may get, they still manage to entertain and keep my interest.
The bad - oh sweet lord, everything else. Most of all, the awful, awful tour of Blofeld’s lair. So badly staged and directed. Stilted doesn’t even cover how the actors present in this scene. It’s like the director and writer were only on deck for the first two acts.
small side note - not joking about the funeral. It is actually the perfect way to introduce Blofeld. Menacing, moody, eerie all at once. Score is on point.
I also liked the assassination of the assassins, and the continued seduction of Widow Sciarra with the Life Insurance Man.
And also their post-coitus conversation-- Bond looks hot, Widow looks hot, Felix is mentioned (broadening the universe in a more organic way than the shoe-horning that the film attempts).
I know some on here didn’t like the seduction; I found it quite twisted. The discomfort I felt only added to the scene, for me.
I hate that scene where at the meeting they ask if there are any 'challengers' to the mission to terminate the Pale King. He's weak, diseased and close to death. He's hardly going to cause any problems so what's the big deal?
Like leaking every member of the organization? If SPECTRE wanted him dead, and they failed in some form in their attempt it's obvious they would send another one to terminate him instantly. Who knows how long is goin to live, and since he's still alive he'd represent a potential problem for the organization.
Yeah i suppose there's that, fair enough, but the 'challenger' bit in the meeting was needless, and only there to set up Mr Hinx as a formidable henchman.
I actually found the scene gratuitous and nasty.
In terms of scenes I thought came off quite well in SP, I'd say L'Americaine and the opening tracking shot before Craig takes off his mask. That's it. The rest I have quibbles with in some way, shape or form.
I do like the entire PTS. Then the meeting with M is disappointing with weak dialogue. When C turns up Craig just come across as an A grade a-hole.
I love the fight on the train. Its fast, brutal and really well edited. Shame it sits in such a mess of a film.
It's a shame, as without 'brothergate' and trying to tie Blofeld in to previous films there could be a great film in there somewhere.
Agreed on all fronts. Gunbarrel and PTS are the highlights.
The frustration stems for the film's first 115 minutes being really good. It's followed by a third act that is a mess...and based on the emails, what did we expect. The film was rushed into production before they had that third act. Equally frustrating is that the problems in that third act could have been easily fixed, if SM, DC, Babs, and Butterworth had used TSWLM as a model: the third acts are essentially very similar.
I had no problems with the cinematography, the score, or Mendes's general handling of the film, all of which have been bashed to exhaustion on this site...for no reason, really.
Quick thoughts:
PTS: Fantastic
Funeral scene and encounter with Lucia: Fantastic (Love Bond's little wave here)
Spectre meeting: Fantastic
Meeting with Mr White: Fantastic
Clinic scene: Fantastic (love two lines here: about cutting out the middle man and telling one of the guards: Stay!)
Morocco: Fantastic (even liked the mouse, and the finding of the hidden room)
Train fight: doubly fantastic
And then some of my favorite 10 seconds of Bond film ever: the "Writings on the Wall" instrumental, as the train makes its way through the desert, the sunset in the bg, and then the cut to Bond and Madeleine being dropped off....GREAT!!!!!)
But then the film starts to fall apart quickly, unfortunately.
The third act really needed to follow a simple formula: Bond goes after villain, who's holding Bond girl captive, in a place that is going about to blow up, but needs to get through henchman first. Then he kills henchman and villain and saves the girl.
Hinx needed to make a return at the very end. The helicopter fight should have been reserved for the two of them, over London, not Mexico City. They crash, with Blofeld's escaping (if they so desire). The final scene should NOT have been Bond letting Blofeld go, but racing against time to rescue Madeliene.
👏🏼👏🏼 100% agree with this assessment! Spectre is an overly bloated film, there’s way too much going on, and they devastatingly cocked up the third act. However, there’s several bits to love in there. Somewhere in that giant sh#tstorm there’s a great Bond film... and for that reason it sits in the middle of the pack for me.
I’m hoping in a hypothetical future scenario we can cut from the excellent train scene in Morocco straight into Bond 25 (and pretend that Blofeld lair/author of pain/MI6 blowup part doesn’t even exist). Optimistic I know.