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Comments
It's the stance du jour to have a pop at Bond.
I'm willing to voice my criticisms where I see fit. EON and Bond don't get a pass from me just because I've been a fan since childhood. They were putting out a substandard product as far as I was concerned in the late 90's / early 00's (especially in comparison to what I expected from them) and I called it as such then.
I am expecting a more integrated and better thought out effort for the next film, and I'm confident they will give us something to rival CR for Craig's sendoff, whether they continue this plot line or not.
Maybe. I was not a fan of Mendes (American Beauty is the most overrated movie to win an Oscar with Titanic imo) but was actually surprised on how well he turned out. I don't see Mendes too much in his Bond movies.
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If RN is what we expect from Bond you can count me out. It's a really well executed film and I applaud Cruise's insistence on stunt work, plus his abilities as a producer, but Bond it is not. SP is rich with class and style in a way a MI never will be. [/quote]
OK, you're out ;)
Tom Cruise is arguably at his most stylish in this one, with the long hair and deep tan, but there's something almost 'music video' about the whole thing. John Woo takes it all to very artificial levels with his slow motion and white doves, and at some points it gets a little distracting. It's also very much a Cruise film compared to the others and he's more of a superman here than in the others as well.
Dougray Scott continues to annoy the heck out of me. What's with his continued frowning, brooding & looking like he's severely constipated throughout the film? I recall he was mentioned for Bond around this time, & based on this performance, I was sincerely hoping that was a sick joke. I remember wanting Pierce to stay instead, and that's saying something given the Bond installment around this time was TWINE (my worst Bond ever).
Thandi Newton was much better this time. Her Nyah has some good interplay & chemistry with Hunt & her opening heist scene in Spain is very nicely done. I would like a jewel thief adversary for Bond in a future film, and I think they were thinking about this at one point, for Dalton's third.
Hans Zimmer's score is quite different from what he delivers today, but memorable. Like the film, it's stylized, & is reminiscent to some extent of Arnold's earlier work for Bond during Brosnan's run, so perhaps this was an 'in' sound at the time. I still prefer Elfman's work for MI1.
Overall a decent effort, but I still rank it last because it drags a lot in places. Best scene was when Ambrose kills his #2 Stamp while thinking he's Hunt - then they flash to Hunt making his escape with the antidote.
Overall MI ranking:
1. MI-RN
2. MI-GP (well ahead of the rest)
--
3. MI1 (great spy caper with some dated tech)
4. MI3 (Hoffmann delivers but it's a bit too emotional for me despite great action in parts)
5. MI2 (overstylized but distinct - drags in places)
PS: great quote for the 'Cruise haters' from the film below delivered by Scott's character about impersonating Hunt which shows that he's not above poking fun at himself, even when at the top of his game:
"You know, that was the hardest part about having to portray you, grinning like an idiot every fifteen minutes."
Another quote that stood out because I found it surprising in a major motion picture:
"You know women mate. Like monkeys, they are - won't let go of one branch until they've got hold of the next."
I take you your not including CR as recent anymore then?
Since then, Bond has lacked a really stand out action sequence. Obviously the PTS with the helicopter in SP was good but, somehow, IMHO it lacked the wow factor of the Atlas scene. Perhaps because of the fast editing, you dont really get to take in what is happening. Its the simplicity and clarity of the Atlas scene than makes it great for me,
Yes, the crane action sequence in CR was very well done, and has a very high view count on You Tube, compared to other recent Bond action sequences.
Put it this way, if we say since 2006, then I would rather watch MI3, MI:GP or MI:RN than CR, QOS, or SF.
I liked the SF pretitles as well (apart from the CGI face replacement and watch insertion). Some of the distance shots of Craig on the bike in SF seemed real enough, because his 'face' was a small part of the shot. It's only the close up that looked 'off', similar to the ridiculous CGI closeup of Hinx's face during the SP chase when he's in the Jag on the embankment. Both unecessary imho.
I believe that some of Glen's brilliant aerial work on LTK, TLD & OP would still look great in a modern Bond film today, with a few modernizing directorial touches. They almost pulled it off in TDKR's opener, which was incredible except for Bane's voice which was too dialed up. So even if Craig is not willing or able to do what Cruise does (and who could blame him), there is still a way to make an action sequence enticing & engaging with live stuntmen, aerial work & proper direction. MI, CR, & TDKR have shown that recently. Even TDK's truck flip & helicopter chase was superb and done for real.
There's no substitute for real stuntmen (or actors, in the case of Cruise) yet. CGI doesn't quite cut it. To this day I'm blown away by the almost 40 yr old MR pretitles sequence.
I'll be sure to check it out the next time I see it. Hopefully I forget by that time, because that's sure to take me out of the experience if it's as bad as you all say.
I watched SP three times, and even after I had read some comment concerning this scene I wasn´t drawn towards Hinx´ face that much in that moment.
On the other hand, I hear only praise about SP´s pts helicopter fight, while there I found the constant switch between live helicopter wide shots and green screen close-ups much more jarring than any fight scene of, say, the Moore era, where it doesn´t even bother me that sometimes I can easily discern the stuntmen.
I just wish they would dial back their ambition and keep the sequence as real as possible, even if it's less ornate.
The QoS pretitles car chase comes to mind as an excellent sequence that didn't have any apparent CGI, but which still was very intense and grand.
Agreed on the PTS for QoS: intense, loud, brutal, realistic. That's what I loved throughout CR, and that's what I loved in QoS (minus the free-fall scene, of course). Once we got to SF (which, to me, has such dodgy CG at times - the komodo dragons, Craig's face in the PTS, Bond falling off the train tracks, the helicopters, Patrice's fall - and then other times, it excels, like the MI-6 explosion) and SP (the PTS helicopter work, the final deaths of Marco, Hinx, and C, more CG animals, the MI-6 destruction), I was rather upset at the over-usage of CG when it wasn't utilized this much in the former two films. I hope with a budget reduction, they keep the CG to a minimum and make it all look raw and realistic once again.