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And now......we can watch SP in a much more different light. Bbecause this film is now not Craig's closure.
"I just want to go out on a high note, and I can't wait."
clearly implying that SP was not a high note?
If CR had been his 4th movie, and he was coming back for one more, he'd still say he wanted to go out on a high.
I'd be a bit odd if he didn't want to go out on a high, right? He's hardly going to want to do a DAD now is he?
Yup; I already see the film differently. And honestly probably better, since it wasn't the ending I 100% wanted.
This says it all for me.
I've always been a fan, but I struggled to put my thoughts down coherently. I'm enamored by Spectre, in no small part from the performances by ol' Danny boy and the delectable Lea. With Spectre I still find that I'm enjoying too much, to really dissect it. Hence why I rarely write about it.
Which is a "mistake" I made with Skyfall; there was so much - especially in its first half - Flemingequse martial to examine, it couldn't be helped.
I'm not exaggerating when I say, when I first watched Spectre, it was threatening to be my top Bond film (sacrilege if you know how much I love FRWL!) - it was just what I waiting for from Craig - true to modern sensibilities, but with a wonderfully retro, glamours vibe. That was true until the film reached Blofeld's lair and the lackluster finale.
Both Thunderball and Spectre have their problems, but they are lifted up by the performances of Connery and Craig, so I'm more willing to overlook said problems.
Or 'A View to a Kill'. People forget those years. I haven't!
I also prefer comparing SP a lot with TB these days. Both films are truly Bond-ian. Both films have a wonderful cocktail of locations. Both films are, from a production (design) point of view, massively joyous and big and bold. Both films have some massive flaws near the end of it, but they are helped again by perhaps the most fun and joyous outings from both Bond actors.
I agree, @royale65. I think SP may be the most vintage modern Bond we have, with imagery that recalls the 50s and 60s in mood and feeling. It almost feels like another time, and that visual life is a great one for a movie that uses memories of the past as one of its foremost themes. The imagery of Bond being a messenger of death, the operatic photography and texture of it all gives it a great feeling throughout so much of it, in addition to eeriness and some bizarre.
So much of my enjoyment outside of the character work and particularly the stuff with Madeleine and White is how the movie feels ripped from a missing Fleming story during the beginning as Bond takes on the disguise of a killer and seduces the man's wife when he realizes he's never pleased her properly. Those first 40 minutes or so are something I could see reading in a Bond short story, and the rest has the Bond flourishes one expects while giving the usual Craig spin to it. I also seem to be one of the few people who don't mind the finale, as I like Bond returning home and enjoy the imagery and feeling of it all.
I have issues with it as I do every Bond film, but to use a music metaphor, when you buy an album and don't like two tracks on it you don't throw it in the bin, you listen to the other fifteen that you love and focus on those songs as the tunes that draw you in. In this case SP has some high class tracks, and I look forward to listening to them more and more as time goes on.
SP is in fact still the most vintage modern Bond, since we got Spectre and Blofeld back, and there are also sillier moments sprinkled into the film (some of which work and don't work IMO, just like older Bond films). It's got to be the most mixed Bond experience for me, since it has a lot I love and also a lot I don't like. But yes, both TB and SP are the best fourth-entry Bond films. MR and DAD on the other hand are my bottom 2.
@Minion, I certainly wanted the crater stuff to last longer, as it feels a tad rushed there. I wanted Bond to feel the aftermath a bit more, or to have a bigger challenge fighting off the guards. Bond is known for being an expert shot and this Bond in particular is great at gunplay, but it felt a bit too much like when you play a video game and have "lock-on" selected as your aiming preference.
I quite enjoy the return to London, though. One thing the Mendes films did beautifully was making Bond the hero of London, and because we see him at home so much he is given the context of place and we know what he fights for every time he goes out. It was a beautiful and fitting end to see the British bulldog coming home to fight the villain again, and I thought the MI6 team was used well with Q and M in particular doing their part. The maze of Bond's past is bizarre and uneasy like I'd expect from a Fleming novel, and I love the feeling as Bond races to save Madeleine and how, instead of leaving before he knew Bond was dead, Blofeld stayed and watched Bond die (or so he thought).
At the end there's just a sense of triumph I feel with Bond as he walks away and chooses what he does, and that content is made more important by how much Dan has made me love the man through these films. It's a movie that is endlessly enhanced by those that came before so for someone like me who loves all the era's films and has spent so much time writing and thinking about them, SP has a lot to offer in callbacks and feeling because you can see how this one man has developed and become better over time from the reckless maverick we saw at the start of CR.
@FoxRox, I'll do an updated list when I revisit the Moore and Brosnan films, but it's been so long since I watched them that I don't think I'd accurately be able to order them at this stage. But an outsider should be able to see where my tastes line up, preferring movies that take themselves more seriously and that use Bond to tell interesting stories. DN, FRWL, TB and OHMSS from the old days and Craig's are a sweet spot for me, but I can enjoy the Dalton films immensely too. I look forward to seeing how my thoughts about the Moore and Brosnan era has changed when I get back to them, but that may be after I read all the Fleming books so that I can focus on one thing at a time.
A pretty fair comparison. Both are epic in scope for sure but their ambition writes cheques their execution cannot cash.
Objectively I suppose I'd say TB and SP tied and then MR with DAD bringing up the rear when it comes to the 4th film ranking.
But I'm afraid the reality is Rog at his peak and Cubby putting every single cent up on the screen means I simply can't hate MR even with pigeons, Dolly and space battles. Sheer rip roaring entertainment.
Roger Moore starts by being pushed out of a plane without a parachute and ends floating in space shagging a bird. The bit inbetween is called MR and it's bloody fantastic!!!! How anyone can not love MR is beyond me!
Sorry; MR ranks as my least favorite Bond film. There are still things I like about it (decent PTS, good fight scenes with Jaws, decent villain), but the second half generally is a train-wreck for me. I also think Moore does a better acting job in his other movies; he seemed to be at his most "autopilot" in MR. The whole Bond in space thing just doesn't work for me. I still bits about it though; I hate no Bond film.
@TheWizardOfIce, this must be how I sound when discussing SP, though I hope I'm a bit more impartial than that. ;) But that's the great thing about this fandom: we can take flawed films and find something to love about them despite those issues if we can find things about them that speak to us. We come at the movies differently in viewpoint and opinion, but get there by the same avenues of acceptance and ultimate enjoyment.
Though I must say you giving such effusive praise of something caught me off guard at first, as I feared your patent cynicism was peeling. ;)
MR is of course terrible when put up against a Citizen Kane or even a FRWL or an OHMSS.
But that kind of misses the point. I love MR and films like Con Air and The Rock just as much as The Lives Of Others and The Third Man. It would be very snobbish to say you can't enjoy such films.
Eating lobster and caviar every day would be dreadfully boring. There's nothing wrong with a nice fat burger from time to time.
I am not TB's greatest fan, but there is nothing in all of Sp that's half as good as any randomly taken minute in TB
I agree, @TheWizardOfIce. Every kind of movie has a place, especially the XXX ones.
Safe to say I appreciate this film!
Agree with most of this. SP is not one of my top entries but it's not bad.
Yes ending the film after the explosion (or soon after) would have improved it significantly. Returning to London again was utterly pointless.
I agree. As a piece of sheer popcorn cinema in an utter bloody masterpiece.
I really want to agree with this but can't. Don't get me wrong I'm not a film snob. The Rambo sequels are some of my favourite films. I'm probably one of the only fans on this site who genuinely enjoys watching DAD because of how fun it is. And when you put it on paper like that MR does sound brilliant.
But it just feels so bloated to me. I can't help comparing it to TSWLM which always feels so fresh and watchable and exciting, like everybody is firing on all cylinders to make a really fun blockbuster (a quote I read online somewhere that's stuck with me: "it never stops trying to please the audience, and never fails to").
Despite all the spectacle MR just feels a bit going like it's through the motions for me. Like how TND feels towards the end, but I prefer TND because up until Bond leaves Hamburg it's brilliant for the same reasons as TSWLM. MR one of those films I admire more than I enjoy. I appreciate how much money they spent on going all out but it's just a bit dull and bloated in comparison to TSWLM imo. It seems like they were desperately trying to recapture the magic of that film, not realising that what made TSWLM so good is that all they were trying to do was make a really good Bond film. If I'm in the mood for a Moore film it'll pretty much always be TSWLM or OP. Maybe LALD on occasion. But I have to properly force myself to watch MR (if I'm doing a marathon or something for example). I'd never just stick it on on a whim.