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Comments
Can just picture him with the long white hair as per OHMSS novel. Would even have probably chopped off his ear lobes and cut half his nostril away as he's such a perfectionist!
And the green lenses. It would be incredible.
"You forgot to mention that the trailer showed us 97.3% of both the car chase and plane crash so that when they finally arrived in the film your reaction was 'meh. I've already seen that. Show me something"
Exactly this is how I felt about most of the movie. I would have accepted the fault more if I didn't leave the cinema feeling like it was my second viewing.
RC7 you said "But once the dust settles we re watch the films (and that is what we do and why we're here) for the value of the performances, the visuals, the direction etc. All these elements seem fairly top notch to me. The Blofeld reveal to me is not appealing for it being a surprise, it is appealing because it's brilliantly written and performed and infinitely watchable"
Brilliantly written? seriously? its a disaster of a script. The fact that the film script is reliant upon the prior 3 films means that as stand alone film appearing on TV means nothing to those who have not seen the prior films, I took my wife to a second screening, shes not a die hard fan but she watches the films when there on TV, she had seen most of CR and Skyfall but she was asking "who is this", "what does that mean". It is therefore not a strong stand alone film. When we left the cinema she said "that was a rip off of Star Trek and the The Dark Knight. I had no defence to that.
But basically what you are saying RC7 is we should accept the manic mis-pace, unimaginative story, and underuse of some of the greatest actors/actresses of the last 10 years because it's filmed nicely and has some good stunts so we should all sing it's praises. I am dumbstruck. This film had a whopping budget and was so hyped, fans deserved better than a patchwork job. Even Mendes and Craig have both said they were rewriting the script even during filming.
John Logan was hired to write Skyfall and two futher films he had 3 years prior to the first production meeting to deliver a quality script. But after his failing with Skyfall when P&W were called in to inject some more Bond in to it, that deal changed and Spectre became a Logan & P&W effort from the start. But still it was then "not funny enough" so Butterworth is brought in and he got his sticky fingers on it. Very much a case of too many cooks spoiled the broth. Logan, P&W should not return. A good writer can and has produced magic on their own for many years, on this we have had 4 writers plus Craig and Mendes's input and is clear it disrupted the flow to accommodate everyone. If Logan can't deliver alone hire someone from the many talented other writers out there who can.
I'm beyond happy! :-bd
I said the Blofeld reveal is brilliantly written. I didn't say the whole film was brilliantly written, it's quite clearly stated in the quote of mine you used.
You don't have to accept anything. I can find a lot of positives in this movie. Perfect it is not, but I'm trying to offer a different perspective to those like yourself who are frothing at the mouth. Where have I asked people to sing it's praises? All I've said is take a breath and watch it with a different hat on. Try a beret and a doobie.
It won't detract from the disappointment, had the story and dialogue been as strong as CR with that cast and Dan's performance we could have been talking about the greatest ever Bond, rather than a discussion about whether watching again after the hype makes the film any better. I am a massive fan of Dan's tenure but I want to shake him and ask him what was he doing conceding to the nonsense he argued should be left out of it before agreeing to take on the role, I can only conclude that he is not taking it as seriously for "artistic merit" as he once was and has accepted Bond will be the pinnacle of his acting career and more comfortable with this now.
But like a lot of fans after Brosnan who lost faith, bought in to Dan's gritty Bond we joined the journey and bought in to his gritty, real Bond. We paid our hard earned cash to see CR, Stuck by it after the not so strong QOS and defended Skyfall to those old school fans who wanted gadgets, cars and boat chases who so heavily criticised it. But Spectre is like if Dalton had done Moonraker after TLD or LTK. IMO Dan should have stuck with his consistent interpretation from his first 3 films instead of the almost parody in Spectre.
You're painting a very b+w picture re. fans wanting the fantastical vs. the real world. SP strikes a balance for me and I think a lot of people can buy that.
You have a point. As I said, the change in tone in his performance is jarring for some, myself included. It was a good performance, but one more transition film in between would have been preferred.
PS: - I had mentioned the lack of emotional resonance with characters in SP. I forgot to mention the cinematography. That is one thing that I always felt that SF really delivered on. It was a stunningly beautiful film to behold, and that too (in addition to connection to characters) led many to forgive its flaws. In my mind Deakins is the unsung hero of SF. Van Hoytema, good though he may have been, did not deliver the same spectacle in SP for me. There was obvious CGI work in the pretitles, and despite his incredible 'framing' of nearly every shot, the monotonous colour palette detracted from the experience.
PS: I just watched the Mockingjay 1 on blu ray yesterday, and noticed the same kind of monotony in the colour palette. I also see this in some Marvel films. Usually it's the CGI loaded films. I think over time EON will regret this decision, because it will date SP and does take away from the superb shot framing.
Thanks for your comments, I agree. I think that Bond is heading towards that Superhero cinema universe to draw in $$$ that it's lost something along the way. I agree Deakins work on SF was incredible, Phil Méheux on CR was stunning at times as well especially the fly by shots of the train to Montenegro. But again Spectre is glossy and the gloss attempts to cover the cracks, just didn't convince me.
Bond 25 needs to go back to basics for me, step away from the attempts to replicate films like TDK and Star Trek ITD and Bourne. Ditch the origin stuff now. Bond, MP Flirt, M Mission, Investigate, Women, Villain, battle, victory credit. I do not want to see London for anymore than 5 minutes in Bond 25. I don't want Q, MP or M having anymore screen time than a few minutes, they should not be in the field or central to the plot.
I know it is doubtful as he is in his 70's but Martin Campbell is the only man alive who can redress the balance and salvage the mess after Spectre, Mark Gatiss is probably the best man to deliver a solid script. Most fans see this, surely EON can too. Time to move on from Mendes, Logan and P&W.
I loved SPECTRE not only for being a great Bond, but being such a great Bond that it makes the movies BEFORE it better! ^:)^
I would give a decent response if your comment had any foundation to it, Spectre is so far detached from Dan's prior films I don't see how my comments over Dalton and Moonraker are exaggerated. Ok Chrisisall Spectre makes Skyfall and Casino Royale better films, I think I will leave that for others to respond to. Ludicrous womble troll comment.
Apart from that annoying girl, I have to admit I rather like MR (a guilty pleasure).
But there were things I just didn't follow. For instance, why did Mr White need a secret room with a GPS thing (apparently left switched on all the time) when he could have used a hand-held GPS unit to locate Blofeld's lair? And I kept thinking Hinx would be back near the end, but he wasn't and that made his sudden demise rather a letdown.
As a two-fingered salute to Kevin McClory the film was great, right down to the Nehru collar and Persian cat! That, in itself was almost worth the price of admission. The poisonous old boil kept us from seeing Blofeld in Bond for decades, just because he was peeved with Eon. God's sakes.
There was also something about the way Blofeld was sitting smugly in his helicopter, ready for his private entertainment to start, that made me chuckle. I kind of liked that ending actually.
I just hope they avoid silly cliches next time. Blofeld and Bond as foster brothers. I saw that one coming the minute they showed us the scorched photo in the teaser trailer. Accompanied by the Bond theme on nursery chimes. Nah, I think SPECTRE needed better motivation than a sociopathic teenager's hatred for his dad. Someone above said Purvis and Wade need to go. Yes I think so too.
Thing is, now we not only have a Bond for every mood in the series, now we have a Bond for every mood just inside of Craig's tenure as well! :)>-
You know I almost thought they went this route deliberately, so that when they introduce the next Bond actor they can introduce him as gritty
Connery - Dr No - Gritty tenure got softer/silly
Moore in LALD 1st film Gritty tenure got softer/silly
Lazenby - No Comment
Dalton - TLD - Gritty
Brosnan - Goldeneye - Gritty tenure got softer/silly
Craig same path.
I wonder if it is a ploy to help with the first of a new actors films be more a of hit.
I love the tonal shifts.
For me what's important is whether it's a good or bad movie.
I love YOLT, and secretly quite enjoy MR, but can't stand DAD.
So I don't really care if the film is dark, light, OTT or 'serious' - I just want it to do whatever it's doing really well.
No the reaction was more like, "aww is that it, could they not have done more with this" Surprise yes, surprised by the lack of any creative way of hiding the identity, by the point he says he is Blofeld you already knew it couldn't be anyone else. And to be honest, he was aswell just being Oberhauser head of Spectre and they just did not bring back the ESB name it would have made no difference to the story.
Good comment, my problem is that there was a mass growing global audience who loved CR, though QOS was not bad, but not great, Thought skyfall was just a great spy thriller, who have seen Spectre and are now of the mind set, its back to the nonsense and don't bother buying a ticket the next time around.
For me it was SF that squandered the good work of CR and QOS though. Mendes is in a rush all the time. He brings in a new Q, M and MP in one film in SF. I'm surprised that anyone else was surprised by the rapidity with which he brought back Blofeld.
Subtlety and suspense are not Mendes's fortes. Not when it comes to Bond any way. He's a bit clunky in the storytelling department, although he's obviously not helped by weak writing.
I appreciate that, but you can' tell me that there wasn't a better way of how they went about it all. Don't you find it disturbing ESB and Bond are Foster brothers, I reckon that will have Fleming turning in his grave right about now. I am always of the mind set, its ok to modernise Bond, its ok to play on the characters past if it fits in with the roots Fleming created, but changing the origin of Blofeld and in turn Bond for little reward was a silly decision I hope they nip the idea and concept on the bud before it is something that is played on for Bond films not just in Dan's tenure but for future Bond films.
In the 60s we had three different actors playing Blofeld and little suggestion between the three films that it was he same character in anything other than name. Blofeld kills Bond's wife and then in the next film Bond treats him like he's just an annoyance.
Mendes has done his thing. As @thewizardofice said, Mendes has blown his wad in two movies, bringing back all the main MI6 characters and then Blofeld in this rush. No foreplay.
May be in the future (although it will have to be a while now) they can do that whole reintroduction thing again, but more slowly and enjoyably.
Are you actually speaking on behalf of the global audience?