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Comments
Rubbish.
The shot of Bond flying into the window is identical to Bourne.
It worked better in the Bourne gritty and almost documentary style haphazard environment, but it didn't fit properly in the glamorous Bondian landscape. A more restrained, less frenzied and wide angle approach would have suited the film's palette better imho.
My issue with QOS is more that it seems to have problems fitting some pretty heavy subjects into too short a running time and around several gratuitous action scenes.
We get a taste of a lot of things (Quantum's influence over the government, Ms uncertainty over Bond, Camile's backstory, the people of Bolivia suffering and Bond's quest to find out the truth regarding Vesper) but the film struggles to give each of these proper attention.
I agree. If there was ticking time bomb sensibility to the plot I could understand the brevity of it, but the only reason it speeds along is because Forster 'just decided' it would. It seems like counter-intuitive thing to do.
This was all done before (and far better in my view) in the benchmark The Bourne Supremacy, which was the film which introduced us to shaky cam. That movie was also primarily about finding peace for the loss of a loved one and coming to terms with one's profession.
I honestly don't have a problem with the way Quantum was handled in QoS. They really should have expanded on it better in SP and tried to continue that ominous feeling of 'people everywhere' with 'fingers in many pies' which the earlier film nicely set up in a more realistic & mature way. I'm afraid they botched it, at least imho.
Only if they make the right cuts.
Of course, it's a hard thing to do though.
Yeah editing can determine the whole story of a film, how the film looks, how it is perceived
QoS is indeed jarring. It doesn't bother me too much except in one scene: the plane. Here, Bond and Camille are staring to connect. There is a nice moment, where Bond jokes about M thinking she's his mother. It seems to be leading somewhere, in which these characters may find a deeper connection, about the cases they are working the lives/lies they are living. And then: BAM, here comes a jet fighter attack.
:-/
That whole scene is trite filler. I mean, I know we've had quite a bit of that over the years, but it's just boring and linear. If you're getting us from A to B at least make it enjoyable, even if it's bat shit. I truly believe it's only in there to satisfy Forster's 'elements' guff. An exposition scene that ended with them discovering the reservoir would have been more welcome imo.
To start with, I'm not keen on some of the dialogue, which is very un-Fleming -
“That all sounds marvellous,”......“That all sounds lovely.” This doesn't sound like Bond to me. It's not the kind of things he would say, particularly in the books. Very unimaginative. It doesn't bode well for Bond 25 if P&W are responsible for lines like these.
The film now feels like it drags in parts, the same way SF does now for me too. CR is of similar length, yet it flows at a decent pace. Campbell is far better at directing Bond than Mendes.
The car chase now feels more like an episode of Top Gear, showcasing a race between the shiny new Jaguar v the shiny new Aston Martin. This doesn't have a gritty realistic feel to it at all. The QoS Aston car chase is far superior, and Bourne do car chases much better too.
The ending feels tacked on, and as much as I like seeing London in a Bond film, too much of a good thing can leave you wanting less, and I definitely feel like this by the end of SP. Mendes has exhausted the London locations to death, making it look more like they had ran out of travelling budget to film abroad.
The personal touch. Bond's past. I really don't want to know or care about Bond's past, and I certainly don't want to see something that has nothing to do with Fleming - Bond and Blofeld being brothers. This is borderline unforgivable.
The Aston Martin DB5, and other homages to the past. Drop them. There is no need for them. Again, Mendes has flogged this to death.
Bond doesn't bleed anymore. In SF and SP, where is the sight of Bond bloodied and dirty, like we saw in CR (and to a lesser extent QoS)? Bond suffers traumatic torture in SP and is right as rain again 2 seconds later. The realism angle that Campbell so boldly started in CR is now completely vanished by the time Bond is freed from his Colonel Sun dentist chair in SP.
The one redeeming moment for me now in SP is the train fight scene with Hinx, which pretty much harks back to the harder edged Bond of CR and QoS. Unfortunately these scenes are few and far between in the Mendes films, preferring artistic light and pretentious angles over sheer blood and brutality.
Well said. The dialogue you mentioned goes back to emphasising points I've made about Mendes' vision for Bond being artificial. "That's all sounds lovely" etc just comes off as someone trying to sound like Bond but failing spectacularly. Its so cringe. Meanwhile EoN in all likelihood will somehow end up getting Mendes back to direct again.
It's high time they bring back the fundamental enjoyability factor to these films. I watched TB last night and I got more enjoyment from Connery pausing to pick off a grape and eating it before exiting the room at Shrublands.
Lines like "For England, Alec!", now thats cringeworthy dialogue!
QoS is a decent Bond film. But it's disappointing in the wake of the near perfect CR.
"It all sounds marvelous/lovely" is chump change compared to "Pump her for information," getting "the trust of it," how "Christmas only comes once a year" ... Or, my favorite: "Revenge is not hard to fathom for a man who believes in nothing." What?? If he believes in nothing, wouldn't revenge be hard for him to fathom??
Would Fleming's Bond have even said "keeping the British end up" - or, worse, be known for keeping his "tip up"?
They're finally taking this stuff seriously again and suddenly everyone is a Fleming purist. You must be joking.
I'll agree that the 'marvelous/lovely' was awful and seemed like something a novice trying to emulate Bond would say. I won't comment on the genius of the Brosnan years.