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Comments
Absolutely. A very fair outlook. I think it probably rings stronger this time than ever before because an already long gap between films was made even longer.
Did he have a bionic eye? Is that the one that Q was playing with? I thought Bond must've got that from Cuba.
I thought I understood this film much better than it actually turns out I did! :D
I think you're correct; I don't think the film explained very in-depth how Blofeld was getting his orders out of Belmarsh. You can hear his voice in Cuba and he's using the bionic eye (in Cuba) to see and speak it seems like (as that's how he's able to identify Bond being there).
I think M telling Nomi to scan everything, scan the man etc. is the story telling us that Blofeld has something on him / with him that he's using to communicate outside of the prison. I thought the bionic eye in Primo was a cool way for Blofeld to be communicating with the outside world, and personally didn't feel I need much explanation for it.
I agree. And now I understand why Craig didn't say "We have all the time in the world" at the end of SP. It would have been way too foreboding. It was to give Craig the opportunity to exit, gracefully and definitively, after SP if he wanted.
Eon and the creative team are to be commended for this: NTTD ended on a very brave note. Unlike, say, the last Nolan Batman which tried to eat its cake and have it too.
I know some diehard Batman fans that were upset at the ending of TDKR; Batman would more likely sacrifice himself for Gotham City, certainly not just leave it and live peacefully somewhere else, so I agree with you here. I'm glad NTTD at least made a definitive choice with it's ending.
This interesting to me because I come at the movie from TSWLM. It starts and ends with Madeleine firstly her mother then at the end her child. However to make a Bond Film you need some signature moments. I felt Cary offered the rest of the movie as call backs and whereas Matera, Norway and the final moments were about James and Madeleine where his past (the action) intrudes, in Cuba without Madeleine you rely on the chemistry with Anna and the twist. Most of the action in Act 1 from the spear, the plane, the under water scene, the inflatable dingy were call backs to No/Cr/YOLT. The action was homage and echoes rather than trying to compete with those other actions movies.
I understand why people would say they were underpowered because they were mere homage rather than cutting edge.
Blofeld and Primo BOTH have bionic eyes. Think of them like two smartphones that are constantly on a Facetime call with one another.
Yeah that makes sense, I never twigged it while watching the film.
They could have done a bit more with that- like you know how at the end of Rogue Nation Simon Pegg talks to Cruise as if he's the villain, and then we work out that he's repeating what the villain is saying in his ear? (Ripped off from Sherlock!) Primo could have talked to Bond more as if he's Blofeld- imagine if he'd called Bond a cuckoo or something. Bond would have been confused and then it would have become clear- he's Blofeld's proxy.
It might even have been more interesting if he stayed loyal to Blofeld and turned against Safin at the end.
I agree completely about Mallory (I hate it when they muck about with characters like this for the sake of the plot). As well as his principled dialogue in the previous films, he's supposed to have been a Lieutenant Colonel in the SAS and I really can't see him running a black laboratory, somehow. I also didn't think the 'MI6 didn't know about Blofeld' thing was remotely realistic - I mean, I know this is a Bond film, but credibility has to have a limit even there. I should think the next few films could focus entirely on the Parliamentary enquiry as to why the head of MI6 has been running a secret bioweapons programme in the middle of London, allows a criminal mastermind to direct its release from his cell, and then blows up an island in someone else's territory with the help of the Royal Navy. I should think that will merit a question in the House at the very least....
But I like the portraits and as the New Yorker remarked, "“Q, hack into Blofeld’s bionic eye”—a strong candidate for the most Bond-tastic line ever spoken. (Top marks to Fiennes for saying it with a straight face.)"
Bond is standing on a platform above the silo doors. Remember, these are smart bombs that are being launched, and they can hit their target with precision and with little destruction outside their target. The target is actually below. A couple of things to remember: according to Q, the concrete and steel of this facility would withstand the impact of the missiles (They'd just bounce off). So the platform on which Bond is standing might not get destroyed from below. In fact, the destruction will be inside and not outside. Instead, what Bond faced was large blowback of dust, wind, and a fireball--likely enough to kill him. But depending on how close he was, he could have been blown back off the platform; a helluva an impact, but if he survived the fall from the bridge in SF, he could survive that.
Now, about the communications. Bond's "vitals" went dead right after the explosion. That would seem to make this case-closed. However, his watch was capable of disrupting that signal to Q, and upon the force of the explosion, the watch easily could have been activated, killing the telecommunications. Probable? No. Possible? Yes.
So I thought long and hard about this. There were lines in both SF and SP that suggest some of this odd duality between life and death and existential choices:
Again, I am not at all saying that Bond survived. But there have been enough clues in these films to suggest that life and death are not what they seem at all.
My biggest gripe with the film is the best bits end too abruptly, and the bits that aren't so good just seem to drag on.
Sometimes the drastic shift in tone, can feel so jarring it almost takes you out the film entirely
I could have taken a bit more Jamaica, certainly. Norway isn't really used in a very interesting way and doesn't have much personality in the film, which is a shame.
Interesting theory. I hope you are right, as this would significantly shift my opinion of the film if true.
There was also another clue that this may lead to the end of the YOLT novel, with Safin's island located between Japan and Russia, which is mentioned a couple of times I think. And we all know in the novel Bond sets sail off to Russia from Japan.
Maybe the Sparrows Tears chapter will be adapted after all in the next film, leading up to the brilliant opening of TMWTGG novel. Who knows.
To carry that on with an actor who will almost definitely be younger would be a big mistake, and would undo the chance EON has now to really refresh things for a more modern audience as well as the fans who've been tied to Craig's era for so long now.
I've also said this before but whether he died or not, Bond 26 would've always been a reboot - in my eyes anyway - because there was so much character and story that you just can't carry on while attempting to keep things fresh.
There are some of us on here who think that DAF actually picks up from YOLT, and that OHMSS therefore does not exist in that particular continuity.
So this might be the same principle, but done on a grander scale. Instead of a single film being pushed into a different continuity, it could be five films.
Yes I can see problems with this, but am floating it as an idea.
Not sure I agree, but I nevertheless have to compliment you on mulling this over so deeply. Very thought-provoking.
I was just thinking the exact same thing. I want to do another viewing of NTTD, but I can't just yet, even as a great film that it was. I know it's only a film character but actually seeing him die was quite striking for me. Heroic or not, to save his child, which was completely understandable. It's tough for me to even watch any Bond film at the moment.
They took that for Skyfall though I would say- it may feel a bit samey to do it again.
He's only talking about the actors level of personal charisma, not the quality of his characters master plan.
However I thought Sean Bean and Robert Carlisle were pretty good myself, but couldn't take Jonathan Pryce seriously
I agree LeChiffre is horribly under written, and feel Silva has enough to work with, but for me Mr White was a non-entity (again referring to the actor, not the character) about on the level of the bland villain in FYEO
We all see things slightly differently
Or how about...
After the explosion the multi talented nanobots collect his scattered molecules together and reassemble him in time for Bond 26, except they don't get the cosmetic aspects quite right and he ends up looking like Ryan Reynolds
Controversy, not the American Bond everyone in the UK has always feared might take over, but a Canadian Bond!
I don't know about hated but, yes, M's role in the development of Heracles jars with his character, actions and expressed beliefs/values in SP. Would've been less of a disconnect if M had been a dissenting voice that'd gone along with it only grudgingly and had spent a long time cursing himself for not standing his ground and that's why he'd turned to the grog. He knew better, but went along with the system he's part of, etc. Potential there to show a conflicted Mallory, struggling to reconcile his management role within an institution and his personal instincts. Mallory's ex-SAS, after all, not a career bureaucrat - he's had to force himself into that role and it's not always a comfortable fit. Fiennes could've conveyed all that really well.
I think Bond26 should be set at Hogwarts school of magic where Craig's soul can float around the building.
The last act of the movie, I swear he was cosplaying as Nathan Drake.
I do like Bond's outfits very much. I think he looks great. And no, I don't think that for every film.