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SF should have ended Craig's tenure. That would have been a nice 3 part trilogy. SF is probably Craig's best performance as Bond too (even though I prefer CR).
NTTD has to be his worst. SP gave us a more cinematic version (which was fairly ok), but in NTTD his performance is all over the shop. The standout terrible scene is the 2 hander with Blofeld, where Craig literally feels like he is suddenly playing a different character entirely.
I would go as far as saying that is the worst acted scene by any actor in the franchise (yes, even Lazenby wasn't that bad).
Another one was at the Norway forest scenes especially when Bond told Logan Ash that "I have a brother he's name is Felix Leiter", I didn't see Bond, it's Craig playing himself at that scene.
The London scenes was him playing Benoit Blanc particularly at his meeting with M at the office "and whoever stole your weapon used it to wipe out SPECTRE instead, now your weapon is on the run, and nobody seems to know who has it", and yes that Blofeld interrogation scene, where he's playing an entirely different character.
Then the third act was just him playing himself, it's just Craig himself in all of those scenes from Norway to Safin's island.
That's the bad thing ever happened to me while watching a Bond film when I said to myself, this is not Bond, this is Craig.
At least in SPECTRE, some of the scenes there had him acted more like in the books particularly the Austrian scenes when he's convincing Madeleine to join his side after saving her, those scenes in Tangiers and the scene in Morocco when they're waiting at the desert, and when he touched Madeleine's hand in the car on the way to Blofeld's base, I could easily see Fleming's Bond acting the way Craig did in those scenes.
Agreed about Lazenby, he acted like Bond in the majority of scenes in the movie, liked his performance that he's naive and he's natural.
Well, I would go as far as saying that some of Craig's acting in NTTD are more worst than Brosnan's pain face in TWINE.
This is where I am at. I paid to see it on the big screen, once. Not for one second, am I in any rush to see it again. Even QOS, I have watched a few times.
Spectre was probably my favourite version of Craig's Bond too, with the playfulness creeping in here and there. Bond is having fun quite a lot of the time in that one.
Nah it's a downer, I'd have hated it. They didn't even end CR on a note like that even though Bond's love had died; and NTTD ended with the vaguely positive, if wistful, Madeline & Mathilde scene.
I think that's absolute nonsense. And that scene has a line from Fleming in it so it's automatically good, isn't it? :P
I think he doesn't get Bond: there's a Bond flavour missing from the film which Mendes and Campbell completely understood.
On Craig's performance in NTTD, I hate to say it bit it is patchy in places. I remember when I saw the final trailer, I winced at the line "you can imagine why I've come back to play" it just felt like too soft a delivery and it reminded of Benoit Blanc.
That happens a few times in the film especially in the London sequence, that's part of my dislike of that section of the film. The M scene felt out of place and the Blofeld scene was terrible and in desperate need of another take.
I think it's only noticeable because out of all of his films differing quality, Craig's performance has not only been consistent but a highlight of each film. The only one part is in Spectre "no no turn it off, I said turn it off!", that felt too big in that moment. NTTD is riddled with tons of odd acting touches like that by everyone
I actually don't mind the idea that Bond went through a bit of a change after leaving the Service. Keep in mind, he's a man who spent his entire adult life being turned into a killer, went through numerous tragedies, and spent a good chunk of his life as a loner. It makes sense he'd no longer have to put that 'mask' he needed as a 00 agent - that cold, stoic attitude a man like that would need just to keep sane in that profession. Craig's Bond is certainly more sarcastic after the PTS which is an element I think worked (ie. 'M, darling!' and 'Who's the Book of Mormon?', 'Has this desk gotten bigger?'). It's a part of his Bond that's always been there, as seen in SP with the 'I think I'll call you C' line, but the fact that this Bond doesn't have to restrain himself as much due to not being in the Service and has more of these lines feels natural and in-character. I actually really enjoyed seeing Craig's Bond and Felix interact in the Jamaica scenes sipping beers together, laughing, telling stories, even doing each other's accents. It felt like these two were genuinely friends. This is where I think that change works best in NTTD. It even works to an extent when Bond tries to appeal to Safin at the end (the ropey dialogue doesn't help, but the idea of this older Bond, a man who has witnessed all kinds of horrific events in his life, trying to appeal to Safin in a 'this is morally wrong' way is interesting).
But yeah, the interrogation scene is awful, and I do think Craig's performance needed to be reigned in. It would have been cool to have seen him put up that 'mask' again to face Blofeld. The 'die Blofeld, die' is needlessly dramatic and forced too, and the fact that Bond goes from Benoit Blanc to an unhinged killer is strange. Still, it's a Direction/script decision. While Craig probably had a hand in it (I get the sense he took the attitude of 'I want to say more than three words at a time in this film') it's something that could have been ironed out in concept.
With CR he was an impulsive upstart. QOS, sort of expanded on that which I wasn’t a fan of. SF jumps ahead to him being a veteran trying to prove he’s still got the edge. SP is then Craig being 100% unadulterated Bond. Finally, NTTD shows the retired Bond. Something we only saw in our imaginations with other actors that their films never depicted.
Which is why I think a Brosnan return would be kind of redundant in a sense. We’ve already seen a retired Bond. Let’s get back to seeing him in his prime as 007 rather than bring back a 70 year old Brosnan just to appease his base.
I think Waltz is excellent here, which may elevate my feelings about Craig's side of it, but I really don't expect him to talk to Ernst the way he'd talk to Nomi or M or Felix. People are exaggerating a bit on the Knives Out comparison. It's really the one set of hand gestures that may remind one of that. (The one part I do find odd is how Bond mutters the word "die" before the famous YOLT reference. But if it's written that he has to say "die" under his breath, I know of no good way that could have been done.
It'd be nice to see a similar contrast from film to film with future Bond actors. Nothing too elaborate, just little differences which show how the previous film has affected our hero or where he is in comparison to the previous movie.
I'm not sure, Brosnan's character also changed from being cold towards women to caring for them.
Remember the interaction between him and Xenia and his playful attitudes to Natalya, to showing his soft side to Paris Carver and almost falling in love with Elektra.
I think it's there, there's a chance for his Bond to change but the inclusion of Christmas Jones and Die Another Day stopped him from evolving.
To be honest, I have no problem with the Blofeld interrogation that much, I find it a bit fun.
The scene where he really acted like Benoit Blanc was when he's talking to M in his office and blaming him about the Nanobots and his insistence to visit Blofeld in Belmarsh that's where he sounded like Benoit Blanc, there's the dialogue, I've posted earlier.
About Craig playing himself, it's in the Norway scenes, he's fine in the first half of the film, but when he reached Norway, that's where Craig himself replaced Bond.
Thanks for that. I'm in complete agreement with the writer.
QoS can be an enjoyable mess, I've watched it many times.
That said, I haven't watched a Craig Bond movie since November. The shine's been knocked off now we know it's all supposed to end.
I don t see it, either. There would have been much more "Umm...aaa...Um-um-um..."
As in "Look, I know we've had our differences, Blofeld." Or "Listen, the thing about relationships is that they are based on trust, Madeleine."
I'd say Connery and Moore both changed a fair amount: they weren't trying to depict a change in the character's inner life between films especially, but then neither was Dalton. Connery starts out playing Bond as a bit of a distant bastard in Dr No, then develops his main Bond persona after that, and then by DAF he's clearly decided to go for a more genial comedy performance, and it works very well. Meanwhile Moore goes from the harder-edged and occasionally cruel Bond of his two Hamilton films; to the ultra urbane laid-back superman of his Gilbert films; to the slightly warmer and at times more realistic and dramatic, uncle figure of his Glen films.
I think Dalton's performance probably varies less than those two do.
I've watched it again, I mean the way he spoke those lines particularly the "I have a brother, his name is Felix Leiter" line before he killed Logan Ash, his delivery of that line, the way he spoke it was not Bond, it's just Craig delivering that line.
And even some of his lines when he's talking to Safin about "second chance".
His delivery of lines was very much himself.
But maybe it's just me perhaps?
And a lot more 'effing and blinding'... ;)
Yeah, sorry if I gave you all confusion, maybe it's just me.
Yeah, I know what you mean. But I think Craig still sounds like Bond in NTTD. Only in some scenes, he doesn't sound or behave like the Bond we were introduced to. For example, him talking to Blofeld and waving his hand. We were introduced to a laconic Bond(like Bond is usually is, anyway)so for him to be loquacious in NTTD is quite distant.
Connery changed too. The Bond of Dr. No/FRWL is very different to the Bond of DAF or NSNA.
GF/TB are also different, as is YOLT.
I dunno, having seen Craig in interviews I've never really gotten the sense that him and his onscreen Bond are very similar really. Perhaps it's like when people say actors in certain roles are just playing themselves the longer they play the part... they're not, but usually it's a case of them heightening aspects of their performance that they themselves introduced to the character. With Craig it's even further removed because he's playing a version of his Bond that differs from his performance in other films. It's jarring and perhaps uneven, but for me it's not Craig, nor is it lazy or bad acting.
Somewhat true. The Bond of TB and YOLT is a terrible bore really.
I found the Blofeld scene the most jarring. Craig becomes very animated, slightly sarcastic but not in a Bondian way, the kind of words he is using (problem with the script), and overall it just felt Craig, rather than Bond.
I never had this feeling in any of the other Craig movies, yet it pops up frequently in NTTD.
Power to you if you feel that. I can't watch him in it, he comes off as so bored and stiff in many key moments for me. TB and YOLT aren't my favourite Bond films anyway, but Connery's performance is disappointing.