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I loved Spectre but it lacked the energy and scale needed to be the end of this era. I wanted them to go balls out insane and over the top and they absolutely did that while still making it the most emotional entry yet and tying the era up so well.
It was so dramatic and shocking and subversive yet it felt the most classically Bond of the whole DC era, and it did that while looking and feeling like a very modern film, rather than leaning into a more retro and muted vibe like Spectre did.
Something always felt off to me about the end of Spectre. Sure, as usual Bond should drive off to to the sunset with the Bond girl. I could see Connery, Moore, Brosnan going down this route.
Craigs Bond doesn't really fit. He doesn't get the girl at the end, and when he defeats the villain - it's at a high and personal cost. NTTD ends with the greatest personal cost.
Cannot argue with you here - I guess I see his character as the core element of the formula, but whatever the semantics, we agree in principle.
This. It has been my biggest issue with Daniel Craig since he was picked. He was never an aspirational-fantasy figure like the other movie!Bonds were (even Moore, for all his campiness, pulled it off well... most of the time). I ended up rewatching a few Bonds post-NTTD as a palate cleanser and laughed out loud at the CR scene I had forgotten, where Bond gets mistaken for a parking valet. His petty revenge is funny, and the self-aware poke at his unpolished appearance and manner is much funnier, but the implication still rings true to me.
Do you mean Brosnan was the last sophisticated Bond, or the first less-sophisticated one? I see him as the former. It may be a generational thing, but my perfect Bond would be halfway between Dalton's and Brosnan's versions.
Out of curiosity, what are the things you liked best about the film? I kind of listed mine at the end, but it is interesting to compare different takes. The great thing I noticed about this forum is people exchanging views without descending into flame wars.
Yes because it's a bait and switch. It's all a deception. Eon agree to Craig's request to kill off Bond, to have the "epic conclusion" but they had no intention of really killing off Bond. Never heard of plot twists? Bond 26 is the plot twist - Bond survives the attack on Safin's Island.
Put it like this.... if you owned the Bond franchise and you genuinely believed you could fool the world's film going audience into thinking Bond is dead... when you never intended to kill him off... would you do it?
I reckon you might because it's something radical. Something different.
And just for the record, the 2018 Sun newspaper hinted at what I'm suggesting.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/7102013/danny-boyle-quit-james-bond-franchise-in-a-row-over-offing-the-super-spy-in-dramatic-finale-to-the-25th-film/amp/
There you go, it was rumoured in August 2018! A twist ending where Bond survives.
You're being fooled. James Bond is not dead. It was decided in 2018 to do a twist ending. The reboot will cause too much of a backlash so they'll go with Bond hasn't really died. How come I'm the only person mentioning this Sun quote?
It's telling you what Eon planned!!!!! What more evidence do you need!
The "Time Lord" theory rivals the "It's just a code name" stuff for lamest take on the franchise. So far, in sixty years, there had been two timelines, two continuities, one quite loose that would go from Connery to Brosnan (with the occasional retcon and recast to shave a few years off for the actors), and a much stricter one for the five Craig films. And a third timeline should be fun. In addition to getting back the rights for Blofeld and SPECTRE (and I hope that they won't botch them this time around), they have a much bigger sandbox to do something with the main character, now that Daniel Craig has expanded the range of what we accept from Bond.
I like it even more.
I noticed something: DC seems to channel previous Bond actors at various times of the film. In the car with Madeleine or back at M's office: Connery. At the bar with Felix: Dalton. On the boat, meeting Felix and Ash: Moore. I am sure GL and PB are in their somewhere, too.
What really struck me was how much the London scenes reminded me of 70s spy films, in terms of the lighting and camerawork--like Eight Bells Toll, Scorpio, Marathon Man, and the Eiger Sanction. CJF really did his homework.
Also, the first time I saw it, I missed little clues about Safin's character. I now think he's a little more developed than I had initially thought. The scene in Madeleine's office was exceptional, and I wish it had played out just a little more before he handed her the box.
Now...Dare I say it...this film is going to become a classic, perhaps one of the most well-regarded, most widely-discussed in franchise history. This does not mean it will be widely considered the best. But it will become one that sticks. And its send off for Daniel Craig is pitch perfect. It's unlike any Bond film that came before or any that will come after.
I'm not sure how anyone could view NTTD and much of the rest of DC's Bond films and think he's "just another" action hero. DC and EON made him real, which completely goes against characters like Bourne, Hunt, Agent 47, XXX, and many others.
It was like a darker version of the Lewis Gilbert Bond films. I was not expecting it to be like that at all.
I tell you what... will you say "sorry, bondywondy, you were right!"... if Bond 26 is a direct sequel to NTTD and we see Bond survive? Will you admit you were wrong and I was right?
I got a sneaky feeling you will be proven wrong. I'm my heart I don't believe Barbara Broccoli would kill off James Bond. She knows that is a step too far.
I admire your tenacity, and I want to believe DC’s Bond is alive more than anybody, but I saw zero ambiguity in that ending. Not only was he bleeding out (shot 3 times I think?), those missiles landed directly on him. He was standing right out in the open as well. They obliterated that Island.
I got a sneaky feeling you'll no longer be a member of these forums by the time Bond 26 comes out with the way you persist in antagonizing other users and insisting that anyone who disagrees with you isn't a real Bond fan. Not my call or anything, just a "sneaky feeling."
Craig will be missed as bond but his movies took a lot of risks that paid off in my opinion, the movies were less about escapism and more about the harsh realities of the world post 9/11 and I felt it all coming to an end capped an overall pretty great run of films, the only glaring failure in my eyes of Craig’s bond is SP. but that’s for another thread this is probably my 2nd favorite of the craig era and in my top 5 or 3 overall.
Oh yea and safin was seriously a waste.
Yeah, I was pretty concerned. However my fears were laid to rest once I saw how brilliant the finished product is.
The film genuinely moved me of many personal levels and really hit home. A brilliant Bond epic that in addition to being a little different, also provided what I'm looking for in a Bond epic. Great stuff!
Noticed this too. The bit in the M scene around the "imagine why I came back to play" line feels very Roger, right down to the way Craig plays with his eyes when delivering the line.
It does have some elements of the grandiosity and scope of Gilbert’s.
@AntCornfield … look at pics and videos of yourself from six years ago, then re-visit your comment.
Personally I saw in this film growth and correction (from Spectre), passion, poignancy, horror… a marvellous film for me, from start to finish
I first picked up Dalton, when Bond is with Felix at the bar. I totally heard TD, at the Barrelhead in LTK.
Yes. I’m calling Monday to get an appointment. That was sheer brutality. Never been that emotional leaving a theatre.
Ended on a high note? I couldn’t agree more.
Um....don’t think that’s what he’s referring to.
Craig was easily in top form for this film. He looked amazing in every shot & every outfit he wore. His personality really comes through. His wit, his dry humor, and his emotions. I loved his bantering with M, and his chummy relationship with Felix. Very powerful stuff! He was given some great lines to work with too. His relationship with Madeline was much more believable as well.
Rami Malek was awesome. His extremist ideologies were welcomed after 4 relatively reserved villainous plots. Easily made the stakes higher this time around which was refreshing to me, and made this conclusion all the more memorable. His encounter with Madeline in her office was very unsettling, and it made me feel uncomfortable seeing him show Matilde around his poison garden. Plus the scope of his plan is truly sinister, but it’s not too far fetched to imagine especially after living through a global pandemic.
The ending truly tugged at my heart strings. Regardless of Bond getting poisoned by the nanobots, I think it was game over for him seeing how he got shot twice (and was bleeding pretty heavily). Between Zimmer’s score (Final Ascent), and him & Madeline chatting over the radio, I felt my eyes welling up considerably. I think what really did me in was listening to the sadness in Craig’s voice when he says to Q “It’s alright, Q. It’s alright.” A beautifully handled ending in my own opinion. Still not completely happy about him getting killed off, but can totally understand why it concluded the way it did.
Craig’s era is self-contained which is something I think a lot of people forget. These past 5 movies form it’s own legendary story, and going forward there’s a completely blank slate. I just pray the next guy can fill the shoes that Craig did over the past 15 years.
Absolutely incredible!
The Gilbert Bond movies are escapist fun. They are known for gorgeous locations, huge sets, one-liners galore and a lot of action setpieces. The scripts use pretty much the same formula, but it didn't and doesn't matter. Bond blows the villain's lair up and gets the girl in the end. End of story. It wasn't the destination that mattered, but the journey getting there.
Maybe I need to watch NTTD a couple of more times and let it sink in, but I think the first hour certainly carries this "Gilbert-vibe", especially in shots where they use wide lenses.
I absolutely love everything about the Matera/Jamaica/Cuba scenes. It also reminded me of DAD, however, another Bond movie where everything goes south at the midway point.
In DAD Bond was given an invisible car and went to Iceland, in NTTD they gave him a daughter and went to Faroe Islands close by.
And yes, NTTD, like Gilbert's has a villain's lair with Ken Adam inspired sets by the end, but going full Gilbert would mean a monorail (!) and a battle between soldiers at the end! I actually miss those climaxes. The last time we saw that, was in TLD.