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Comments
That's exactly what I want too.
If you look at the films from the 80's, there was quite a lot of Fleming material used in this way. FYEO, OP, TLD and LTK all followed this trend.
Really enjoyed the film. Loved the music and nod to OHMSS. (downloading the soundtrack now for a full listen)
Safin's nanomachine weapon reminded me of FoxDie from Metal Gear Solid. Hideo Kojima is way ahead of the pack.
Looking forward to the second viewing.
Indeed, it can certainly be done in a good way and I'd just love to see more of his locations, characters, names, etc. get brought to the screen eventually in some form or fashion.
Comparatively, these people were less vocal two years later on Rise of Skywalker, which is the real unredeemable film in the whole series.
I think the entire sequel trilogy is a bust as a whole, for whatever that's worth. Just feels like to me there's a lot more of a positive air around NTTD than when TLJ came out, but maybe it's like you say and it's the difference of how vocal and widespread the other fanbase is. The audience RT score of TLJ is rough.
Its probably why I am more angry and disappointed at NTTD than I should be. There was hints at YOLT in the final part of the movie, and I honestly believed they would go the whole way. This was finally the Shatterhand chapter adapted on screen, in all its glory, just as faithful as the adaptation of the CR novel.
It led me down a false path, so the ending came as a double blow for me.
To be fair though, the ending of CR is quite different in the film is well, from the actiony climax to the bit with White. I was rooting for the faithful YOLT ending as well and probably would have preferred it, but I think NTTD took a pretty large amount from the novel and made me very happy overall with how it was implemented.
Much of CR remains faithful to the novel though, just adapted to make it more cinematic. I really wish I could look positively on how NTTD ended, and I'm seriously jealous of all those who can.
Interesting, I thought his performance was quite well. Second best since Casino Royale. I loved the back and fourth at M. Bond was taking his crap.
I thought Craig probably gave his best performance since CR, and was the main highlight for me.
The only glaring moments were when he confronted Blofeld, which didn't feel like Bond anymore, but Craig suddenly wanting to do his thespian bits, and also the ending with Safin, when he kneels and starts saying `I'm sorry, I'm sorry.'
These didn't feel like the Bond character anymore. Much of Craig's performance as Bond I can still identify with the Fleming books, but these 2 moments suddenly took me out of the film.
He was on point in the PTS, but from then on it was a mixed bag; there were too many times where I felt him come out of character. Once I get the Blu-ray I can break it down
The audience RT scores can be manipulated, and they were, as people on 4chan and other places agreed to create multiple accounts there to make the score for this particular film sink faster. It's not an opinion poll, with some audience sample, like CinemaScore. The RT score favours people (and sock puppets) who want to express their opinion on their own volition. It tends to emphasize sharp takes on films, especially when they're part of a franchise with a strong fanbase. There's not the same feeling of tight online communities for Bond that there is for Star Wars, which may be why the RT score won't look as bad (and because RT introduced a few dispositions to prevent blatant manipulation after the TLJ episode), but I've already seen a lot of comments about the film in France that I tend to dismiss when there's a "woke" or a "Barbara Broccoli" in the first three lines.
1. Barbara will never do it. Too cliche.
2. Interesting but it will be difficult to make bridge filmic. Probably substitute another game.
3. No. Too gritty and too drab a locale for Bond, plus legal difficulties imposed by Fleming himself. (Not that Eon/Amazon couldn't *buy* the rights now...but if I were Fleming's estate, I'd charge a pretty penny.)
4. MR, DAF, and TMWTGG are the only two novels left largely unadapted, although DAF and TMWTGG are rather weak and not exactly crying out for adaptation. Perhaps TMWTGG swamp setting...but DAF is Bond getting the stuffing kicked out of him, etc. Not exactly inspired stuff.
I predict Bond 26 will be a fairly faithful adaptation of MR, as CR was for Craig's first, although perhaps not set in the UK (as SF is so recent) and with a different card game substituting for bridge.
And DAF. And TSWLM. And no, I don't think TMWTGG is rather weak. It's one of my favourite novels.
At its heart, NTTD is a story about Bond and Madeleine's relationship, with Safin as the main, antagonizing threat. In addition to this the film gives us another key character in Mathilde, a 2nd Bond girl of sorts, and obviously we have a 3rd Bond girl in Nomi. On top of that we have an alternative villain and his organization in Blofeld and Spectre as well as two henchmen; Primo and Ash. We have two allies, Leiter as the main one and Paloma as the second. Like everyone else I liked Paloma a lot, but in truth there was no need for both her and Felix in the script. If that wasn't enough already we also have an extra villain slash comic relief character in Valdo who gets a surprisingly large chunk of screentime as well as the MI6 regulars who, deservedly so, get a considerable ammount of attention.
So in total we are left with three Bond girls, two Villains, three henchmen (counting Valdo) and two allies. Even with almost three hours of film, these are just too many characters! And the result is that many of them are not fleshed out enough for my liking. I would have loved to see more of Paloma and Felix, but the film is in reality not big enough for both of them. I also wish Nomi, Safin and Ash had more screentime to make an even stronger impression. It is a shame as I think the casting is generaly terrific, and it is a testament to the overall quality of the acting and direction that most of the characters are still as memorable as they are. But it is a clear sign of too many rewrites and screenwriters involved, which unfortunately has been the norm in most of the modern Bond films.
I agree in a way, but instead of feeling him out of character, I took it as Bond as we've never seen him (a twice heartbroken, retired, wounded dog) having to deal with things he's never had to before - being replaced, trying to make a deal with his worst enemy, being conned into rejecting love, learning he is loved, having a daughter, discovering a family....etc. If he had played all these moments as the suave spy in Spectre or the blunt instrument in CR, I would have had a hard time believing him. Just a couple moments when he was talking to Safin did I wish Craig had made different acting choices.
What exactly was in the water/liquid that Waldo fell in to? Was this supposed to be where the nanobots were harvested?
Yeah, I tend to agree with this. I think pert of it is that Eon have been trying to stick to the multiple Bond girl formula, but they also don't want to dispose of any in the somewhat mechanical box-checking manner the franchise has become famous for; consequently Paloma doesn't actually serve the usual purpose of being both a sign of Bond's virility (for want of a better term), and as a way to get both Bond and the audience emotionally involved with wanting to get revenge on the villain (now known infamously as 'fridging').
It's difficult to make a Bond film that still has enough of the old formula to appeal, but has also obviously evolved into being more aware and less mechanical. I think it's just going to be an ongoing struggle, and sometimes they'll get the balance right, and sometimes they won't. Paloma is great though, as is Felix, but as you say, Bond's relationship with Madeline and Mathilde (and Safin) is core to this story.
I love Vesper and Tracy. Eva Green and Diana Rigg were perfection in their roles. But Vesper is held by some as Bond's only possible true love almost solely due to Eva's acting and chemistry as opposed to content, IMO. The train scene again....it's a fantastic scene. But Vesper certainly gets awfully judgemental and sharp about Bond's poker game and possibly "funding terrorism" when she is the one who personally hands the suitcase over to the terrorists at the end of the movie. While this scene plays great at deceiving the audience and Bond about who she is, it never plays the same way again as it makes one wonder why she even decided to immediately criticize Bond's goals and efforts when she was already planning on doing worse. Also the boyfriend part bothers me. She apparently was so in love with her boyfriend that she was willing to do anything to free him yet she ditches him for Bond. I've seen some fans say she probably assumed the boyfriend was dead already, but that is never stated and if he was, there was nothing to continue to blackmail her with so that doesn't really work. And then we find out later on that he's not dead anyway.
NTTD has now redeemed Madeleine's underwritten Spectre part in a way now that the audience can understand her and know who she is.
Tracy now, I cannot criticize.
I would say that it is the beginning of Bond, or that’s how general audiences would look at it. That is much different than the end/death of Bond. If that makes sense.
The problem is the audience score for TLJ was impacted by the fact that ANYONE could go in, make a b.s. profile, leave a rating, repeat as often as they wanted. RT changed their system in response so that people now have to verify A: that they watched the film B: that they're actually a person, so what happened to TLJ is never going to happen again with the audience score on RT.
Your comment, dear @talos7, is spot on, IMO, and I believe that in years to come, this will slowly settle as the prevalent consensus on the film. IMO, of course, but we shall see ;)
Agree with a lot of this! I stated that Craig seems at his most relaxed here, so I get what you said in your other post, that it was out of character! Still a strong performance though! But, unlike CR, theres a hell of a lot wrong with it!