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Comments
That’s pretty much what I would do to improve SP. I’d also add:
- Shorten the PTS (i.e. tighten up the helicopter brawl pacing)
- Spend more time at / around the clinic in the Alps, what a cool location.
Overall, I like SP, flaws and all. It does have major problems, but it hits enough of the right notes for me for it to hover around the edge of my top 10.
Just generally tighten up the action set pieces and reign them in.
- I agree, that the helicopter sequence in the PTS is too long.
- The "plane" chase from the clinic is ridiculous. Maybe people think it would have been to old fashioned, but put Bond on skis...
- The explosion in Morocco is too big and at the same time lacks stakes. Nobody cares, if it is the biggest ever if everybody just nonchalantly walks away from it...
Agree.
But do we then not still have the problem that they try to shoehorn the three previous plots into it as well?
The Mr. White connection is ok, in my opinion.
Greene makes less sense to the overarching plot to "create a world scared of terrorist plots", because on the Bond villain spectrum between criminal and terrorist, he is much more in the criminal side. But there is the connection to White and that could be down as a side mission. Both for Spectre and Bond.
But Silva is the one that always sat the worst with me. He is just such a strange maverick in the movie and his quest (however idiotic it may be) is so intensely personal, I feel it massively devalues him to say: Oh yeah, that was Spectre and Blofeld as well.
I can't recall my complete reasoning, but on my last rewatch of the Craigs, I felt Skyfall is almost the odd one out and CR, QoS, SP almost makes a more compelling trilogy without it. Obviously, changing M and basically her death bed wish being the propulsive force for the beginning of the plot doesn't work anymore, but other than that, Skyfall is kind of this singular story while the other three are much more heavily connected.
Interesting, I'm a big supporter of Spectre as well; for me the link between terrorist plots and the Nine Eyes vote was clear without the explicit Mexico connection; this work was done with the South Africa attacks. What could have been clearer IMO was that the Spectre rings were made from the meteorite in Morocco, which contained the rare element found in the toxicology of the deceased agents from previous films. For the me the scene with Q in the hotel near Hoffler is where the movie falls apart the most. "I owe you an apology. You were right. Oberhauser is alive and the ring proves it." Not good. I agree with @ImpertinentGoon as well; the ultimate issues with Spectre all come down to the shoehorning and retconning.
I missed the connection between the ring and the meteorite. I also found the connection between the terrorist attacks and none eyes to be enough but have noticed a lot of people miss that connection in their reviews. I think making it a bit more apparent would have helped as well as explaining the ring connection. Glad to see more Spectre fans come forward. It is not a bottom 4 film as many loud voices argue
They made the ring - meteorite connection more clearly in the leaked script (which was sent to me, unsolicited, by a now-banned member, and which I only read very recently).
I checked again and actually can’t find references to this connection :)) must have read about it somewhere else. I think in the final film you may be able to see something alluding to this connection on one of Qs screens if you look closely but I could be mistaken there as well.
Well I have a new Covid task; Rewatch and look for this
Yup, someone posted this on Reddit a while back I believe.
I think it is on Q's laptop while he is in the gondola. The ring is made out of or has traces Reidite - a mineral only found at meteorite crash sites - and all the baddies from the previous film all had Reidite in ther posthumous toxicology reports. Meaning they either wore a ring or where at Blofeld's lair.
Yes thanks! I think this is something they could have elaborated on to make the connection a little more clear.
Would have been better if these baddies had nothing to do with Spectre, though, and the connection was just with Mr. White. He could have pulled out his own ring during the meeting in Austria.
Amended above.
Excellent! Thanks!
Basically agree with you here. I’m not sure I’d say it’s Craig’s worst “by far”, though maybe it is... I still enjoy watching it quite a bit.
I wish that were the case.
Like the endless table scene?
I agree with you 100% here, but for some reason I'm compelled to watch Spectre more often than QoS. I'm just too in love with the Rome, Altausse, L'Americain, Train, and Morocco sections of the film. I can take or leave the Hoffler bits, and the scene in Q's hotel room is dismal.
Interesting. Shame it wasn’t very clear in the actual film edit.
Similarly, I love the South American flavour of QoS. You can almost feel the heat through the screen! Locations absolutely do make a difference, so I completely understand why you feel the way you do!
With SP, I do enjoy the first third up to the end of the Rome meeting, the train fight, and the initial scenes in Blofeld's crater. Everything else lacks energy and focus and I find myself drifting or wishing I was watching SF instead.
Good point about Rome, I should have mentioned my dislike of the car chase. The only two moments I like in there are when they're drifting around the Vatican, and the very end when Bond ejects and then lands on the bridge.
They spent £25m on just cars alone for that sequence....
I’ll let that sink in.
What a waste of money for such a placid boring ass car chase.
True. But the cars themselves were brilliant.
The cars (Aston Vs Jag) was just a rehash of DAD. Id rather Hinx had an Italian supercar, as they were in Rome, such as a Lambo or a Ferrari.
That's actually a good point. I was thinking of the DAD car battle on the ice sheet, which I actually think is awesome and put SP to shame.
I gadget-laden Ferrari would have been great, because AFAIK it's still italian owned?
*Raises shields*