It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
I love NSNA as well, but your post leads me to possibly my best controversial opinion.
As weak as the climax for NSNA was, it's no weaker than many of endings to, say, the post Dalton Bonds. I particular find the climaxes to TWINE, DAD, dare I say, CR and QoS to be on the same level.
A lot of Bonds are anticlimactic, I even started a thread on it a while ago...
http://www.mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/14855/why-are-so-many-bond-films-anticlimactic#latest
I'd say both make great villains. Jeroen Krabbé is as slimy as he is charismatic ("Duty has no sweethearts"), Joe Don Baker's obnoxious, brutish Whitaker reminds me a lot of Fleming's Scaramanga. Also that pantheon of dictators and his own personal war room is a nice addition.
I might also add that there has never been a line-up of so many great allies than in TLD; Saunders, Pushkin, Shah are all top 10 or 15 material in the ally department I'd say.
I also think the villains have a sort of charm about them. They are both rather amusing. It is fine if they don't have much menace; if all villains were menacing it would get boring. Koskov is great.
What's more disappointing is that this was coming out of EON's stables when Hollywood was giving us classic villains like Arjen Rudd in Lethal Weapon 2 & of course the legendary Hans Gruber in Die Hard.
Vesper dying on the same level as an appallingly dull tussle between two blokes in an underwater cave with pretty much nothing at stake?
This is more than controversial - it's quite simply wrong.
Spot on in every regard. Airbrush Whitaker out of TLD and what do you lose? A fat brash American (I realise that's tautology) eating a lobster is all as far as I can tell.
I am ok, heck I am very happy, with the casting of Koskov, but not with the way he was written. He is less of a buffoon as the movie goes on, but he was depicted as far too weak and comedic at first, to the character's detriment. Imagine Hans Gruber starting Die Hard saying he is scared of heights or something like that.
Keep in mind Gruber did exactly the same thing as Bill Clay. "No, you're one of them aren't you......Noooo you're one of them!"
I think it was intentional. The idea was to set Koskov up as this innocent guy needing to escape from Pushkin to the welcome arms of the West. Koskov put up that front in order to try to paint Pushkin as the villain, which MI6 fall for.
I initially thought "Oh, look, yet another dig at America, what a surprise," only to dwell on it for a few moments and realize there aren't many better ways to describe the people here than fat and loud, so well played.
@BAIN123, I'm with you there, that line delivery by Koskov has always bothered me, seems childish and overly giddy, and only assists in me not finding him to be threatening or hostile in the slightest.
They could have done so without having Koskov come off as weak from the beginning. More in control than he looked. And at least less of a clown. Gruber did the same thing... But far longer into the movie, when he had already been established as a cool and ruthless terrorist. The audience is in on his Bill Clay impersonation, they know who he truly is, thus making the charade far more efficient and far scarier. Not to mention suspenseful. They know it is just a facade that will simply fall down when the hero has put his guard down.
In fiction, many villains first take an amicable guise. King Claudius, Count Dracula, Long John Silver, O'Brien, to name a few. Koskov should have been more like them, affable yet very much in control. When the mask drops, it does not come so much as a surprise as something you had been feeling all along.
The only thing I might change in TLD is doing over the final confrontation with Whitaker. I very much appreciate the entire plane sequence in TLD, I think it's great.
I get what you mean. Very chirpy.
Another thing I've wondered about Koskov: was his "don't kill me...don't kill me" plea to Necros in the safe-house meant to be unconvincing (as we find out he's working with them later) or not?
The thing is Krabbé is a far better actor than Baker. And he looks far more menacing too. See him in Farinelli as Handel. He played a classical composer with all the presence and menace of a Bond villain of old!
I like NSNA too!
The best bit is the look Q gives as he sips his drink and goes back to the party.
LTK is a child of its time. Full 80's mode there. I love it.
This might be a bit controversial - I didn't really feel much when Dalton discovered the Leiters being maimed/murdered. There just wasn't any sense of emotional rush or desire for revenge as with Saunder's death in TLD.
I'd say the LALD climax was pretty lame, not sure about the others. Definitely not CS or QoS. Loved both their climaxes.
I think for NSNA it needed something a little more explosive and spectacular.
That ending almost made me vomit!
After the grim bloody revenge story we've just sat through it really is jarring!
As for that stupid winking fish.....ugh!