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Which is odd because to me the whole point of the Bond films is that they're pretty much hokum made by people who are way overqualified for the job: Sir Sean Connery, Ken Adam, John Barry etc.
Good god no.If Phoebe Waller Bridge had a hand in the Spectre script,Madeline would have never stopped banging on about womens rights and shouted REBELLION! every 5 seconds!
Have you actually seen anything by PWB?
You do know she didn't write Solo?
This is absolutely A1 satire.
Waltz also has a number of line deliveries I adore, and they're largely informed by this indifferent approach. When Bond asks what C is getting out of the deal, and Blofeld answers, "Nothing. He's like me, he's a visionary," and sounds confused as to why Bond would be asking, it's more interesting to me than a speech about his evil deeds (though he does one of those too).
Another amusing line for me is when Mr No-Socks simply answers Bond with, "I can't hear you, James". And my absolute favorite, which I've mentioned before: "I've really put you through it, haven't I?" followed by a sympathetic laugh.
I kind of never know where I stand on Waltz’s Blofeld: I don’t think he’s bad at all and I think I might even have him down as one of the better ones (I think perhaps Savalas is the strongest for my money), but maybe the slight disappointment comes from him having done a couple of villain roles previously and being more effective/chilling in those. I wonder if this had been the first time we’d seen him in a movie we’d be more inclined to like his portrayal?
I think the writing lets him down in that regard, too. His blend of standout personality ticks, long stares and gleeful smiles almost seem a tad petulant and childish here when they often were chilling elsewhere. You could argue that Waltz, as a performer, should have adjusted the performance accordingly; but I don't think he (and more problematically, Mendes) actually had a firm grasp on who this Blofeld actually was. There was just a vague picture of him in mind.
Which is a shame, as he could easily have been the best.
Exactly. They had the best actor of all of the Blofelds, and they blew it.
You've then got Waltz, the actor who set the standard for villains for the 2000s. Should've been a natural fit when he was cast. I was not thrilled at the announcement as he seemed a bit obvious, but hey, it's Blofeld. Let's see what they can do. But mtm said we had seen him in those before and CraigMooreOHMSS mentioned maybe it was the writing. I thought the most effective scenes were when he was in the shadows, taunting Bond in the Rome meeting.
It's funny because it isn't the first time in the series' history this was the case: Lee was effective as Scaramanga although established for his evil characters. Same with Walken and Bean, but they delivered and weren't disappointing. And in SF, you had Bardem, who also portrayed one of the most memorable villains in recent years and he goes in a totally different but memorable direction. These are what combine to make the Waltz Blofeld less effective for me.
I like much of SP up until the arrival at Blofeld's lair and then it goes way down from there. I'm one who feels that the final thirds of most Bond films are more unsatisfying than the journey getting there, but SP has one of least satisfying finales of the entire series.
The London finale is hands down the weakest ending in the series by far. Another reason why I'm looking forward so much for NTTD because I think we're gonna be in for the complete opposite
Forgive me for disagreeing with that. The endings of DAF, TMWTGG, TWINE, DAD, ... are so much weaker.
How did TND miss this otherwise accurate list?
Interesting that he is in the shadows when we first him, just like in the original run. Hardly a coincidence, as he ends in a similar way as in the original run as well-falling from the sky from or inside a helicopter, and both times due to Bond.
I feel the same way about some of the incongruous elements in Octopussy though it's one of my favourite Bond films. It has that feeling of two Bond film stories combined into one film. The classic adventure film feel of the India-set parts of the plot combined with the Cold War thriller Russian and Berlin parts of the plot. The plot doesn't gel as well together as it ought to despite the fact that I still love the film very much. The plot of Octopussy is certainly not one of its strengths.
At least with those films we knew what the stakes were should Bond fail - lasering Washington DC, his death, a nuclear explosion in Istanbul etc... with Spectre, what are the stakes? There are none.
You've never watched something written by her, clearly.
I bet a delicatessen in stainless steel that absolutely nothing from Spectre regarding Bond and Blofeld’s relationship is mentioned in NTTD. Will be a clean slate approach.
DAF has the cruise ship.
TMWTGG has fun house redux.
DAD has the sword fight.
I agree with you on TWINE, though.
I quite like the TND finale in the sense that it achieves exactly what it intends to, which is an overblown 90s finale. It doesn't necessarily make it good, of course, but it's what was intended. I think the others fail in execution rather than intent.
If I recall correctly, the stakes are Spectre getting access to the data of nine intelligence services and Bond's girlfriend blowing up.
Yes, DAF is one I'm afraid I often turn off once it gets to the oil rig if I'm watching it on telly. There's little of interest, some stuff which is just awful (the tape swapping business), and it's not even nice to look at (Ms St John excepted of course).
TWINE is a bit dull I agree, I will give it points for the claustrophobia of being in a sinking sub at least. It is kind of horrible when it starts to flood. You can feel David Arnold getting a bit desperate when he has to feed the Bond theme in with Pierce struggling with an air hose: it's not really as cool as he's trying to make it sound. Also it's not really fair because we don't know that machine and have no idea it can do that.
TMWTGG I sort of hold less against it because it's when the film finally starts to make good on its central concept- a duel between Bond and the greatest assassin in the world. But then it kind of chucks it away. Such a frustrating film. I think if they'd written another script which made better use of the assassin theme we'd all be talking about the script draft that ends in Scaramanga's funhouse with waxworks of Capone and cowboys with mild disbelief like we do when we hear they considered making Dr No a monkey. Why isn't it a film about an assassination?!