Controversial opinions about Bond films

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  • MakeshiftPythonMakeshiftPython “Baja?!”
    Posts: 8,171
    AstonLotus wrote: »
    There hasn’t been a good Bond film since CR.

    That’s just another way of saying “I don’t like Skyfall”.
  • Posts: 16,147
    Controversial opinion:

    There's been 4 great Bond movies since CR, and one I haven't even seen yet.
    I just know it's going to be great. Instinct.
  • Posts: 7,401
    ToTheRight wrote: »
    Controversial opinion:

    There's been 4 great Bond movies since CR, and one I haven't even seen yet.
    I just know it's going to be great. Instinct.

    I've got that too....have the same feeling I had for CR!!
  • w2bondw2bond is indeed a very rare breed
    Posts: 2,252
    I guess the backgammon game is cool.

    One of the best moments in any Bond film. Fancy that!

  • Posts: 15,098
    echo wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Controversial opinion: instead of inventing over the top gadgetry, they should reuse the ones of old, like the DB5 and the briefcase, but slightly modernised. And they should use them sparingly.

    They can't help themselves with gadgets, for marketing purposes. And as each Bond actor gets more expensive, the newfangled gadgets help defray the costs.

    They went easy on them in recent years with Craig. Even SF and SP had fairly little.
  • MakeshiftPythonMakeshiftPython “Baja?!”
    Posts: 8,171
    Ludovico wrote: »
    echo wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Controversial opinion: instead of inventing over the top gadgetry, they should reuse the ones of old, like the DB5 and the briefcase, but slightly modernised. And they should use them sparingly.

    They can't help themselves with gadgets, for marketing purposes. And as each Bond actor gets more expensive, the newfangled gadgets help defray the costs.

    They went easy on them in recent years with Craig. Even SF and SP had fairly little.

    Craig does have plenty of gadgets in the latter films, it's just that they're decidedly more rudimentary rather than seemingly fantastical like how they became with Moore and Brosnan. I think that was so to stick close to the grounded aesthetic that was established with CR and not go down the rabbit hole of trying to be cutting edge of modern tech. Craig Bond can drive a car that has flame throwers and ejector seats, but it can never turn into a submarine. He can have a fingerprint gun and radio, but never x-ray glasses or a watch that can shoot out a laser beam.

    Though it is funny because in SF at one point Q says they don't do gadgets like exploding pens anymore, only to give him an exploding watch in the very next film.

    I just rewatched THE WINTER SOLDIER and it featured Black Widow using a fingerprint scanner that could compute the code number of a locked door. Something like that would look too sci-fi for Craig's run, but perhaps for the next actor they'll lean closer to that.

  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    edited September 2021 Posts: 16,315

    Though it is funny because in SF at one point Q says they don't do gadgets like exploding pens anymore, only to give him an exploding watch in the very next film.

    It's always hard to think that Q is being quite bad at his job there, because the exploding pen was shown to be demonstrably useful! (In this fantasy world anyway :) )
    I just rewatched THE WINTER SOLDIER and it featured Black Widow using a fingerprint scanner that could compute the code number of a locked door. Something like that would look too sci-fi for Craig's run, but perhaps for the next actor they'll lean closer to that.

    Well without getting too spoilery it's possible that you might not have to wait too long for something like that.

    I wouldn't mind going back to the slightly more inventive gadgets. To me the ultimate gadget is the buzzsaw watch: really useful and using the design of the original object so that it has a bit of wit to it (although I do think it should have been introduced to the audience beforehand).
    The exploding pen actually isn't bad with the triple click, especially how it's used in the film adding a bit of tension.


    What I quite like about Bond and Mission Impossible is the difference in the gadgets: MI has gadgets but they're for very specific, pre-planned uses- whereas Bond's gadgets are multi-purpose and he often uses them in inventive ways on the spur of the moment. That's where the red light/green light chewing gum in the first MI was wrong: that was a Bond-style gadget and not an MI one. Whereas Q's geiger counter camera was so specific to the mission in TB that perhaps it's a bit more MI.
    Controversial opinion: Thunderball has the most boring gadgets. He doesn't even use the DB5s weapons: how disappointing for a kid.
  • cwl007cwl007 England
    Posts: 611
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Controversial opinion: instead of inventing over the top gadgetry, they should reuse the ones of old, like the DB5 and the briefcase, but slightly modernised. And they should use them sparingly.

    I must say I like that idea. Seeing Bond being given/using a couple of the old gadgets would be quite exciting. The attaché case from FRWL or YOLT's safe cracker. One of the few bits of DAD that worked was Bond's use of the rebreather, plausible because if it's a good gadget you would re use it for different missions.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,315
    Well Bond did get reissued the FRWL attache case in Goldfinger of course, but the baddies were wise to it by then... :)
  • Posts: 5,987

    Controversial opinion: Thunderball has the most boring gadgets. He doesn't even use the DB5s weapons: how disappointing for a kid.[/quote]

    He does. In the PTS.
  • MakeshiftPythonMakeshiftPython “Baja?!”
    Posts: 8,171
    That's not a weapon, that's a glorified water gun.

    A DB5 weapon would have been spraying bullets instead of water.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,315
    Pfft. But the car won’t start. It’s not desperately exciting: all he uses the jet pack for is to just get *down there*.
  • Posts: 15,098
    Ludovico wrote: »
    echo wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Controversial opinion: instead of inventing over the top gadgetry, they should reuse the ones of old, like the DB5 and the briefcase, but slightly modernised. And they should use them sparingly.

    They can't help themselves with gadgets, for marketing purposes. And as each Bond actor gets more expensive, the newfangled gadgets help defray the costs.

    They went easy on them in recent years with Craig. Even SF and SP had fairly little.

    Craig does have plenty of gadgets in the latter films, it's just that they're decidedly more rudimentary rather than seemingly fantastical like how they became with Moore and Brosnan. I think that was so to stick close to the grounded aesthetic that was established with CR and not go down the rabbit hole of trying to be cutting edge of modern tech. Craig Bond can drive a car that has flame throwers and ejector seats, but it can never turn into a submarine. He can have a fingerprint gun and radio, but never x-ray glasses or a watch that can shoot out a laser beam.

    Though it is funny because in SF at one point Q says they don't do gadgets like exploding pens anymore, only to give him an exploding watch in the very next film.

    I just rewatched THE WINTER SOLDIER and it featured Black Widow using a fingerprint scanner that could compute the code number of a locked door. Something like that would look too sci-fi for Craig's run, but perhaps for the next actor they'll lean closer to that.

    I hope not. I hope they remain grounded. I'd rather see them use established gadgets in new and inventive ways.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,315
    It's not very interesting to restrict it to things they've already thought of, though. I want new things.
  • Posts: 16,147
    Controversial opinion:

    I think Dalton's hair during the M scene in LTK looks even less flattering than the slicked back style he sports in the casino.
  • Posts: 7,401
    ToTheRight wrote: »
    Controversial opinion:

    I think Dalton's hair during the M scene in LTK looks even less flattering than the slicked back style he sports in the casino.

    Ah, ToTheRight dont start them all off again about Daltons hair!! Sheeeesh!!
  • Posts: 1,629
    mtm wrote: »

    Though it is funny because in SF at one point Q says they don't do gadgets like exploding pens anymore, only to give him an exploding watch in the very next film.

    It's always hard to think that Q is being quite bad at his job there, because the exploding pen was shown to be demonstrably useful! (In this fantasy world anyway :) )
    I just rewatched THE WINTER SOLDIER and it featured Black Widow using a fingerprint scanner that could compute the code number of a locked door. Something like that would look too sci-fi for Craig's run, but perhaps for the next actor they'll lean closer to that.

    Well without getting too spoilery it's possible that you might not have to wait too long for something like that.

    I wouldn't mind going back to the slightly more inventive gadgets. To me the ultimate gadget is the buzzsaw watch: really useful and using the design of the original object so that it has a bit of wit to it (although I do think it should have been introduced to the audience beforehand).
    The exploding pen actually isn't bad with the triple click, especially how it's used in the film adding a bit of tension.


    What I quite like about Bond and Mission Impossible is the difference in the gadgets: MI has gadgets but they're for very specific, pre-planned uses- whereas Bond's gadgets are multi-purpose and he often uses them in inventive ways on the spur of the moment. That's where the red light/green light chewing gum in the first MI was wrong: that was a Bond-style gadget and not an MI one. Whereas Q's geiger counter camera was so specific to the mission in TB that perhaps it's a bit more MI.
    Controversial opinion: Thunderball has the most boring gadgets. He doesn't even use the DB5s weapons: how disappointing for a kid.

    Please recall the use of the vehicles "gadgets" in the PTS of TB. That was quite enough, after the extensive discussion in advance, followed later by use of them, in GF. In GF, by the way, the villain got in a humorously derogatory comment about the car and its extra toys.
  • Posts: 1,629
    With regard to the two themes set forth immediately above over the course of several comments, I shall endeavor to combine them, as follows:
    It turns out that Connery's hair was a gadget, though not discussed by Q, all along !
    (Make no mistake, by the way -- I have been, and always shall be, a big fan of Sean Connery. (Thanks for the line, Mr. Spock)
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,315
    I recall it, it’s already been pointed out. But the shield and a spray aren’t the exciting gadgets. And just when it looks like we’re about to get an exciting chase, it turns out the baddies have more exciting gadgets than Bond, with a motorbike that fires rockets.
  • CommanderRossCommanderRoss The bottom of a pitch lake in Eastern Trinidad, place called La Brea
    Posts: 8,210
    mtm wrote: »
    Pfft. But the car won’t start. It’s not desperately exciting: all he uses the jet pack for is to just get *down there*.

    At least it worked for real, and thus fit Bond. The re-breather was so realistic even real-world parties believed it could work. But on the other hand there's the 'smart blood' and an invisible car......
  • MakeshiftPythonMakeshiftPython “Baja?!”
    Posts: 8,171
    Is smart blood that far fetched? It was just an updated version of the tracking device he got in CR.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    edited September 2021 Posts: 16,315
    mtm wrote: »
    Pfft. But the car won’t start. It’s not desperately exciting: all he uses the jet pack for is to just get *down there*.

    At least it worked for real, and thus fit Bond. The re-breather was so realistic even real-world parties believed it could work. But on the other hand there's the 'smart blood' and an invisible car......

    Well Scaramanga's flying car worked: I don't think the rebreather was ever terribly realistic. But I don't require the gadgets to be realistic (where is the DB5 storing that much water?!)- I just need them to be fun and interesting and used in a witty way. Using a jetpack to just go over there a bit isn't all that exciting. Neither is an underwater camera (yawn), a watch with a geiger counter in it (snooze) or a pill which requires 007 to just have a sit down and wait for someone else. They really dropped the ball with TB and missed that sense of the bizarre and larger-than-life that Goldfinger got right. Presumably McClory's influence, as the script had the same problem- it's not Fleming enough.
  • RichardTheBruceRichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.
    Posts: 13,757
    But that trunk space! In the boot!

  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    edited September 2021 Posts: 16,315
    But that trunk space! In the boot!

    The one he puts his jetpack in which should be filled with the bulletproof shield that slides out of it a couple of seconds later? :D
  • CraigMooreOHMSSCraigMooreOHMSS Dublin, Ireland
    Posts: 8,205
    Is smart blood that far fetched? It was just an updated version of the tracking device he got in CR.

    Conspiracy theorists call it the 5G tracker.
  • Posts: 5,987
    mtm wrote: »
    But that trunk space! In the boot!

    The one he puts his jetpack in which should be filled with the bulletproof shield that slides out of it a couple of seconds later? :D

    I have a theory about that : there's a flexible pipe that links the car to the nearest fire hydrant, put in place by the french agent Bond works with. It's the only way that gadget makes any sense. Oh, and for those who calls it a water pistol, a few protesters the world over would beg to differ.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,315
    Gerard wrote: »
    mtm wrote: »
    But that trunk space! In the boot!

    The one he puts his jetpack in which should be filled with the bulletproof shield that slides out of it a couple of seconds later? :D

    I have a theory about that : there's a flexible pipe that links the car to the nearest fire hydrant, put in place by the french agent Bond works with.

    In case his engine fails to start? :)
  • The simplest gadget was FRWL’s blade-in-the-shoe, and of course that’s Spectre’s trademark rather than Bond’s. It was introduced in a cool way (the old kill-the-other-henchman switcheroo) so the audience knew the threat it represented when Klebb uses it at the end.

    Personally I think gadgets which are concealed weapons, or at least some sort of military tech, make more sense in Bond’s universe than things which could have peaceful civilian use. The rebreather for instance would be a 1000 times more useful to coral reef explorers, tourists, wreck explorers etc than to most secret agents.

    Does anyone know what impact the DB5 had on audiences in 1964?

    We’re all blasé about it now but I wonder if audiences’ jaws dropped with amazement. I mean it had 2 machine guns, armour plate, remote target tracking, revolving number plates, military-style smokescreen generator and an ejector seat from a fighter plane. In a sports car.
  • QBranchQBranch Always have an escape plan. Mine is watching James Bond films.
    Posts: 14,539
    Sounds like a good question for the originals thread.

    Difficult to imagine how amazing it would've been seeing that DB5 back then when it was all cutting edge, and then owning a Corgi toy version of it.

    I'm still wrapping my mind around the car having a phone in the door.
  • MakeshiftPythonMakeshiftPython “Baja?!”
    edited September 2021 Posts: 8,171
    A GPS map on your dashboard is pretty common now, but I imagine that was a pretty wild concept for the 1960s that people only dreamed of.
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