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Is that your way of agreeing with me that QOS and SP are bad?
Maybe he's just saying that disliking QoS and SP aren't controversial opinions?
My lifelong controversial opinion is my love of Spectre that grows with every watch (despite all the bad things and missed opportunities).
Ding ding ding.
It’s like saying you don’t like TMWTGG or LTK. They’ve always been polarizing films and still are, even though QOS has a bit of a cult following in these parts I’ve noticed.
I guess the jetpack might be less fantastic now than it was in the sixties, as mentioned by others above. Same goes for the flying car. They both did work but were for the general public the stuff of science fiction.
The re-breather was convincing enough for the military to call in to the studios to ask where to get it. The special forces were quite interested. I think the tb gadgets were quite spectacular for their day. Of course many of them didn't age that well. BTW that water tank could also be underneath the car, or even under the back seat.
The smart blood may be a simple update from CR"s tracker (which itself is already pushing it a bit) but technically it"s a completely different ball game, and thankfully still as far-fetched as the 'vanish'.
Well that underestimates Q Branch doesn't it.
So obviously the bulletproof shield neatly retracts between the propellant tanks of the jetpack. Plus the floor of the boot lowers. And the shield collapses accordion-style. (But really it's at the back edge of the trunk.)
The jet pack is fantastical, but it also looks silly and is used for an incredibly boring purpose. He could have used a ladder and got the same effect. It’s as wild as the film ever gets, and it’s still not very good. It’s just missing the point of what Goldfinger achieved.
I’d have less problem with it if he used it in an interesting or exciting way.
I don’t think real = spectacular though. A small air tank being believable doesn’t make it exciting. Neither does an underwater camera.
Not the amount of water it fires out, no. And the car would have been undriveable with that weight. Why’s James Bond shooting people with water anyway? It’s a bit tame.
It’s as far-fetched as a car with a water tank that’s bigger than the car itself. Far-fetched isn’t the problem.
The way they use the jet pack is lame, yes. On the other hand if the chateau had been surrounded by a large moat (as some are) then it kind of makes sense as the quickest way to escape, Bond can get across the moat and to the car in literally seconds.
Shame there’s no moat in the film, then.
That’s something else entirely though, that’s got nothing to do with what we’re talking about.
Depending on the film you’re talking about (you don’t specify) I find that much less jarring because I don’t know how much ammo they had to start with or whether they changed magazines while the camera has cut away. But being a human being, I do know how water works and how it can’t magically appear :D
Yes, and yet they film in a very unspectacular way, it looks silly, and it’s over in seconds. Obviously I get why they wanted to put it in, I’m just saying they did it badly.
It doesn’t even give him an advantage: it takes so long to take off that the baddies catch up with him at the car anyway.
Yeah that’s a really good point, that would have worked. Maybe they could have chased him to the top of a tower, and we then see it from the baddies’ POV: Bond disappears up the stairs; they say to each other that they have him cornered. Then suddenly he blasts off above them. That way you don’t have to show him putting his helmet on and strapping in etc. which makes him look a bit uncool.
It’s actually quite fixable: have him disappear up the tower, the baddies enter as he’s blasting off and get knocked back by the flames, he soars over the moat, the lady we met earlier is outside (perhaps we had cut to her earlier, seeing the drawbridge go up as alarms ring out, worried about how James will escape) driving along in a convertible car which he lands in as it’s moving (you can do the landing with Sean on a crane). Maybe some car baddies are giving chase, he drops the jet pack on the road and then shoots it, blowing them up. Then as they’re driving along there are some more baddies shooting at them at the gate, Bond shoots a water tank they’re standing under (I dunno, I’m making this up) and washes them away, transition to titles.
I think if they were desperate to use it he maybe should have used it as a method of getting in somewhere rather than escape: it’s kind of ridiculous that he’s strapping it on with baddies chasing him. I like silly stuff in Bond movies, but being silly and underwhelming at the same time is a crime.
And why’s he putting it in the car boot? Surely Bond’s style is to unclip it, let it drop to the ground, and then saunter off? Tidying up after himself, spraying water at baddies instead of fire: it just gets Bond wrong.
There were also 4 different explosive spear tips which I couldn't spot in the film:
https://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large-5/desmond-llewelyn-as-q-in-thunderball-phillip-harrington.jpg
The rebreather is quite cool, at least.
But then Largo has a boat which splits in two (!) and cool-looking underwater sleds. Bond doesn’t get the cool gadgets: the baddies do. Why doesn’t Q give Bond an underwater motorbike or something? Or a speedboat? No, he gives him a camera and a pill. How is Corgi supposed to sell them to kids? :D
But I think from that point on the only time he wasn’t on the field for the rest of Cubby’s run was in OHMSS and LALD. It’s not until GE that he actually stays in HQ, and then has one more moment out in the field in TND for his brief cameo.
Does he stay at HQ in TLD? I suppose that inside the different Mi6 stations doesn't count as out in the field.
I’m not sure what you’re saying. Bond is repetitive enough without restricting him to using the same things every time too.
He's at the end of the Koskov extraction.
The problem with gadgets is that they tend to quickly escalate into absurd devices thar are featured more for the cool factor than any true utility. I think they should be used sparingly and remain as plausible as possible. Logically, the gadgets should have multiple applications, should be adaptable to a number of missions and circumstances to be optimal. That's why the briefcase is one of my favourite. That does NOT mean the circumstances or the outcome should be repetitive. I really enjoyed the use of the DB5 in SF, not merely for nostalgic value, but because it was done differently than in GF: no fancy display of all its features, only good old machine gunning of unsuspecting henchmen. They seem to be going in this direction in NTTD.
I don't really see that as a problem. I like the Bond films being big and crazy- that's why I'm a fan of them.
I don't mind the occasional old one coming back, but that does sound a bit boring. A major part of the joy of the gadgets is to see what he's got this time and what clever inventive idea they've come up with. Just having the same ones, even if used in different ways, removes that moment of joy. I'm not sure what this idea adds.
Yes, the Koskov defection definitely counts as in the field. He even has to climb up all those stairs! I misread @MakeshiftPython's comment, and thought he meant that we don't see him in the lab until GE.
Is TB and LTK the only time he is 'behind enemy lines'? In other films he is on Mi6 owned ground, I think.
That's why it's controversial I guess. I'm not against new gadgets, I just think they should not just be added for the sake of it, they should not be a sine qua non element in Bond films and they could reuse the gadgets they came up with.
Yes, and I think popping the pills at the end of the Koskov extraction was the first attempt to set up his future absence.
Miraculously with TWINE, they managed to give him a proper sendoff/tribute, something that neither Lee nor Maxwell nor any of the Bonds prior to Craig got (although I'd argue Moore kind of did, and Dench did).
How do you define ‘for the sake of it’, though? And where are you drawing the line where they can’t invent new ones? From the next film?
Although it was weird. When did Q ever teach him not to let them see him bleed? :D
I'm wracking what's left of my brain to come up with the proper sendoff/tribute which Moore "kind of did" receive...I'm thinking about the end of AVTAK...and I'm coming up with...nothin'...Help me out, please ! You have something clever in mind and I cannot guess it.
Wow, I'm glad I don't work in the offices you work in! :)
I think that line is either meant to be metaphorical or referring to a mission we've not seen recorded on film. I'm going with it being metaphorical myself.
I think the weird thing is even the implication that Q has ever tried to teach Bond anything at all: other than wishing he had more respect that was never their dynamic.