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
Elaborate for everyone who needs an education for it, please. Whatever was cut from QoS is likely to be more dramatic and character driven than it is plot (aside from the original ending).
Daniel Craig himself said that the overdid the action and should have focused more on the other qualities in the recent Bond documentary.
Somehow I feel like his work isn't done...not by the character but by the series. Also, his own story arc can be easily re-explored with video games. He's created a sort of multiverse friendly approach to the series with NTTD. There are people who are Daniel Craig Bond fans...if you don't believe me, look how his movie drew audiences compared with previous actors. Before, audiences were mainly Bond fans who would accept anything thrown at them which is why we had too much predictable formula.....with DC there's a whole new perspective that anything really is possible even with his 007 being dead.
If there is anyone from the Craig era to deserve their own show....Camille would be the one. It wouldn't be like Bond on the small screen....she is more original and less of a clone. With all respect to Ana De Armas, Camille had the emotional depth comparable to DC's Bond. Seeing her, she's not that old and can still pull of off via Olya Kurylenko, would be a fitting way of not tampering with the Craig Bond movies as this is a character that went her own way....then again, what if she was a figment of his imagination hallucinating in a 007 that just lost Vesper and was contemplating revenge vs duty as he was learning how to approach Yusef? Metaphorically speaking....
https://collider.com/quantum-of-solace-what-went-wrong-daniel-craig-barbara-broccoli-comments/?utm_source=CL-FB-P&utm_medium=Social-Distribution&fbclid=IwAR1xSGRBE8yQEzoW6rHerGkKzoB4YISOmOOkIDF-dW2yCtTx0fqra2K7EJM
Seems like the series has a habit of constantly bringing itself back to the Goldfinger syndrome whereby the formula and checklists reduce the Bond actor's unique ability to shine, although DC did an his job of overcoming this compared to all the other actors whose movies were a little too plot and formula driven.
The water plot while original and good on paper, felt very small stakes for Bond. I think it would have been better had it been fleshed out or reduced for Vesper's revenge story
The two biggest missed opportunities in the series storywise, were Diamonds Are Forever not being Bond getting revenge on Spectre for Tracy and Quantum not being focused on Bond getting revenge for Vesper
The only time Bond has truly gone on a revenge mission was for a Felix we hadn't seen in 16 years and his wife who we'd never met previously
Your observations re: LTK are quite accurate and insightful ! Looking back, had Felix returned in TLD, and again, with more screen time in a second Dalton Bond, in which Leiter's blossoming relationship is shown a little in TLD, then more in the second Dalton Bond, then, having the personal loss in LTK as the third film would have been more impactful. Still - having a drug lord vs agent gone rogue TV Movie of the Week plot would not have worked well even then. Would have been great for them to have gone with the same title but with a more worldwide megalomaniac villain and his whacko henchman, working with the same actors, but a grander plot, a proper lair, etc. And no jealous pre-teen plot angle !
And Dalton's second could have been a FRWL-style focused threat and stakes film, with a strong cat-and-mouse between him and his stalking assassin after him. Not to mention properly ending all three films on...the...water !
Same here. I didn't read anything really new in these comments, other than that it was difficult to make. Personally I find the writing better than in CR, as the 'sauce' put over Fleming's material is a bit cheap. I love the way DC's Bond in QoS is basically ahead of the pack. Whilst M still thinks he's out for revenge, he's actually doing his job. I also love the foreshadowing of a bigger organisation behind Greene's antics. We haven't had that properly since Dr. No. And it still works for me. Bond, after all, should do some proper investigating, which he does in QoS, even though M can't follow.
The investigative aspect and realism of QoS is more true Bond than the glorified policeman you find in the more formulaic films. The editing of the opera scene was good too! The cinematography and music....the Quantum theme marked the first time that the audience realizes the air of melancholy in the film that stays onward throughout whereby you can sense the darkness inside of Bond and Camille's moods through the loved ones they lost. Would you agree?
One of the big complaints against Craig's Bond is his lack of getting the girl, but I really liked the way QoS didn't require the pair to be romantically involved in a forced, formulaic way. The tryst with Fields fits that, although it feels forced and an excuse to pay homage to GF. It was also closer to Fleming's Bond in stories such as MR.
This has got to be the most active “appreciation thread” of all the films, no?
Hopefully this thread causes the producers to consider an official alternative cut re-release of QoS with involvement of DC in the process.
Agreed. Plus...the visuals and music showing the villagers during the water shortage were done well.
As much as I love QOS, I've never been able to buy into this sequence. Bond hanging onto Camille's pulled chute for half a heartbeat before he smashes into solid rock is not going to not still kill him. The green screen work throughout their fall is pretty apparent too. But these things just stand out because of how well done and how realistic the rest of the film is.
The editing was poor and there could still be ways to correct the face-fall flat on the ground retroactively in production. This sequence was filmed using the actors in a gravity-defying chamber that simulates skydiving.
From that moment Bond and Camille were in the pit, the music becomes an air of melancholy. A majority of Bond's detective skills' efforts come to light when the water (this is not a boring issue, it's affecting the world and economy as we know it) was discovered. From that point onward we are taken into the inner angst and pain of both these characters who are grieving in their own ways. David Arnold really did his best job in this film and really helped to save it with his work. He worked closely with the director.
I've been explaining this more often, but when a parashute opens it reaches maximum velocity in about two seconds, meaning it reaches its normal rate of ascent in that time. Now of course you can argue it's impossible for any human beeing to hold on by hand to a shute that's losing its speed at that rate and I would agree. But it might be enough to sae bond from dying. However in this scenario there's no reason for Camille to go KO. So yes, they should've thought about it better and I agree two more seconds wouldn't hurt the tension but would definately increase the credibility.
As you say, it's difficult to believe Bond could hold onto the parachute at all as it opens and the fact they're both knocked unconscious means the chute never reaches a normal rate of descent. Nor do we see it reach one. It opens a half a heartbeat before they're on the ground. It's a dramatic sequence and I don't yell "Oh c'mon!" and throw my popcorn at the screen during the scene...anymore...but ultimately it's one of those things where you just have to say "movie logic" and roll with it.
While they paid more attention to making sure the editing, scripts and cinematography were given enough time in each subsequent film, they dropped the ball by purposefully distancing themselves from QoS too much. The loneliness and uncomfortable hard work of production for CR and QoS was replaced by the comfort and fun of filming the following three films. Of course, DC earned his right to have a little fun with the character and filming but each film's production must be held to high standards. The Roger Moore days of churning out run-of-the-mill factory-made GF clones and wannabe copy movies every couple of years is not the way to survive if you want audiences.
This is why FRWL, OHMSS, CR are revered to this day. This is why QoS has aged better than expected and its true untapped potential is known but not displayed at least yet. These particular dared to be different and less formulaic, not to mention, more grounded in realism. Do you agree, @0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 ? You always provided insight on the subtleties people overlooked in QoS that made a huge difference.
Well I do agree. I think that if it was only hinted that Silva was working together with Quantum, just dropping the name once or twice, it would've not only improved Skyfall, but it would've set te stage for a true revival of Spectre (as an organisation).
It’s the same reason that the Star Wars sequel trilogy failed.Total lack of planning and instead making it up as they went.
In the Craig films, SPECTRE/Quantum really felt everywhere, and felt truly untouchable. People like White just kept slipping away, and in SP especially we got to see a SPECTRE briefing that felt very true to how things are actually run behind the scenes in our world where elites take large stakes in companies or commodities and exert their control and influence to profit off of the human suffering they are at least partially creating. Instead of stealing nukes for ransom money or trying to create a space race based battle between nations, SPECTRE in the Craig era is hiding under the surface, taking control of medical supply chains to jack prices to those who need it, have control of vaccinations and their delivery to create pandemic level unrest and chaos anywhere they see fit (especially if they are engineering a biological germ weapon that spreads a disease to the masses) and are marketing counterfeit pharmaceuticals worldwide to profit off of the misery of others without actually healing the problem, on top of their more explosive plans as seen in the Mexico City section of the film. Looking at the past Craig films beyond SP, the organization also saw fit to get involved in the funding of terrorism to profit off destabilization, was engaged in hoarding environmental resources to create demand and panic and enjoyed aiding the overthrowing of important symbols of governmental control and security to take advantage of that vacuum in power.
These operations felt very cut throat and far more villainous than they maybe had the right to be, because they are a reflection of the evil we see in our everyday lives, ripped straight from the headlines. I think that's part of what gives so much of the Craig era power, because the films leaned on real world machinations to create a version of SPECTRE that was terrifying in its familiarity. Then there's the fear you can sense that everyone has for Blofeld, and how he just controls a room as soon as he enters it, which added to the hold and power SPECTRE had. Blofeld was certainly a fearful entity in the 60s as well, aided by how they kept him largely hidden before gradually revealing him, but the Craig era Blofeld was so much more of a threat and felt like even more of a man you'd not want to meddle with due to all the resources and power he had, on top of that silent instability.
I just come away from the Craig era generally satisfied in so many ways, and this is definitely one of them. It was great to see so much of the inner workings of SPECTRE and how they kept their control over the world, instead of it just being explained to us in a briefing. The 60s films did this beautifully too, as we got to see SPECTRE agents in the field executing Blofeld's orders in real time. I think it was very wise for the Craig era to take inspiration from that, having Bond in situations where he, along with us, is uncovering the operations that the organization are running and the weaknesses they're exploiting for profit in front of our eyes. The TOSCA scene in QoS is a real highlight of this, in how it displays an organization so confident in their power that they can hold such an important meeting in plain sight in a crowded theater space. It's a joy, as it always is, to watch Bond needle his way through their defenses and dismantle them from that high horse.