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Comments
No satellite TV? That would be the real tragedy!
Yes, actually those action Bond Girls tend to be a damsel in the end (even Wai Lin), but Natalya, she may not be an action girl, but she's the one who had saved Bond's life in the end, look at Tracy, and even Tatiana who had shot Klebb dead.
I mean those Bond Girls inside of Espionage tends to be disappointing, with an exception of Holly Goodhead (she's the only agent who had really got it right), but the rest? Anya Amasova? Mary Goodnight? Wai Lin had her moves but the third act relegated her to a damsel (really how she couldn't able to save herself from being chained underwater for all the toughness that she had shown earlier?) And yes, Jinx.
Time to move forward to the next film! Tomorrow Never Dies. Fresh off the success of Goldeneye the producers went into production of the next film. Tomorrow Never Dies was somewhat rushed to production. A script wasn't completed when filming began. This film has some interesting plot points but there doesn't seem to be a better movie, or maybe a movie with less missed opportunities lurking.
What are the missed opportunities of Pierce Brosnan's second Bond film?
A missed opportunity is a plot point that leads no where, a character that is under developed, a soundtrack miss, or the way the film is directed.
This film at times feels like a shoot them up. Bond dispatches of lots of the bad guys here and usually with a machine gun. The producers corrected this for the next film, but was this a missed opportunity?
Overall I find the film underwhelming, bit nothing is terrible per se. I wish they'd do something else than evil businessmen sometimes. They had finally made a villain that belonged to the world of espionage in GE, only to go back to evil tycoons with TND. That said I like Jonathan Pryce.
Other missed opportunity, maybe the main ome for me: Paris Carver. Her past relationship with Bond seems to exist only so he can bed her faster. Then she dies and we'll, that's it.
The plot of Fake News to start a World War is interesting, but it's not fleshed out enough.
Paris Carver is definitely a missed opportunity, she was supposed to be Bond's old flame, but the interaction between her and Bond never showed any depth to be believable.
Another point is that while the film is action packed and moves at a brisk pace, it’s lacking the hard hitting edge that Goldeneye had. Overall though TND has jumped up in my estimations quite a bit because it’s always such a fun joyride.
To allow 007 to give underwater mouth-to-mouth resuscitation of course.
I do like this movie fine.
Other than that, it’s probably not incorporating General Chang into the film much more (he’s such a major part of Carver’s plan and yet we only see him in a hallway. I feel we’re missing a couple of scenes where those two men talk about this plan or something).
As @007HallY wrote, not incorporating General Chang is a missed opportunity and it reminds me of General Han from Davis and Osborne's Bond 17 script: in both cases the character is central in the plot, being supposed to lead the coup to take power in China for the benefit of the main antagonist; but, in both case, he is barely present. I understand that in both cases the writers considered such character to be a plot tool and nothing more, but I think it's a missed opportunity.
A more major missed opportunity is the character of Paris Carver herself. In my opinion, she should have been Bond's only romantic partner in the film, while the relationship with Wai Lin should have only been platonic. In this context, Paris Carver should have been more developed. Bringing back an old flame for Bond was a brilliant idea and it was quite underdeveloped.
Anyway, the biggest issue is Paris. She is not likeable and you don't care about her.
Otherwise this is my favourite Brosnan Bond.
I'd redo it like this: instead of the bland shoot-em-up on Carver's ship, Bond and Wei Lin are actually in Beijing so the nuke is a direct threat to them. Bond does something clever with Carver's media network, like broadcast some embarrassing footage of him to the world that ruins his reputation. Meanwhile somebody else (Q or Wei Lin?) manages to redirect the nuke and send it back to Carver's ship, killing him just as he's giving some kind of speech, so he ironically livestreams his own death.
I’ve really been hard on @slide_99 re: NTTD, and judging a film one hasn’t seen from beginning to end, but, I like this idea. A lot.
I thought the last act of TND was annoying, loud, and cheesy-action with the machine gun play (I did, however, enjoy the film up until meeting Wade and the jump from the plane; it was my favourite Brosnan Bond up until that point);
@slide_99 just came up with a third act for this film that I’d love to see. This is a fun (and ironic) way of ending TND. Love this idea…
That's really lovely; great stuff. The media mogul concept of TND is so good it almost feels thrown away- a more ironic climax would be amazing, I love it. I've not thought of that before but it's perfect.
Redirecting the nuke threat is great too- for me that's what Thunderball got wrong. If there's a nuke, Bond should be under it. Just my opinion, I don't think that's the correct or only one.
I concur.
Brilliant! Brilliant idea! It would have worked better today, though. But in the 90s when audiences wanted plenty of action scenes for the climax, the idea could have easily affected the box office, even if the critical reception would have been great.
Goldeneye
Octopussy
Yes. There's too much action and not enough (not any?) quiet moments.
Oh and how could I forget: Tomorrow Never Lies is a much better title.
I agree about Lies being a better title. More original, but still feels Bond like. Also, have Q take Jack Wade’s place. Less awkward, but the humor could easily be adapting for Q’s personality.
+1
Let us turn attention to the next Brosnan adventure. Based on feedback of TND feeling more like a shoot em up and less a Bond film we have a change of tack. Gone are endless machine gun battles. We have Bond with a bum shoulder, we have an extended PTS, we have a villainess for the first time in the series. We have a film that has more story and less action.
But for all that we have, do we have missed opportunities?
What are the missed opportunities of The World Is Not Enough?
Reminder that missed opportunities are un-developed character arcs, a poor soundtrack, a storyline that doesn't have a good pay-off, etc.
Lets talk about the missed opportunities of TWINE?
Other than that, setting up Renard’s inability to feel pain and not using it in the fight against Bond at the end is another disappointment. The idea of Bond battling someone much stronger than him is great, and this trait could have been used against Renard in order for Bond to ultimately kill him.
Literally everything else is a missed opportunity. Much like AVTAK.
The character of Christmas Jones, could've been written and acted better, this is the main one.
The emotional aspect of the film, I think the relationship of Bond and Elektra like seeing the second version of Tracy wasn't fleshed out very well, and Elektra's villain turn is obviously I've smelt from the start, I know she's greatly acted, but the character is more like Kristatos for me, too many signposting, and we still didn't get to know her very much, so her relationship with Bond or her connection with Renard was not well understood, it all happened and came out of nowhere.
The plot in general, it's an interesting plot about monopolizing oil, but still comes off as convoluted and not very well written.
TWINE is such a weird film. I really love all the ideas there, and it could have made a great Bond film, but for various reasons it falls apart. It’s why I’m glad we have SF - all of TWINE’s best ideas are readapted into action which feels more even, consistent, and Bondian.