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
25. Die Another Day
24. The World Is Not Enough
23. Diamonds Are Forever
22. A View to a Kill
21. The Man with the Golden Gun
Yes, considering how much negativity they've been getting! I have a feeling they'll be cropping up soon though!
1. Quantum of Solace
2. You Only Live Twice
3. As much as I love this film so much, 😢 Moonraker, I can see the possibility of this film popping up in no time, but still hoping that this film would not come out for now.
4. SPECTRE (although this may appear in #19 or #18, as I'm seeing some positive comments and appreciation for this film in this forum in the most recent days).
On the other hand, I understand why they may not appeal to everyone since neither of them is without its missteps.
Also forgot to add appropriate film quotes for the last two reveals, I will do that now.
Edit: forgot to apologise, sorry for the small hick-ups, folks. The bottom end of the rankings was somewhat trickier to calculate because it was decided to leave out NSNA and I had to modify some numbers to get it all right.
You absolutely do not need to apologize. You're a fabulous host!
SPECTRE (2015)
Directed by Sam Mendes
"I've heard a lot about you. Most of it good."
Here we have our first gold medalist as Dan's fourth outing obtained one top spot, making it our lowest ranking entry who is also someone's very favourite.
Now, he / she isn't alone, SP also received two more top 10 spots, both of them 9th, and five more top 15's, of which two of them ended up bang in the middle at 13th.
Unfortunately for Mendes & Co, there are quite a few detractors as well. SP ended up at the bottom twice. In addition to that, six other members ranked it in their bottom 5.
That all ended up in a total of 91 points for SP.
- This film bathes in a theme of isolation and loneliness, something that resonates with the introverted (i.e. folks like me);
- Between SP and SF, the latter is arguably the better film, but the former is the better Bond film, at least IMO;
- The annoying bits (foster brother Blofeld, even Silva was part of the big plan, ...) are outweighed by the many qualities that (I think) this film brings;
- This film has some of my favourite scenes in a Bond film: l'Américain, the Spectre meeting, romancing lady Sciarra, meeting Madeleine; and some of my favourite sets and locations: Blofeld's lair, the clinic, the Moroccan hotel, everything in Rome;
- And I even like the score. ;-)
Its wrongs are several, but its rights will hopefully, one day, receive more attention. Either way, I'm happy that SP didn't finish dead last. That, in and by itself, is a "victory" for me.I agree with most of that. I love this film too, it ended up 13th on my list but it could end up higher on another day. It just so happens that I love many other Bond films too :))
Having said that, this is for me the most Bondian film of the 21st century, together with CR that is.
The beautiful locations, the elegant Bond girls, the fun gadgets and the overall atmosphere massively outweigh the stupidity of the foster brother plotline for me.
Also, Rome is my favourite place on the planet, so a film that mixes my favourite fictional character with the Eternal City just can't end up low on my list.
I've ranked it at #21, well, from #24 last year, it risen up in my rankings, but still, not much, at again, #21, and the only reason for this improvement is the rewatchability, I can rewatch some of the scenes in this film, mostly the PTS, the Car Chase in Rome (beautifully shot too), the whole Austrian action scenes starting from Madeleine being kidnapped, the train fight scene, but I'm afraid that's where it all ends, I also liked Craig's performance in here, some of his dialogues felt like the Bond from the books like the being connoisseur type when he mentioned the type of the Rolls Royce coming to gather them in Morocco.
As it still stands, the negatives outweigh the positives, I still can't stand up to this day the foster brother angle between Bond and Blofeld, it still irks me whether it came from Austin Powers or not, it's still a bad idea, a cheap soap opera level of drama, the lack of chemistry between Bond and Madeleine, Craig almost had chemistry with all of the women in this film from Moneypenny, Estrella and Lucia, then enter Madeleine, a woman who always looked miserable and lacking any charm and that risen up the film to the highest degree of annoyance, the third act felt anemic, as anemic as the San Francisco firetruck chase, or mostly any action scenes in A View To A Kill especially the shoot out at Thames part, the bad CGI, the aesthetics that looked very fake, and the unrealistically illogical plot.
And again, Bond being a bigger than life figure (the world revolves around Bond, so Blofeld, his jealous step brother orchestrated his bad plans that would put the world in chaos because he's jealous of Bond, sounds like Scaramanga wanting to kill the ever notorious Bond to achieve his greatness as the world's greatest assassin), again, I don't liked Bond being a celebrity and public figure, just no, in real life, it's fine, but in his own stories, no.
It's a pretentious film just like its successor, but it failed to deliver its promise, it failed to deliver whatever it's selling, yes, I may prefer it to its successor which went to an extreme and dialed what makes this film worst to Eleven, but still, this film is still a failure to me, it doesn't deliver, it just messed the things up, and for whatever the reason of its existence is something that I would never ever get, because based on what the film had shown, whatever the reason they may come up with, it's still not enough, could've been shallower.
This one just feels like a proper Bond movie, something I don’t get from his other films.
Quite a few things to enjoy here: an excellent PTS, great cinematography, SPECTRE meeting, train fight.
Still not a movie I’ll revisit often but it’s more than I can say about any of Craig’s other films.
Actually, @SIS_HQ, when you put it that way, it comes ridiculously close to Jimmy Bond's "arc" in CR67. ;))
Otherwise I think it’s quite enjoyable. Craig is really good in this one. I love how his Bond has a new found confidence/humour after SF. The opening shot of him walking along the rooftop is class, really cool stuff! Love Bond’s scenes with Lucia. I like Blofeld’s crater base (wish the climax was set there) and the Swiss clinic is another great Bond location. Come to think of it the locations and set design for this film are all solid. I actually think Madeline interviewing Bond when they first meet is one of the great individual Bond scenes (very well written).
After SF I can see how this was something of a step down. It’s a film that knows what it’s about (it’s clearly channeling some of the bigger classic Bond films) but at the same time it doesn’t feel quite as tightly written or put together. Still though, I can sit back and enjoy this one. Not a top tier Bond movie, certainly the most flawed Craig movie for me (yes, even compared to QOS) but it has its positives and it isn’t boring. Kinda a shame it’s quite this low.
I prefer to not think about it.
Favorite quote: ”Touch it. You can touch it if you want.”
#12 for me. I still remember coming out of my first viewing with a sense of relief, as I was disappointed with SF, and with Mendes helming again, I expected the worst! But like others have said, lots to enjoy, the spectacular pts, Kleinmans creepy titles, Craig enjoying himself a bit more, Monica and Lea in one movie ❤️, great locations, I'm one of the few who loves that plane set piece, and one of the best fight sequences in the series! I also love Blofelds crater base, and agree it should have been the setting for the climax, with the train scrap as a surprise epilogue!
Glad you enjoy it too @Mathis1! :) Though I see in my sheet that you ranked it 13th instead of 12th... Looking back at it now, as we're discussing it, I wish I ranked it a bit higher too though :p
Oops, meant to type 13th, thanks for the correct, @GoldenGun And by the way, loving the title cards you're picking for each film!
However, Spectre is probably the most joyless film in the franchise. It feels like an insult to the viewers' intelligence with the unbelievable retroactive continuity, tedious side-plot, lazy fan-service and terrible villain's plot. "I created this international crime syndicate, that funds terrorism, monopolizes water, exposes undercover agents. Why? Because I'm jealous of you, bro! Daddy liked you more!"
It's all cringy and bad enough in itself; had they played it for laughs, it might have worked. But it takes itself so damn serious, it makes it a pain to watch.
The list of people involved with this production would make you think: what can go wrong? Unfortunately almost everything. The script is horrendous, the actors underperform, the film looks life-less because of the yellow-brown filter it was shot through. The action lacks any sort of tension, they emptied the streets of Rome to have a car chase with no sense of danger. Bond just randomly shows of with an airplane, that he finds where exactly? I guess they needed to tick that action-scene box too. The worst part is the film drags on for 2,5 hours.
Any plusses? The PTS is mostly enjoyable.
I'd echo all of the positive things DarthDimi pointed out, and just remove the few nitpicks that were there. ;-)
I love pretty much everything about Spectre, including the handling of Blofeld: the dynamic between him and Bond is easily my favorite in the series. I love watching him try in vain to get in Bond's head, figuratively and literally, knowing that Bond has been living rent-free in Blofeld's head for years. The backstory, which aids this dynamic, is in my opinion the actual sticking point for people pretending to moan about color-grading or a comic/expository car chase not being high-octane enough. It's also got proper themes that run through it, and is only the second or third film in the series to display any real character growth (QOS and maybe OHMSS being the others).
And good lord is it just gorgeous.
Wow, I'm thrilled to read such positivity!
Thanks, @Mathis1 !! :)