What would you change about DAD?

Aziz_FekkeshAziz_Fekkesh Royale-les-Eaux
edited December 2012 in Bond Movies Posts: 403
This may be a bit of a biased topic and I in no way want to create a Brosnan bashing thread, but I loathe DAD. Think it's the worst film in the series. The really sad part is that for the first hour it is actually really REALLY good. Then Jinx shows up. As essayed by Halle Berry, she is quite possibly the worst Bond girl ever. I would definitely recast her and maybe just cut the character all together. Have Bond work with Frost more before being double crossed and have to take her out himself. Hell, bring back Wai Lin as they originally planned to do.

Remove the Space Ray Satellite of Death (TM) completely and maybe make Moon some kind of scarred, novel Drax-type villain trying to overrun South Korea or something. Ice palace was ok, keep that. I even like Zao and the diamond face. NO F@#%&* INVISIBLE CAR OR MR. KIL!!!!!! Please!!!! Also remove the terrible gags and make this a revenge mission for Brosnan, as it's portrayed in early scenes in the film (I'm talking about the meeting with M, the Hong Kong hotel scenes, Cuba scenes sans Halle Berry)
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  • CraigMooreOHMSSCraigMooreOHMSS Dublin, Ireland
    Posts: 8,232
    Do what they did with Skyfall and actually portray Bond as being damaged from his absence and captivity, as opposed to him just having a shave then returning to normal as if nothing happened.
  • The PTS is actually decent, so I'd change the first thing that bothers me (and everyone else): the opening title.
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,360
    My List of Changes:

    Recast Jinx or don't have her at all or make her the villainness.

    Make Gustav Graves a different person than Colonel Moon.

    Remove Icarus as a super weapon.

    No Gene Therapy shlock. (Rick Yune looked awesome with the diamonds in his face before becoming a bald, bleached skin weirdo.)

    Make Miranda Frost the main Bond girl. Make her sort of a rookie Agent who wants to be like Bond.
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    Okay, this list is quite large, so I'm going to do it by scene.

    PTS - Nothing
    TS - Maybe get a better singer, but honestly, I didn't mind it that much.
    Prison scene - Nothing, except maybe show more cuts on Bond's body.
    Bridge scene - More mist. For some reason I think that scene would have worked far better with more mist.
    Check-up scene - Just as a "they'd probably do this in real life" thing, have them shave Bond. I'd think they'd check that for traps, honestly.
    Bond escape scene - I'd add more scenes of Bond avoiding the guards.
    Hotel scene - More shots of surprised/disgusted people as the soaking wet, disheveled Bond walks into the lobby.
    Bedroom - I'd have the massage girl (I can't spell the word) actually be Wai Lin, as it was supposed to be in the original script.
    Cuba opening - Nothing
    Cuban Sleeper - I would have made the sleeper a little more Castro looking (and he looked enough like him to begin with).
    Jinx intro - Recast Jinx. No disrespect to Halle Berry, because I loved her in the X-Men movies, but she was wrong as Jinx. Other than that, nothing. Maybe have her as Famke Janssen.
    Cuban clinic - I'd add in a little more Scaramanga referencing, then an extended fight with Zhao.
    Graves intro - Nothing.
    Sword fight - Nothing.
    Miranda intro - I'd add a little more of her antagonistic side toward Bond. In the film, it seems to me that she comes off as less of an ice queen after I saw the movie the first time, but she still never seems like an antagonist at any time.
    Underground intro - Nothing. Maybe a few references to Bond's past.
    VR scene - A little more action, but not a lot more.
    Q lab - Just add more references.
    Ice Palace intro - A longer shot introducing the building.
    Scenes between Ice Palace intro and Bond/Graves interaction - Nothing.
    Bond/Graves interaction - I'd turn it into a Mexican standoff.
    Wind surfing scene - Make it faaaaaar more realistic. That CG sucked badly.
    Car chase - Make it less of a gadget vs. gadget fight. The little back-and-forth there with the gadgets was kind of stupid and undermined both vehicles.
    Jinx rescue - Nothing.
    The North Korean coup - This is a scene I'd add. I wanted to see Graves and his people take the North Korean generals into custody.
    Bond/Jinx infiltration - Nothing.
    Bond/Graves fight - Delete "Oh look, parachutes for the both of us! Whoop! Not anymore!" That was stupid.
    Jinx/Miranda fight - Erase "I can read your every move!" "Read this, bitch!" I'd cut it down to just Jinx saying "Bitch!"
    The rest of the film - Nothing.
  • echoecho 007 in New York
    Posts: 6,390
    Change everything. Go back to the title "Bond 20" and start from scratch.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    echo wrote:
    Change everything. Go back to the title "Bond 20" and start from scratch.
    Oh, come on. You have to like SOMETHING about it.
  • edited December 2012 Posts: 23
    My changes for DAD:
    1. Spend MORE TIME in Bond's character in prison. Show him like he really suffered. He should at least have a limp and an open wound (scratch, cut). He's been violently tortured for 3 months, not the almost 3 minutes of the main song.
    2. Someone else should've sing the main title song. Maybe Shirley Bassey. The Madonna song can be used at with the end credits... right after the Bond theme.
    3. The scene when he arrives at the bay (after escaping from the [ER] ship and before walking into the hotel)–– DON'T ALLOW Brosnan to do the silly little quick jump off the ladder. Bond does not move like a little school boy excited to go out for the first time.
    4. The movie made a small homage to the Bond series. Why Madonna as a guest (how the hell does she represents the franchise)? Why not Shirley Bassey, why not Lois Maxwell (she was still alive), why not Honor Blackman, Barbara Bach... etc?
    5. If Bond is going to fence a champion, then make Brosnan LEARN how to fence (and deliver better his lines).
    6. Remove the "invisible car"–– I'm sure Q branch can come up with a better "look" for a car.
    7. Make Jinx a smaller character. She should've stop (maybe been killed) in Cuba.
    8. Remove the line, "I am Mr. Kill" (when Bond arrives at the Ice Palace party, towards the end)-- there was no reason for that, and it turned the scene into a comedy, too campy. Ultimately, there was not reason to have that character in the movie. He didn't look menacing at all and he did not help to move the story. Yes he had a big fight-- but that could've been anybody (like the big fight with the henchman in the volcano at the end of YOLT).
    9. Remove the CG Bond surfing over huge waves (sort of windsurfing with a parachute)
    10. The escape from the falling plane (in a helicopter!)... that was too much. Maybe this could've been a chance for Q branch to develop a mini-parachute... something that could've really surprise the audience, and a hint to TSWLM.
    11. And last (but not least) I would have preferred a different actor playing Bond.
  • edited December 2012 Posts: 11,189
    This is a silly thread

    However, my four biggest changes:

    NO LEE TAMAHORI
    NO HALLE BERRY
    A COMPETANT SPECIAL EFFECTS TEAM
    NO MR KIL

    You change those things and most of the other stuff fixes itself.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    It truly is sad. This film has such promise, so many interesting ways to go.

    Just think of the sheer terror we would feel if it just so happened that while Bond was imprisoned he may have given away information under extreme duress. Naturally, they had beaten his body down to the point that he lost functionality and reason. He was in complete disarray and let it slip about important British operations and things MI6 was planning for Korea, as well as stuff for his own mission there. Moon survives and returns, using Bond to his advantage. Moon is able to use MI6's intel to locate and kill agents of MI6 placed in Korea, freezing up their operation in the country. MI6 naturally think Bond has compromised them, and plan what to do next. The PM doesn't want a word of this getting out, but needs Bond silenced to stop the bloodshed as he could tell the Koreans even more about their operations elsewhere. They make a motion to sneak in and get Bond out now that they have approval (after agents were compromised and killed), and they go to get Bond and bring him to justice. Bond is believed to be the traitor here, but what if it was Miranda was working inside MI6 and funneling intel about Korea to Moon to make it look like Bond was the one giving up his country. Moon, instead of joining Korea through Icarus as in DAD, tells the South of a plot by the British to attack Korea for taking their best agent and have intel that could hurt their standing, they join forces to stop the Brits, now united as a whole. Naturally, when the South see that the Brits are indeed heading to the compound, they believe Moon and choose to join forces officially. Moon knows of the planned stealth mission from Miranda, and is waiting with heavy fire for MI6 to arrive. A big fight occurs, and Bond in the chaos is retrieved by MI6, but not before he escapes and finds a way to get out of the action. He uses a hovercraft to outrun MI6 and Moon's men. Now, Bond appears to be a traitor to his country, and he must somehow show that he is innocent while he is being tracked with a price on his head. Now, that's a very rough and sketchy outline, highly improbable and far fetched in spots, but not that much from what we got with DAD at the end of it all. Just think how brilliantly tragic it would be if Bond actually thought he may have ratted out MI6 and Britain, and how that would affect him psychologically. While on the run he isn't sure whether to try and fight to prove his innocence, or accept that maybe he really did give information under duress and face prosecution lawfully by turning himself in before more die because of him.
  • A bit. Bot not as much as I'd change with any of the other Brosnan Bonds.
  • 001001
    Posts: 1,575
    No halle,madonna,mr kil,Replace with better actors and dialogue.
    The title song,no homages.
    I love the vanquish and the vanish.One of the best looking astons of all time.
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    edited December 2012 Posts: 13,356
    A bit. Bot not as much as I'd change with any of the other Brosnan Bonds.

    So you find it the best of Brosnan's films? A very unusual opinion @GeorgeLazenby.
  • Posts: 1,052
    Perhaps make a bigger deal of Brosnan being captured, make it alonger segement with reprcusions, maybe the film could have been about Bond getting back into the secret service?
  • Posts: 7,653
    Better CGI
  • Everything or nothing, so much wrong with this movie it would need a complete overhaul. Alternatively i accept it as it is, it represents a bond film that other bond movies need to avoid repeating.
  • Posts: 15,233
    echo wrote:
    Change everything. Go back to the title "Bond 20" and start from scratch.
    Oh, come on. You have to like SOMETHING about it.
    I share Echo's opinion. I don't think there was anything to salvage from the movie as it was. Okay, let's say go back to the source the movie kind of inspired itself on (the Moonraker novel) and keep the idea of Bond being captured.
  • Posts: 1,492
    To be honest there is nothing here I would keep and is the only one I would throw out in its entirety and start again.

    The thing which sinks it is the tone. Its like a bad parody which takes itself seriously. Its like they were trying for wit and got puerileness instead as those in charge just got it wrong all the way through.

  • Are you serious? It's still a Bond movie, after all, so I'd say there's still something that can be saved. I really liked the idea of Bond being tortured for months and then wanting to find out who betrayed him. But that was ridiculously unexplored. That could have been improved.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    Are you serious? It's still a Bond movie, after all, so I'd say there's still something that can be saved. I really liked the idea of Bond being tortured for months and then wanting to find out who betrayed him. But that was ridiculously unexplored. That could have been improved.

    Exactly! I would change more in DAF compared to DAD, or at least the same amount. DAF is a failure in almost every conceivable way.
  • Posts: 1,492
    Are you serious? It's still a Bond movie, after all, so I'd say there's still something that can be saved. I really liked the idea of Bond being tortured for months and then wanting to find out who betrayed him. But that was ridiculously unexplored. That could have been improved.

    Sorry but that didn't work either. It just sat awkwardly with the rest of the film. There was no blowback. No comeback with meeting that rubbish North Korean general later on in the film. It was forgotten about.

    I treated it about as seriously as the tarzan yodel.

  • LicencedToKilt69007LicencedToKilt69007 Belgium, Wallonia
    Posts: 523
    I enjoy Murdock's post much. Except about Gustav Graves. I'd add it an instrumental theme () instead of Madonna. I like this one ending much indeed.

    The screenplay was huge but wasted. I share youonlylivethrice's opinion. Just going deeper on some topics. It was very superficial, at the opposite of "GoldenEye" for instance and could/should have last longer for a better film.
    BTW Madonna's cameo has nothing to do with any homage... I'd rather prefered a Wai Lin massage.
    Cut the surfing tsunami scene and the plane ending scene that are too much, as posted above.
    DobleCero7's point number 5 is alright.
    But, honestly Brosnan gave his best during his 49 and couldn't possibly do better... The sword fight is the best moment of the film alongside the ice chase and Zao's kill. IMO

    Tamahori created a fine atmosphere during the "Asian scenes" and didn't filmed that bad. His perf depended on the screenplay, the main problem.

  • LicencedToKilt69007LicencedToKilt69007 Belgium, Wallonia
    Posts: 523
    ALSO : better dialogues in general and make a better ending scene... what about the diamonds ???!
  • edited December 2012 Posts: 11,189
    actonsteve wrote:
    To be honest there is nothing here I would keep and is the only one I would throw out in its entirety and start again.The thing which sinks it is the tone. Its like a bad parody which takes itself seriously. Its like they were trying for wit and got puerileness instead as those in charge just got it wrong all the way through.

    There's a few things I would keep:
    - The underground station set
    -Raoul
    -Miranda Frost (perhaps change her name back to Gala Brand)
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    actonsteve wrote:
    Are you serious? It's still a Bond movie, after all, so I'd say there's still something that can be saved. I really liked the idea of Bond being tortured for months and then wanting to find out who betrayed him. But that was ridiculously unexplored. That could have been improved.

    Sorry but that didn't work either. It just sat awkwardly with the rest of the film. There was no blowback. No comeback with meeting that rubbish North Korean general later on in the film. It was forgotten about.

    I treated it about as seriously as the tarzan yodel.

    That's the film's fault for not exploring it. Hence, one of the things that could be changed.
  • There's plenty that could have been changed to make it a much better movie. It is terribly flawed and feels bloated and a step too far. But as others have said, it's still a Bond movie and has many things going for it also. I sit through it cringing and sighing but also smiling and enjoying as well. It's the good, the bad and the ugly.
  • M_BaljeM_Balje Amsterdam, Netherlands
    edited December 2012 Posts: 4,538
  • edited December 2012 Posts: 546
    1.No cameo from Madonna
    2.Replace Halle Berry with Catherine Zeta-Jones
    3.Rewrite the script
    4.Gustav Graves as a one person instead of Colonel Moon
    5.Have Christina Aguilera performe the Opening Title Sequence instead of Madonna
  • edited December 2012 Posts: 1,817
    1. The title song.
    2. Improve or change the Gustav Graves character.
    3. No virtual reality.

    With this three, it would be an acceptable movie for me (and if I had to choose only one, it'll be my number 3 modification).
  • LicencedToKilt69007LicencedToKilt69007 Belgium, Wallonia
    Posts: 523
    Catherine Zeta-Jones is a deeper and better actress than Halle Berry without a doubt.
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    0013 wrote:
    1. The title song.
    2. Improve or change the Gustav Graves character.
    3. No virtual reality.

    With this three, it would be an acceptable movie for me (and if I had to choose only one, it'll be my number 3 modification).

    The funny thing is, this is one of the best parts of the movie, the only one that doesn't need to make sense (as it's VR), and it shows that MI6 has access to better CG than EON does.
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