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Rant on M,Q and Moneypenny
CASINOROYALE
Somewhere hot
So I have been doing a James Bond marathon recently. Every night I watch a Bond film. I started with Dr.No and will work my way up to Skyfall.. While watching the old films I started to realize the many problems I have with Daniel Craig's films!
First of all. M and Q. I really think M and Q should be about twenty years older than Craig. To me it just isn't convincing at all.
Don't get me wrong I think Ben is a great actor but he looks more like an assistant to me. Ralph is actually a great choice but he looks like he could be a field agent! To me they should have casted older actors.
Now Moneypenny.. At first I had a major issue with her being black.
I am not a racist but "MP" has always been white. It's like making Bond black. It's just something you don't do. The people in Bond aren't code names they are actual people just being replaced by actors. Am I the only one that feels like they have no chemistry at all??
In the old films I always felt like Bond and Moneypenny had a past romance and something happened but you could always tell there was chemistry.
Does anyone else have these problems and concerns?
First of all. M and Q. I really think M and Q should be about twenty years older than Craig. To me it just isn't convincing at all.
Don't get me wrong I think Ben is a great actor but he looks more like an assistant to me. Ralph is actually a great choice but he looks like he could be a field agent! To me they should have casted older actors.
Now Moneypenny.. At first I had a major issue with her being black.
I am not a racist but "MP" has always been white. It's like making Bond black. It's just something you don't do. The people in Bond aren't code names they are actual people just being replaced by actors. Am I the only one that feels like they have no chemistry at all??
In the old films I always felt like Bond and Moneypenny had a past romance and something happened but you could always tell there was chemistry.
Does anyone else have these problems and concerns?
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Comments
I think they rather see M, Q and Moneypenny as 'titles' that can be transferred. It is logical to change dynamics in a while (and I am sorry, but I find 'has always been white' quite a racist stand, even if you don't mean it like that, because every person looks different, and we don't go 'that one has always been blonde' either).
M IS transferred this time, very clearly even. Because he isn't there as the new 'M', he is there as the new head of MI6 - it's Bond who labels him M, but it's very clearly a title passing on.
I think, with plots on cybersecurity, a younger Q is the logical choice. It's not like it has been, but nowadays, those who excel in science and hacking are younger than the general public - just look at silicon valley.
That's just what I think about it, I actually liked the change. Not Moneypenny's role, by the way.
Yes, Desmond Llewelyn was far more iconic & irreplaceable as a character than (with all respect to her, she was a gorgeous gal' in her day) Lois Maxwell, bless them both.
Q needed to be completely reinvented - Moneypenny far less so.
That's like casting a black Harry potter. It's just not right.
I am not a racist, I was one of the top basketball players in my state and played with tons of African Americans. I have nothing against them. I just think they missed a perfect opportunity to have a great money penny. You can tell by the lines that the chemistry is supposed to be there but just isn't.. I understand not wanting to replace Desmond, but still someone like Stephen Fry or John Hurt could've done it and I would have been happy.
Chemistry has nothing to do with her being black, right? Just, racism aside (I am not saying that YOU have a problem with them, not at all) but indeed I agree that casting a black Bond would be a different thing - Moneypenny changed through the years, old to young, dark haired to light haired, etc. Not that I am against a black Bond, but it's not his character.
The way they eventually did Moneypenny was far less pleasant to me, but nothing to do with the actress, just her semi-chemistry role.
^^^ "I am not a misogynist, but..." is a surefire way to tell something misogynistic is coming up ;) Wasn't there a female head of MI6 in real life?
I kind of agree with the younger Q. Desmond was way too iconic try try and put another old man in a frumpled suit in the role to replace him. Better to go in an entirely different direction.
I don't see why it matters what race Moneypenny (or anyone really) is. For some characters their race is an important part of their identity. Charlie Chan, Shaft, etc. To me Moneypenny's essential qualities have always been British, secretary, attractive enough for Bond to want to flirt with her, quick-witted, loyal, but not overtly sexual. Whether she has blue or brown eyes, black, brown or blonde hair or dark or light skin seem like relatively minor points.
I don't think people who insist on never changing characters races are necessarily BNP members, but do sound like the father in Fiddler on the Roof shouting "TRADITION!!"
We were all weaned on Lois Maxwell, who was very close to what Fleming wrote, but there was so little MP in the Fleming novels anyway, that it really wasn't a clearly defined character, at least not appearance wise.
Lois Maxwell ultimately, I think did more to define the character than Fleming did.
However Harris as MP, is very English, maybe a tad too attractive, but she doesn't have to vamp her look up. Maxwell as a young actress was quite good-looking too, but she didn't work the look as MP, the way a Bond-girl slinking around the casino might.
By Samantha Bond in the Broz films, we were already moving away from Maxwell. Maybe the look was similar, but the personality was distinctly cheekier.
Harris is arguably closer to Maxwell's demeanor than Sammy Bond ever was.
Leiter ideally should look like Rick Van Nutter in TB. Fleming wrote him blonde and Texan, but that horse left the barn with Cec Linder in GF.
Eon clearly did not want a Jack Lord alpha-male type, challenging Connery's screen supremacy.
Even when the traditional Felix look was restored with Van Nutter, there was no doubt, as to who was the boss of who.
re Bond and MP romantic history. Fleming never mentioned that and its never manifested in the films either. Even SF, stopped short of giving them any actual history that we can latch onto. The shaving scene was cut at Bond hitting on her, but being rebuffed. That it seems will be their history.
Samanthan Weinberg, in MP Diaires gave Bond and MP a history, but that's her unique take.
I wasn't sure how, but I knew it was going to taken off the table somehow, and I was right.
Mind you, I saw the movie in a full cinema, and the scene was making some uneasy, as they didn't have the same confidence as I did, that the scene wasn't going anywhere.
So all told, I think it was an ill-advised scene to begin with.
They should have pre-screened that scene with an audience, along with the para-surfing cgi.
Shes Canadian.
Col. Smithers: here have some more of this rather disappointing brandy.
M: what's wrong with it?
Bond: I'd say it's a 30-year-old fine, indifferently blended, sir... with an overdose of bon bois.
M: Col. Smithers is giving the lecture 007!
Cracks me up every time.
I do have a very big problem with Harris's MP. I agree with CR that she had no chemistry with Craig at all, and the SF script really tried to force it. Craig would have chemistry with a block of wood, so I blame Harris for it. I think making MP black was a good update idea, but Harris is misscast. There are hundreds of black actresses that are beautiful, sexy and can act and one of them should have been cast. Harris can certainly act, but she is not beautiful and not sexy. I fear they will waste way too much screen time on her again which will not serve Spectre and Craig's Bond well. I also dislike her constantly pushing Idris Elba for Bond in interviews. Bad form from a current cast member. Elba has been endlessly pushing himself for Bond. He will never get it. Not because he is Black, but because he is too old for the next reboot. But he'll whine about it anyway.
In fairness so did Helen McCrory pushing her husband Damien Lewis for Bond bit cheeky after having worked with Dan and knows he is staying on in the role for some time yet.
She should have been one of "the Bond leading ladies", not Moneypenny.
I don't mean to sound like a racist, ageist, sexist, homophobic, misogynist, psychotic, omnipotent misanthrope, but...
I'm fine with that dying out. I never liked the idea of Bond as a smart-alec know-it-all. It makes him into too much of a smug superman and makes M look dumber than he should be. Bond is a man of above-average but not genius-level intelligence. He shouldn't be too smart.
I struggle with her, total miscasting. I love Skyfall but at the end when she says "Well, my names Eve, Eve Moneypenny" I cringe the way she delivers it with the pause. Why not just say my names Evelyn Moneypenny. I think Mendes wanted us to be like no way shes Moneypenny what a surprise! But it didnt work for me.
M:There is no year for sherry, 007.
Bond:I was referring to the original vintage on which the sherry is based, sir. 1851, unmistakable.
I think these moments are missed.
When was ever the skin coulour an important trait of MPs character? And to me there is nothing lacking with their chemistry.