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
CGI isn't some cinematic monster but a tool that's best used fairly sensibly and sparingly (like it was in Skyfall and the earlier two Craig films really).
They should aim for relatively small scale but very detailed sets that are laid out interestingly. I liked the weird power station that featured in The Dark Knight Rises.
The bit where he grabs the lift looked a bit dodgy to me.
- Mexico: The elevator Bond and Estrella enter is the same one from LTK, when Pam tears her skirt off and gives Bond her gun. Nice touch. (with the homage too)
- M's office: Loved seeing its return. Seems more spacious than his office in SF.
- Piazza Giovanni Agnelli funeral scene: Bond walking amongst the massive pillars was reminiscent of Luxor in Spy. A great minor scene.
- Palazzo Cadenza/Blenheim Palace SPECTRE meeting: the palace with high ceiling reminded me of Drax's estate, with the walls and long table like Stromberg's dining room.
- CNS/City Hall: Lots of spiralling stairs here, they remind me of previous villain lairs: volcano lair/Trevelyan's GoldenEye control centre in Cuba etc. Also, lots of glass, like the 'Grand Harbour Centre' (Shanghai) building in SF.
- The Hoffler Klinik/Ice Q restaurant was a nice throwback to Maj. Check out the round skylight in the ceiling, just outside Madeleine's office, like we see in so many classic Bond sets. You could imagine the design is symbolic of SPECTRE, with eight sections surrounding a circular core - the core being Blofeld himself.
- CAM train: Loved the interior - heaps of wood to get stuck in Hinx' knuckles. The fight in the cargo area somewhat reminded me of the MR warehouse/clocktower fight with Cha/Chang and the fight in Zorin's factory, because of all the wooden crates there.
- Blofeld's lair: Loved this take on the crater lair. In the MI6 satellite photos, we see the different structures are connected by pipes and corridors to form an octagon. Eight sides. Eight tentacles on an octopus. The central room with all the screens and slanted walls surely must've been inspired by Drax' Aztec lair.
- Meteor room: The concentric circles which make the shallow steps, represent a rippling effect the meteor would've made, creating the crater. Perhaps the steps are also symbolic of the many outreaching levels or layers within the SPECTRE organization. This room, although highly simplistic, was very much in the vein of Ken Adam's designs. Probably my favourite set in the film. The ceiling and inner walls are comprised of squares with crosses in the middle. These shapes remind me of the vents you crawl through in the GoldenEye 64 game.
- Old MI6 building: With all the intersecting of wires, it was like a big spider web with Blofeld luring Bond inside. I would've liked to see the wires light up pink around Bond and Maddy as they run, or as they steer the boat through them.
All in all, I thought the sets were decent - though most of them pretty subtle for the average Bond film, except for the meteor room.
Moonraker
Tomorrow Never Dies
The meteor room, also: Moonraker. Because of movingroom.
And Oberhauser feels more Hugo Drax and Eliot Carver.
Goldeneye
Tomorrow Never Dies
You have done your homework, sir. :) And I must admit I find your assessment an extra incentive to give SPECTRE another watch. (Not that I need any; I love that film.)
My assertion would be that modern Bond films tend to aim for more naturalism rather than the fantastical. The ice palace in DAD may very well have been the last "exotic" set we've seen in the Bonds so far. Before that, it was the stealth boat and before that the underwater dish. And even those places aren't necessarily unreal--well, except for the boat that is--merely 'unusual'.
It should be noted that naturalism was very much prevalent in the 80s Bonds too. Monasteries, circuses, floating Indian palaces, French châteaus, army bases, ... Those too were in stark contrast to submarine swallowing oil tankers, space stations, hollowed-out volcanoes and even exotic fun houses.
What I want from my Bonds is to see things that may or may not exist but at least feel 'elusive' and too remote for me to ever reach, walk into and possess. I want to be taken into a world that is ours and yet isn't, that finds that subtle "in between", where it's not quite ripped from a CNN headline, nor from a science fiction comic book. I want to believe it could be real but still pretend it's not. SP did a fairly good job IMO.
Hence I would also like to see Dr Shatterhand's castle in Japan. It would be unusual and therefore precisely what we've come to expect from a megalomaniac.
I agree. Once you look beyond the urine filter and Brofeld angle, and start analyzing elsewhere, there are some really decent qualities to be found.
True, the 80s seemed to go for more exotic real life settings, and tone down the custom sets. But happily, there's still a sprinkling of Ken Adam's style in there with the OP meeting room, Zorin airship interior, and helicopter entrance to the meditation institute from LTK - which was pretty much a cross between the volcano lair and Tosca eye.
I keep hearing people rave about how SF looks but it leaves me largely cold.
like the music they need to up their game.
Gassner did some really great work in QoS.
This is just it. If Eon/director want something more fantastical, he can deliver (see BR2049).
I guess he must have a whole studio working for him- it's obviously not just Dennis and his sketch pad
That being said; the production haven't been bad lately, only a bit…flat?
One of the reasons I would like to see Nolan direct at least one Bond film is to see what he'd do with the production design. His films are visually striking in a way that Bond has not been for many decades.
Nolan fan or not, you can't argue with this!
You know how we have all these appreciation threads? We should start a Ken Adam appreciation thread. His work, even in lesser Bond movies, is just outstanding. When I became a Bond fan nearly 25 years ago, there were so many elements that made the 1960s entries so entertaining, iconic, and fascinating, and Adam’s interiors were one of the biggest elements. I remember being fascinated by Dr. No’s lair, particularly the aquarium, the fireplace, the rock walls. Tremendous. I love the huge map room in TB, as well. Of course, his pièce de résistance was Blofeld’s massive volcano lair complex in YOLT. When I first saw it back then, I was awestruck, having never seen anything quite like it before in a film before. And I also remember when I first saw Dr. Strangelove, Adam’s fantastic war room set. So cool. I’d like to see some of these elements return to the Bond series someday. But I suppose you could just chalk it up to the era those were made in. Today, a great deal of that would be CG. No thank you.
Ken Adam's personal life story is also amazing. He was a legend.
Anyone who doesn't know about his WW2 record should check it out. A German Jew flying for the RAF. Amazing. It's almost Inglorious Basterds but for real.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Adam
I'll add in rewatching Ken Adam's home films of the production team's recon for various locations on the Bond home videos. The old jokes about having to suffer through people's home movies don't apply here as you can turn it into a game by spotting the various production people and seeing the sights before filming. Not as enticing as extras as making-ofs and things, but an enjoyable few minutes.
I have the Christopher Frayling book on Adam. Excellent.
I always felt Syd Cain was a bit of an unsung hero in Bond production design. His work was wonderful, IMO. My 2nd favorite production designer after Adam. I liked Lamont's work as well.
IIRC, the final two are taken from Criterion’s bonus disk for “Barry Lyndon.”