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
And Nixon and Clinton and Blair
Agreed.
:))
Also, shameless plug here, but I've written a bit about the future of the Bond franchise on my blog and I'd be grateful if anyone wanted to take a look:
https://clueddown.com/2016/04/19/where-next-for-james-bond/
The key is to embody the spirit of the character and the suspense/spy genre, and that was done best (imho) in CR lately (and also during certain parts of SF, including the entire Shanghai sequence), and then previously in GE, in the earlier parts of TLD, in FYEO & in some of the Egypt scenes in TSWLM.
Thanks I enjoyed reading that blog piece @JawsIsAlive
Funny, but I found that the meeting was tonally, and in most other respects, a rather sharp departure from the SPECTRE meetings of yore.
Not a bad scene, but I prefer the Tosca meeting in QoS, which I found more interesting, even if it was a lousy place to meet, as Bond noted.
Tosca is not to everyone's liking ..to paraphrase .
Yes, you're quite right in that regard. But for me the brutality of Hinx's attack on the other agent is something that simply never would have made it into a Bond film in the 60s through mid-80s. Then too there's the prominent position of a woman and a black African, which is thoroughly postmodern. And finally, the sumptuousness of the setting contrasts sharply with Ken Adam's stark, mid-century aesthetic.
Reoccurring themes including music really do seem to close or provide a closure for Craig's Bond.
To me Q's words to Bond "I thought you left.." really don't concretely say that Bond has actually even quit. Just that he left.
Still not my favorite Bond but I do like SP. Not sure now if it's last still.
Ugh I need help.
Bond (as a character), from both Fleming and the films, has always been set in the present day, and thus, he should stay that way.... i think most people who want him returned to the 50s and 60s, are those who are more interested in keeping things as they once were - instead trying to move the character forward - to quote a Metallica song Eye Of The Beholder - "moving back instead of forward seems to me absurd.".... the fundamental success of Bond, has been his ability to adapt to the present day world - and M's Tennyson moment in SF about the world being more opaque is EXACTLY why a character like Bond is needed now more than ever.
i think there is more there than your recalling..
QOS - Quantum and Greene buying up "worthless plots of land" - in order to create a drought in Boliva, thus controlling the water supply of the entire country is apropos to many back channel / greedy corporate dealings... just think of the midwest oil dealings.
SF and SP - both touched on dangers of cyber terrorism... one focusing more on the dangers of terrorism through hacking poor government infrastructures (but using it for his own personal agenda) - the other about a global intelligence community that is privately run and funded outside of government jurisdictions..
execution of the writings aside, i think EON has done a fine job of taking the modern day concerns of the masses, and adapting it to Bond's world.
i'd go back further and say OP was the last Bond film that we got a truly "global scale" threat.. TND is a close 2nd..
i don't mind small scale threats - FRWL was really small scale, but it was executed to perfection.. LALD was another example of a small scale threat, the same with FYEO, TLD and LTK..
sometimes i think it's good to keep things small and simple... i think as Craig's series has gone on, they've increased the stakes little by little.... but IMO, i would still like to see a ticking time bomb finale to a Craig Bond film.. they sort of did that in SP, with the whole 9 Eyes program going online - but it didn't have that same tension..
skip to the 1:25 part of the song, and you'll hear what i am talking about..
start at the 30 second mark..... it had a nice soft "Bond-ish" beginning, then ramps up to an action style pace..
EON - i am looking at you when i say this.. if you guys are moving on from DA, get Denby!
That's a fair point, probably why I've always been a big fan of Quantum's plot, despite everything else. The references to US foreign policy was also welcome, grounds it all in some proper geopolitical context. My issue is that the villain's themselves don't always seem feasible - they've invariably been a load of white European men. For example, in SP we had the Spectre organisation orchestrating terror attacks across the globe - I much preferred the way it was set up in CR, with Spectre acting as a go between for existing terror groups. Felt much more connected to the real world.
I understand it's a Bond film so there's always going to be an element of escapism, I just feel that the more outlandish the villains become, the less threatening they feel - I never get the impression that Silva is someone who could really exist.
There are a few films that tackle the issues of modern terrorism, but they tend to be very serious and realistic in their portrayal - look at A Most Wanted Man, for example. It would probably feel a bit flippant to see James Bond fighting jihadis, considering how close to home it would feel for much of the public. Also you have to be much more careful when it comes to issues around religious fanaticism, the cold war was essentially a political conflict.
The thing about jihadis is it's difficult to portray them as rational actors for one, or as forces fighting evil (I guess TLD came closest).
I agree that CR and QoS did it best recently with Quantum in the middle moving things along. Retro but still fresh.
With Silva, it was the revenge angle that resonated for me, and not his 'hacking' plot.
Agreed. It's past time to portray the villains as Islamic Arabs. You know--for the sake of realism.