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Comments
I think you're putting too much emphasis on the SF bike being conveniently available, @slide_99. Bond will use it to drive atop unusually small walls and then jump off a bridge onto a moving train. The bike is not so much convenient as it is practically needed to give us some cool action moments a few seconds later. Also, using a crane on a moving train to fight his enemy is pretty innovative. I'd say that's something "extra to make them interesting", as you said.
The "classic" era had some surprising moments, as you described, but "alternative forms of transportation" have also slipped into goofy nonsense that some fans buy and others resent. The moon buggy, the conveniently positioned jetpack, the Q-equipped gondola, and so on, are not without their detractors. And speaking of a conveniently available bike, TND showed us the one BMW bike in Beijing with the keys still in it... Also, I'm glad Glen decided to cut the magic carpet in TLD, or we'd have been stuck with that embarrassing little alternative mode of transportation as well.
Now I get what you're saying about the Bonds differentiating themselves from other action series. Unfortunately, other action series have learned from Bond, taken from Bond, and done their own thing with it. Look at F&F; since its 6th film, anything goes in the "alternative mode of transportation" department. Even a car equipped to fly into space and orbit Earth is perfectly fine now. In a way, the Bonds can differentiate themselves from such extravaganza only by omitting the extra bits and going back to the sober roots of muscled Friedkin / Peckinpah car action. QOS opens with a car chase that was, in my opinion, shot and edited a tad frenetically, but it was a car chase at its purest: fast, done for real, no gadgets, no sudden wings, lasers or stingers, and no laughs. It's hard and sober, rough and serious. Later Craig films, like SP, did add a few extra comedic beats, such as the slow-driving opera singer wannabe being gently pushed on by Bond's Aston, but you're right in saying that in the end, it's just a car chase, and nothing more.
That "nothing more" is, however, what the Craig era has more or less been all about. A reset. A dialling down of the extravaganza taken too far in previous films (which, can I remind the room, include an invisible car. An invisible car, folks.) I don't think that was the wrong impulse. The Craigs have managed to fill plenty of seats because people were pleasantly surprised by this serious Bond. The over-the-top crazy stuff from the past had already put too many off.
But, I will concede this much: it's all about balance. You lose a bit of Bond if you go too sober, and you lose a bit of Bond if you go too crazy. Did the Craigs get the balance right? I myself will say yes, but others will say no. And that's what keeps things interesting.
For me it’s classic Bond. It’s heightened reality. You kinda need that spectacle and absurdity otherwise you just get standard action.
Yep, and Bond would've shoved the Beetle cars off the other side of the train and therefore avoid almost wiping out Eve in the car :))