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Comments
It borrows a lot from the Brosnan and Moore era and finally we get a 100% proper Bond movie.
I don't get the bad reviews that criticise that, as if anything before CR didn't exist.
Even more so, as so many just wanted that back after 3 rather dark films.
Guess, people are just not used to it in the DC era.
Could be, yes.
Today is the big day for Germany and Switzerland, the next 4 days will shatter ticket sales records in both countries :)
I'm seeing SP today at 17:15 hours for the second time (1st time at the premiere).
True, today I see it in English for the same reason.
It's like.."Hey...I am not Oberhauser...I'm Blofeld....idk I picked it at random...something something mother's side...whatever..it sounds cool.."
And Bond is immediately like "oh yeah..cool, I like that, it suits you..I'll call you Blofeld immediately"..he should have continued calling him Oberhauser for a while...
All that Blofeld thing felt so incredibly forced....like something out of a half-bad half good continuation novel
I got as far as Blackpenny.
Agreed a classic bit of lame scripting that grates quite a bit with me.
Just watched it today. I can't imagine a Bond villain without socks! *lol*
Don't give her an already bigger Ego than she has already. She used to sit with me at night while I was on my mobile posting on the community and would say "your weird speaking to strangers!" now she's like "does anyone else like my idea what is PatB and Darius saying now?" LOL
She says that SPECTRE could be holding Madeline's mother and could be the key to her going along with everything. Someone said already, it's very CR Vesper in the deceit but at then of the day in James's line of work these are not ordinary women he is climbing in to bed with. Severine in Skyfall also believed in a way she had delivered Bond to Silva I believe on the boat she says sorry.
Problem with that is two things. 1. She helped Bond blow up the Spectre HQ with his watch 2. Blofeld strapped her to a building with the bomb ticking down, so she would have no loyalty left to him.
It therefore has to be an event that leads her to jump back onside with SPECTRE.
"Of course. Mr White" - Just terrible delivery of that line.
Everything else is perfect in the film
You know I didn't like the way that was delivered either. It should have been done with more of a surprise and something along the lines of "I should have know that bloody snake would be involved".
The scene with the watch is an issue, let me work on that, it could be a deal breaker, if only they could have built it into the script, one of the big issues about writing them completely independently.
OR....... another option, MS is captured by ESB (via Hinx), he has perfected his drilling tool and changes her memory so she thinks Bond killed her father and she is avenging his death? ESB allows Bond to rescue MS (sacrificing a few guards etc) ESB re edits the CCTV and the line "death had a familiar face" (one of the best lines of the film IMHO) would convince MS that Bond did kill him.
I think it moves in to "the man from button moon" stuff when you make it that over elaborate to have an audience believe Blofeld would go to those lengths rather than just blow the building with Swann and Bond in it. Kill them both. be far more plausible for Swann and Bonds relationship at the start the next film to be serious, and that whatever leverage SPECTRE has on Swann is used to get Blofeld out i.e her stealing his security passes, a SPECTRE agent entering in to where Blofeld is being held posing as Bond.
But they would have to withhold the deceit for later. You should be questioning her motives through the film.
That could have been wrapped up a lot more neatly.
I don't get why in the Spectre meeting they kept referring to him as 'The Pale King'. Its a meeting of Spectre head honchos - they know who it is. Would have been a surprise for Bond whose in the audience. The car chase could have then happened and he could have phoned Moneypenny immediately after, when he was walking down the road.
Whilst I like Spectre a lot, there are a lot of areas where a little 'nip and tuck' of the story could have made the whole thing hang together a lot more.
Yes, all fair points, what about my second option re the drill?
First viewing - 4th Nov '15
No two ways about it - 'SPECTRE' is indulgent, playful and cocky, which is i.m.o exactly what had been missing from Craig's tenure up until now. There is a sense of irresistible boyish charm abundant that evokes the spirit of Indiana Jones and yes, early Bond.
The PTS immediately sets the tone, with DC gliding across the scenery with such a swagger that you can't help but chuckle and think to yourself that the Bond of old is back. Dan looks so 'in the zone' and ridiculously confident here (Connery circa '65 revisited) that it makes you wonder if he even had to try. This is Craig's Bond film. And he grabs it by the scruff of the neck.
Whatever Skyfall was sorely missing, SPECTRE has. It isn't particularly smart, and there are things that slightly better writing & a more subtle approach here and there could have done for it. The Oberhauser/Ernst angle was obviously written (and then re-written a dozen times) to be different from what we eventually get, and it shows - sometimes painfully so. The 'twist', if you can even call it that, announces itself from a mile away.
But to hell with post-modern angst and trying to please everyone (yes, SF again...) - I haven't had this much FUN watching a Bond flick since... the 80's? Yes, that sounds about right.
The car chase is pure 007-porn, I loved the change in tone as I was dreading yet another Bourne-eque QoS edit-frenzy. Instead we get something wholly entertaining, without going too far over the top.
Much of SP walks the line between gritty & camp, but it pulls it off with such a fervour and panache that I just didn't care.
Somewhat inevitably this high doesn't quite last the full 150 mins & it rather runs out of steam toward the middle of the 3rd act - Mendes & co. seem to have forgotten that to successfully offer up a beast like this also requires you to pull off a coherent ending. But be honest - even the best Bond movies don't always conclude with a proper climax, do they.
Chill, sit back & above all: enjoy
The good:
- Old fashioned & bold PTS. Far and away the best opening since TLD...
- Escapism & realism are finally both present in equal measure - not overdoing it but still giving the punters what they crave.
- DC is solid as a rock. His ultimate Bondfilm (so far).
The not so good:
- Doesn't really know how to close the deal.
- M, Q and MoneyP are somewhat clumsily written into the finale
- Alpine setting had so much more potential.
- Forgettable Bondgirls.
But 'having a good time while doing so'? I don't see much evidence of that, to be honest.
There's the famous line that 'men want to be Bond, and women want to be with him'. As a man, that doesn't hold true for me with Daniel Craig's interpretation of the character. His Bond doesn't seem to get much enjoyment out of anything.
Instead, we have a perpetually angry, moody, surly version of Bond that I find lacking in warmth and charm.
In previous incarnations of the character we'd see Bond enjoy some flirting and badinage, regardless of whether he intended any serious relationship, and actually enjoy his verbal and physical clashes with the villains. But with Craig's Bond the dialogue and actions appear largely functional, or guilelessly hostile.
I hate to draw comparisons, but Dalton managed to not only capture the darker, damaged, slightly embittered character sometimes seen in Fleming's books but still gave the man a sense of warmth and human empathy.
Dalton's Bond is a positive, heroic character, and someone I'd want on my side. I would have said Craig's Bond was in Casino Royale, but particularly in Skyfall (where he abandons colleagues and defenceless women to die) and in Spectre he comes across as a bit of surly, unlikable, rude prick who doesn't care much about himself or anyone else.
Desk
I think the more successful a film is the more people feel compelled to complain about it.
Case in point: Jurassic World is a fun movie. Is it as good as the original? No - because the original is one of the Best Movies Ever Made. Did Jurassic World entertain me? Yes! Was it better than JP2 and JP3? A thousand times yes!
But people continue to whinge like they're somehow personally affronted by it. Like they're somehow forgetting that it couldn't be everything they want it to be.
There were several aspects of SP that I would have liked to have been done differently, but at the end of the day the same could be said of every other Bond movie. In many ways that's why I love the series: it's one of the few in existence which has clearly defined ingredients so it's a pleasure to rate which ingredients worked or didn't. None of the Bond films get 10/10 marks across the board for their pre-title sequence, the girls, the action etc.
But the reviews are so positive, and the film has made so much money, that it must really get up the nose of those who feel let down and consequentially makes them complain all the more. I welcome a difference of opinion, but all too often it feels like these people want to rain on the parade of those who enjoyed it. (I'm guilty of this myself, as I HATE 'Minions' stuff but the whole world seems to have bought into the Dreamworks marketing machine).
To those people who didn't like SP, just remember that we're blessed with 23 other Bond movies of varying quality and just because this film isn't your cup of Earl Grey it doesn't mean the next one won't be.
I think there's a Bond for every season and a movie for every mood - sometimes (like last night, after a really stressful day at the office) I just want to sit back and watch A View to a Kill. It's one of my least favourite of the series but I can enjoy it when I don't want to think too much and just want to see some fun stunt work and bad puns (but the John Barry score and Duran Duran's title music are still 10/10!)
I like it PatB - It would give the whole Drill scene in Spectre more substance.
This is key I think - if we had been fed another SF tragedy wouldn't it have felt like 'more of the same...'?
Inevitably every period of 'serious Bond' will be followed by somewhat more playful entries.