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One can imagine Blofeld setting up the whole PTS in the *hopes* of Bond failing (Bond getting actually shot must have been like Christmas!).
I still can't live with the astounding ineptitude of the entire Mi6 'team' (including Bond the most) who all behaved probably worse than a bunch of rookie Boy Scouts leaving us with a really weak finale. When I first rolled my eyes when the DB5 showed up I should've just left them there.
Oh yeah, still a movie full of holes & questionable writing, but on the whole a good bit more digestible with the SP backup IMO.
I suppose one interesting take would be that Silva was not only supported by SPECTRE but perhaps his own achievements were the efforts of SPECTRE as well and he was just full of a little bit more bluff about his achievements due to his mummy issues.
Again, agreed in more spades!
Also, after my third viewing of SP last night, I'd say that the PTS is probably Top 3 or Top 5 in the series for me, and SP itself (still can't remember what my rankings were exactly) has to be in the Top 5. It's too entertaining and wonderfully paced (though as I was saying yesterday, I'd alter how it's all wrapped up) to not love that much.
No you're not.
I liked the ending too. You know where it's all going for B25 though
I was
I don't mind the chase down to Westminster Bridge too though at any point the helicopter could've veered away from the river maing the chase a bit 'yeah sure' but it did set up the second face off. I just feel the open ending of ESB's fate sets B25 to be his film with or without MS.ive seen the evil for always slip away to fight another day in countless things so to actually bring him down and have M make a citizen's arrest is nicely symbolic after ESB effectively killed his predecessor.
I liked the leap of faith into the rubble arrest netting through the core of the building from M's office too though Bond should've just said, "if you you trust me hold on" not do you trust me?
It's been a while since I've seen it. What remained in my mind, is the glaring contrast between the brilliance of CR (which I saw after SP, on my computer) and... well, SP.
SP was fun to watch, but I think I'd expect more from it now. Some more depth. More script, character backstory (but please PLEASE keep Bond's childhood out of it!). Waltz was somehow disappointing to me, did not scare me a bit. The score was nice, but was all too similar to other Newman's soundtracks; I really loved Dodd's CR music, so compared to it SP appears bland. The theme song... would be great sung by a woman (excuse me for my unwanted feminism), I actually like the melody and the lyrics (although both are quite simple).
And the Seydoux/Craig duo is not as genuine as Greene/Craig to me. Oh, the irony. But it's true. In the latter I felt the development of the relationship. None of this in SP. Sadly.
I know these are quite vague words, but I'll leave myself some more room for comment for when I get the DVD and the opportunity to analyze what exactly did not harmonized in me.
There's an excellent female cover of Writings on the Wall here. A lot have people have said it sounds better than Smith's own version.
In the movie though, with the wonderfully OTT and camp titles, I thought it all turned out pretty well.
Yesterday I went to see "SPECTRE" a 3rd time. And my friend Thomas liked it a lot, but also said "It's again a typical James Bond film".
I think this comment once used to be a true positive benchmark of the franchise. But after the franchise got shaken and stirred up dramatacially....and perhaps confusing way too....with critically acclaimed films like "Casino Royale" and "Skyfall", people actually forgot that they were Bond films.
I said it a thousand times. The first three Craig films are not just good Bond films....but also very good films, apart from the franchise tag. It's what created many new fans/lovers who don't think in Bond thropes like we do.
And once a movie like "SPECTRE" turns up, those people and reviewers are in for a disappointment. Although I have to say that the foundation for a more typical Bond film with all of the formularic elements, was already present in "Skyfall" (Q, M, Moneypenny, a killer of a theme song).
I see "SPECTRE" entirely as the fourth step in getting Bond more 'Bond'. It's the 4th part of a beautiful quadrilogy in which we see Bond becoming 'Bond'. I did see it like that. Sadly many others didn't. Apparently they still long for a lot of drama (death of famous characters, etc.). I don't. In "SPECTRE" I sometimes had a weird, but great feeling of watching Connery's 8th outing of 007.
Once I told my friend Thomas all of the above he said: "Hmmm, I really need to rewatch the Craig-films more properly then. I think I really like "SPECTRE" then!"
Time also for a quick updated ranking from my side:
Masterpieces!!!:
01 --> 9.5/10 --> 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'
02 --> 9.3/10 --> 'From Russia With Love'
03 --> 9.0/10 --> 'Skyfall'
04 --> 8.8/10 --> 'Casino Royale'
05 --> 8.3/10 --> 'Thunderball'
06 --> 8.0/10 --> 'Doctor No'
Good films!:
07 --> 7.7/10 --> 'SPECTRE' (NEW !!)
08 --> 7.4/10 --> 'Octopussy'
09 --> 7.4/10 --> 'For Your Eyes Only'
10 --> 7.3/10 --> 'The Living Daylights'
11 --> 7.1/10 --> 'Goldfinger'
12 --> 7.0/10 --> 'Licence To Kill'
Average films:
13 --> 6.7/10 --> 'The World Is Not Enough'
14 --> 6.5/10 --> 'The Man With The Golden Gun'
15 --> 6.3/10 --> 'Quantum Of Solace'
16 --> 6.1/10 --> 'The Spy Who Loved Me'
17 --> 6.0/10 --> 'Diamonds Are Forever'
18 --> 5.8/10 --> 'Moonraker'
Fun stuff for us Bond fans, but as a standalone film bad and sometimes even stomach-turning!:
19 --> 5.6/10 --> 'Live And Let Die'
20 --> 5.5/10 --> 'Never Say Never Again' (non-EON)
21 --> 4.8/10 --> 'Tomorrow Never Dies'
22 --> 4.5/10 --> 'You Only Live Twice'
23 --> 4.2/10 --> 'GoldenEye'
24 --> 3.4/10 --> 'A View To A Kill'
25 --> 2.8/10 --> 'Die Another Day'
26 --> 1.2/10 --> 'Casino Royale' (non-EON)
For me it was too monotonous with the titles. I like to listen to it on its own, but I think that some another song would be a better fit for a theme than WotW.
Of course you should feel justified. You're assessing the movie as it was presented to you. Your opinion is very much valid and as such, either you liked what you saw or you didn't.
Yes, CR still remains Craig's best and to be fair CR is arguably the best Bond movie since 1969.
SP is definitely an incredibly fun movie to watch, particularly after the more downbeat SF. I think with Mendes at tge helm at the preproduction time allocated for SF a much better script with certain expectations were warranted. SP is the longest Bond movie in the series and with Mendes' stewardship one would expect for characters and subplots to be more fleshed out, developed and explored, allowing for audiences to be more invested in what's unfolding before us, much like what CR was able to accomplish. I didn't mind the back story for Bond because very little time was spent on it and better yet, Bond himself wasn't reflecting or dwelling on it for more than 2 minutes throughout the whole film.
Regarding Newman's score. The guy just isn't right for Bond. Aside from a few tracks in total from both SF and SP tge guy's contribution is just so half hearted and does nothing to properly compliment the film let alone help elevate it. I'd take Arnold's superior Bond work over Newman each and every time. As for Sam Smith, I liked it, didn't love it but I do agree with those the song is best sung by a female vocalist.
I thought the relationship between Bond and Swann was mire or less alright and yes, they jumped the shark with that I love you line. Had the film expounded more on the development if these two characters together and what they can really offer each other then their relationship would have been much more credible. The relationship between Bond and Vesper, Bond and Tracy accomplished conveying a credible romance and again, bare in mind SP is the longest Bond movie in tge series. The time was definitely there to allow for these flaws not to happen but again, SP's main and glaring problems are scripting issues. EoN have known this for years but astonishingly do very little to do anything about it.
Oh ok ...I agree with you.
On a shear Bond excitement level yes ...or at least since CR
My real problem with this movie is the leading lady, Léa Seydoux. Don't get me wrong. She gave a very good performance. And I'm glad that the screenwriters allowed her character to face the ghost of her father, Mr. White and his connection to SPECTRE. But Seydoux had no screen chemistry with Daniel Craig. None, whatsoever. He had better chemistry with his previous leading ladies - including Eva Green, Olga Kurylenko and Naomie Harris. Two, Ralph Fiennes is too young to be portraying M to Craig's Bond. They are barely five years apart. The producers could have hired someone older than Mr. Fiennes. Or they could have hired the actor for a new and younger Bond.
Best chemistry for sure. But with Lea it was great too IMO!
I agree, but it's interesting that you put Harris in there. It's debateable who his leading lady in fact is in SF. Some say Dench. I'd prefer to say Marlohe, and he had better chemistry with her too, although I think he and the lovely Miss Green were unbeatable.
I agree actually. Dench worked better due to the age difference. There are several British actors who could have been used for M with suitable age difference to Craig.
Whenever I see Mr. Fiennes as M my mind races more to how much of a Bond fan he was growing up and how surreal it must feel to be part of that world now.
Reminds me a bit of Brosnan's history.
Same here. I can see a lot of faults in SP and things I wish EON and Mendes could have done better. But ultimately SP entertained me a lot more than any Bond film I've seen in the cinema since TLD. That's high praise from me!
Mendes had already (IMO) taken Craig's Bond in a radically different direction with SF. It was almost as if he'd ignored the tone and direction of the first two DC movies. So if you accept that SF was another mini reboot and go with the flow, SP works pretty well.
The compound in the dessert should have received more screen time. Bond should have had an extravagant dinner with the villain where a different grand master plan was discussed or at least hinted at and Bond worked out the rest.
We should have got a scene where the villain was watching Bond via satellite and then had the Rolls sent out.
The whole story to do with Denby (or whatever his name was) and what was happening with the SIS should have been dropped including the scenes in London at the end. This would have allowed for a bit more time to develop Madeline’s character more and the relationship between her and Bond, making it more credible and believable. Other scenes could have developed an alternative plot.
We should have had a brief scene where we saw Bond get a hold of what he used to pursue the villains in the mountains.
The whole personal story between Bond and the villain is too Hollywoodsque and clichéd. This was the wrong thing to do in terms of Bond’s background history. It cheapened it a bit. No personal connection would have been much better.
The music Newman used when Bond was making his way across the lake was all wrong. I was really surprised by this. We should have got something subtle, airy and mysterious.
It’s a shame because this movie had so much potential and could have been brilliant but they really did mess it up a bit with this wishy washy plot.
I don’t get these threads. Maybe it’s the internet here in Shanghai. I wrote all this other stuff about how Spectre has almost disappeared from the cinemas here in Shanghai after only having come out on the 13th of November and just lost it all when I hit submit. This often happens.
I will see the film for a second time today and that will probably be the last time I wll get to see it in the cinema. I bet it will be gone within the next 7 days. It didn't receive near as much publicity on the big screens in the subway stations here in Shanghai as The Transporter did and what The Martian is now receiving. Also, western films always disappear from cinemas in Korea and more so, China after only a short time in the cinema.