It Seems There Are More QoS Appreciators Than Thought Before

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Comments

  • VenutiusVenutius Yorkshire
    Posts: 3,152
    Ok, I have to 'fess: before I watched the podcast that Junglist posted with the interview with the bloke who played Slate, I'd totally missed that Bond had put his hand inside a shoe to deflect Slate's knife and had then hit Slate in the throat with the tip of the shoe! But that's good - it just means that even after watching QOS literally dozens of times, there's still things to discover about it! ;)
  • Posts: 1,394
    Venutius wrote: »
    Pretty much says what I think, tbh. QOS was the perfect follow-up to CR, SF was a major retreat to safer and more familiar ground and they threw away the gains they'd made. For a long time, the media just seemed to parrot the same old party line about QOS so it's good to see these views getting more exposure.

    Agreed. Go's to show how little in the way of planning the producer's had for the Craig era.

    Two badass Bond films and then the tropes bludgeoned their way back in...😕

    Some of us like the tropes.The “ blunt instrument “ approach would have made the Bond series indistinguishable from Bourne if they continued in this direction,I like that they put Craig’s Bond back on course to the familiar charming ,debonair persona of Bond we all love.



  • LeonardPineLeonardPine The Bar on the Beach
    Posts: 3,996
    Venutius wrote: »
    Ok, I have to 'fess: before I watched the podcast that Junglist posted with the interview with the bloke who played Slate, I'd totally missed that Bond had put his hand inside a shoe to deflect Slate's knife and had then hit Slate in the throat with the tip of the shoe! But that's good - it just means that even after watching QOS literally dozens of times, there's still things to discover about it! ;)

    Yep, me too. I had no idea he hit him with a shoe! I wasn't exactly thrilled to discover certain things, so I stopped the video...
  • LeonardPineLeonardPine The Bar on the Beach
    Posts: 3,996
    AstonLotus wrote: »
    Venutius wrote: »
    Pretty much says what I think, tbh. QOS was the perfect follow-up to CR, SF was a major retreat to safer and more familiar ground and they threw away the gains they'd made. For a long time, the media just seemed to parrot the same old party line about QOS so it's good to see these views getting more exposure.

    Agreed. Go's to show how little in the way of planning the producer's had for the Craig era.

    Two badass Bond films and then the tropes bludgeoned their way back in...😕

    Some of us like the tropes.The “ blunt instrument “ approach would have made the Bond series indistinguishable from Bourne if they continued in this direction,I like that they put Craig’s Bond back on course to the familiar charming ,debonair persona of Bond we all love.



    The Bond character and Daniel Craig’s brilliant performances made the films distinguishable from Bourne. And many other elements such as the music, villains and Bond girl.

    Stuffing Q, gadgets and Moneypenny back in achieved little and was regressive IMO.
  • VenutiusVenutius Yorkshire
    edited August 2023 Posts: 3,152
    Agreed. There some influences (darker, 'grittier', less overtly fantastical) and a few superficial similarities (the staging of the action scenes), but I wouldn't say that either CR or QOS were a Bourne knock-off. Plenty actually were in the 00s - The Bourne Identity was easily one of the most influential films of that decade - but for all the reasons LeonardPine's listed, I don't think that QOS was one of them. It's a fundamentally different thing.
    EON must also have been influenced by the Austin Powers films at that time - in the sense of where not to go! I'd say that avoiding the tropes and going for darker, deadpan humour instead of the more lame gags kept them well out of AP territory. And it worked, brilliantly (IMO, obvs).
    QOS was the perfect reinvention for me, but it was as if they didn't realise or have faith in what they'd achieved. EON seemed to lose their nerve when the critics put the boot in, then turned around and went back to something much closer to the familiar path. Ok, leave them wanting more and all that - but, as we've said before, in a better world there'd've been two more films like QOS before we got SF.
  • edited August 2023 Posts: 1,394
    AstonLotus wrote: »
    Venutius wrote: »
    Pretty much says what I think, tbh. QOS was the perfect follow-up to CR, SF was a major retreat to safer and more familiar ground and they threw away the gains they'd made. For a long time, the media just seemed to parrot the same old party line about QOS so it's good to see these views getting more exposure.

    Agreed. Go's to show how little in the way of planning the producer's had for the Craig era.

    Two badass Bond films and then the tropes bludgeoned their way back in...😕

    Some of us like the tropes.The “ blunt instrument “ approach would have made the Bond series indistinguishable from Bourne if they continued in this direction,I like that they put Craig’s Bond back on course to the familiar charming ,debonair persona of Bond we all love.



    The Bond character and Daniel Craig’s brilliant performances made the films distinguishable from Bourne. And many other elements such as the music, villains and Bond girl.

    Stuffing Q, gadgets and Moneypenny back in achieved little and was regressive IMO.

    But having Q,gadgets,and Moneypenny are part of the appeal of Bond.We like to see them.And I think they reinvented those characters well for the Craig era ( No easy feat given how beloved the
    original actors were in those roles ).

    It worked not having them there for Craig’s first few outings but I’m glad they were brought back.I’m hoping they are there already for the next reboot ( with new actors )
  • slide_99slide_99 USA
    edited August 2023 Posts: 693
    Craig seemed more like Bond in QOS than he ever did after that. He was Bruce Wayne in Skyfall, a non-entity in Spectre, and a self-parody in NTTD. QOS has a ton of issues but at least its central character is recognizable as 007.
  • peterpeter Toronto
    Posts: 9,509
    slide_99 wrote: »
    Craig seemed more like Bond in QOS than he ever did after that. He was Bruce Wayne in Skyfall, a non-entity in Spectre, and a self-parody in NTTD. QOS has a ton of issues but at least its central character is recognizable as 007.

    You haven't seen NTTD, so that's a bold statement coming from a guy that has only watched YouTube clips of an almost three hour film.

    I wholly disagree with your descriptions of Craig's interpretations in SF and SP, but I can at least respect it as you've come to these conclusions from actually, you know, watching the films you're criticizing...
  • Posts: 15,117
    Venutius wrote: »
    Agreed. There some influences (darker, 'grittier', less overtly fantastical) and a few superficial similarities (the staging of the action scenes), but I wouldn't say that either CR or QOS were a Bourne knock-off. Plenty actually were in the 00s - The Bourne Identity was easily one of the most influential films of that decade - but for all the reasons LeonardPine's listed, I don't think that QOS was one of them. It's a fundamentally different thing.
    EON must also have been influenced by the Austin Powers films at that time - in the sense of where not to go! I'd say that avoiding the tropes and going for darker, deadpan humour instead of the more lame gags kept them well out of AP territory. And it worked, brilliantly (IMO, obvs).
    QOS was the perfect reinvention for me, but it was as if they didn't realise or have faith in what they'd achieved. EON seemed to lose their nerve when the critics put the boot in, then turned around and went back to something much closer to the familiar path. Ok, leave them wanting more and all that - but, as we've said before, in a better world there'd've been two more films like QOS before we got SF.

    One of the reasons why (delenda Carthago) I think there should be a series of graphic novels showing stories set in the time gap between the two movies.
  • VenutiusVenutius Yorkshire
    edited August 2023 Posts: 3,152
    I completely agree - I love that idea, mate. I think there's a bigger internal time jump between QOS and SF than the four years between the actual films, so there's a lot of scope for stories set in that gap.
  • edited August 2023 Posts: 15,117
    Venutius wrote: »
    I completely agree - I love that idea, mate. I think there's a bigger internal time jump between QOS and SF than the four years between the actual films, so there's a lot of scope for stories set in that gap.

    For me, it's something like 2006/2007 to 2012 or thereabout. So around six years, maybe more. I'd love to use unused Fleming material, develop Quantum and its relationship with Spectre, see Mr White "retiring", seeing more of Quantum members being chased down and killed, more missions about them, giving MI6 a false sense of security, having M investigate Sciarra in her spare time and in secret (for fear of canother mole in MI6?), see a glimpse of Blofeld, etc.

    Maybe we should start another thread (in fanfic?) . From QOS to SF, the secret years. Or something like that.
  • Posts: 1,394
    The video game Bloodstone fills in a lot of the gaps between QOS and SF.Apparently
  • QBranchQBranch Always have an escape plan. Mine is watching James Bond films.
    Posts: 14,571
    The thing about Blood Stone was that it had an original story and never tied into the whole Vesper/Quantum storyline - it's a real anomaly in the Craig era. It did continue the tone of QOS though which I like a lot. If you consider this adventure canon with the films and discount the two Craig remake games, you can split the Craig era perfectly in half with 3 and 3.

    Would love to see some fanfic or comic series that bridges QOS to SF and maybe even references BS somehow without lazily retconning Nicole's mystery employer as an agent of SPECTRE, or Blofeld himself.
  • Posts: 15,117
    AstonLotus wrote: »
    The video game Bloodstone fills in a lot of the gaps between QOS and SF.Apparently

    I know nothing about it, but I'd still prefer a series of graphic novels.
  • Posts: 1,394
    Ludovico wrote: »
    AstonLotus wrote: »
    The video game Bloodstone fills in a lot of the gaps between QOS and SF.Apparently

    I know nothing about it, but I'd still prefer a series of graphic novels.

    The ending of the game heavily implies that Blofeld is responsible for the actions of a major character in the game.Although this was most likely not the intention as it was made before the release of SF.

    Many fans have retconned the events of the game as tied in to SP after that films release.

  • Posts: 15,117
    Thanks, I'll read about it. I'd still want to have a series of stories set between QOS and SF, if only for my head canon.
  • Posts: 1,394
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Thanks, I'll read about it. I'd still want to have a series of stories set between QOS and SF, if only for my head canon.

    Even if video games are not your thing,here’s the full “ movie “ in the form of its cutscenes.



  • Posts: 15,117
    AstonLotus wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Thanks, I'll read about it. I'd still want to have a series of stories set between QOS and SF, if only for my head canon.

    Even if video games are not your thing,here’s the full “ movie “ in the form of its cutscenes.



    Thanks, I'm checking it now. Funny, I was thinking of a "sequel" to QOS set mainly in Greece.
  • VenutiusVenutius Yorkshire
    edited August 2023 Posts: 3,152
    I got a good laugh out of that bit in Bloodstone where Bond's given a hardhat to wear and he just chucks it, the way that Craig slings stuff aside in the films! :))
  • Posts: 15,117
    Venutius wrote: »
    I got a good laugh out of that bit in Bloodstone where Bond's given a hardhat to wear and he just chucks it, the way that Craig slings stuff aside in the films! :))

    I thought it was funny too. Doesn't seem too bad for a game. Lots of things missing from a "proper" Bond story: the quiet times, the Bond girls seem so far very discreet, etc. But you can see how heavily influenced by the early Craig tenure it is.
  • VenutiusVenutius Yorkshire
    Posts: 3,152
    Yeah, I've only seen the same thing that AstonLotus posted, but I did enjoy it. I liked the way they'd reproduced CraigBond's walk too!
  • Posts: 4,139
    AstonLotus wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Thanks, I'll read about it. I'd still want to have a series of stories set between QOS and SF, if only for my head canon.

    Even if video games are not your thing,here’s the full “ movie “ in the form of its cutscenes.



    Blood Stone's a weird one. Not a gamer myself, but I had friends around this time who were and I even completed the older 'big three' Bond games (Agent Under Fire, Nightfire, and Everything or Nothing, all of which slap). I tried Blood Stone but lost interest. Story-wise it seemed to involve Bond hopping from location to location trying to find a series of different (and vaguely sinister and yet wholly forgettable looking) men with no main villain. There weren't really any gadgets per say from what I remember (I think you got a smartphone that did some stuff). Honestly, it made the driving scenes a little dull without getting some rockets to fire or something.

    I can see why they went that route. I suppose back in 2010 the idea of Craig doing a more 'classic' Bond film was unforeseeable, and for many there was just a sense that this was what the series was like now - gritty, action fuelled, no gadgets. I'm not sure if it was really connecting with a lot of people, as much as I think QOS is an important part of the Craig era and CR was a hit.
  • CommanderRossCommanderRoss The bottom of a pitch lake in Eastern Trinidad, place called La Brea
    Posts: 8,255
    Venutius wrote: »
    Agreed. There some influences (darker, 'grittier', less overtly fantastical) and a few superficial similarities (the staging of the action scenes), but I wouldn't say that either CR or QOS were a Bourne knock-off. Plenty actually were in the 00s - The Bourne Identity was easily one of the most influential films of that decade - but for all the reasons LeonardPine's listed, I don't think that QOS was one of them. It's a fundamentally different thing.
    EON must also have been influenced by the Austin Powers films at that time - in the sense of where not to go! I'd say that avoiding the tropes and going for darker, deadpan humour instead of the more lame gags kept them well out of AP territory. And it worked, brilliantly (IMO, obvs).
    QOS was the perfect reinvention for me, but it was as if they didn't realise or have faith in what they'd achieved. EON seemed to lose their nerve when the critics put the boot in, then turned around and went back to something much closer to the familiar path. Ok, leave them wanting more and all that - but, as we've said before, in a better world there'd've been two more films like QOS before we got SF.

    The only thing that connected QoS and Bourne was the 'shakey cam', which was sort of a 'new' technique. But the QoS story wasn't a revenge story, ti was a story about dedication and perseference. It's sad that that is lost because people don't seem to be willing to think anymore about what they're actually seeing. My main gripe with SP is that it fails exactly there: there's hardly a story at all, it's straight out 'Blofeld is bad, let him kill him (oh no he manages to restrain himself)' story.

    Bourne is a straight-out action fest with the eternal sinister CIA storyline.

    I don't even mind Bond getting back to the tropes in SF and SP, actually, I do enjoy SF, but especially in SP it seems it's not the same Bond. He's gotten arrogant. And THAT is the part I really don't like.
  • Jordo007Jordo007 Merseyside
    Posts: 2,641
    I think MI6 and then the CIA being "after" Bond for a portion of the film probably didn't help avoid comparisons, along with a shorter runtime similar to the Bourne films.

    I think some of those comparisons probably guided the producers to make Skyfall a more traditional "Bondian" film, along with a few familiar characters and tropes. Just a theory

    I do love the edge to CR/QOS
  • Everyone let's petition to get Daniel Craig back in the upcoming Project 007 Bond video game by IO.
  • Jordo007Jordo007 Merseyside
    Posts: 2,641
    Everyone let's petition to get Daniel Craig back in the upcoming Project 007 Bond video game by IO.

    I'd love him to do another game, credit to him his voice work in QOS and Blood Stone was top notch.

    I think Project 007 will set a new course, I wonder whether development has been purposefully slow to see how Bond 26 shapes up
  • Jordo007 wrote: »
    Everyone let's petition to get Daniel Craig back in the upcoming Project 007 Bond video game by IO.

    I'd love him to do another game, credit to him his voice work in QOS and Blood Stone was top notch.

    I think Project 007 will set a new course, I wonder whether development has been purposefully slow to see how Bond 26 shapes up

    Without much development on Bond 26 for a while, it will be a waste of money to wait too long before releasing a new game to keep fans occupied. Plus the financial profit of bringing back Daniel Craig as Bond in a video game would be solaceing given the emotional impact of NTTD's ending.


    It will take place in 007's first year so it will offer Daniel Craig's Bond portrayal a good reason to return in such fashion.

    And not to mention....Judi Dench as M.

    She's the best hands down.

    Money right there. And if they make an effort to develop a good Bond game unlike 007 Legends.....
  • Jordo007Jordo007 Merseyside
    Posts: 2,641
    I'd love it too mate but I think given thevending of NTTD, Daniel is well and truly done with Bond. I think he's over it. If we were talking about a Knives Out game on the other hand...
  • Posts: 15,117
    Jordo007 wrote: »
    I'd love it too mate but I think given thevending of NTTD, Daniel is well and truly done with Bond. I think he's over it. If we were talking about a Knives Out game on the other hand...

    That's why I think a series of graphic novels is the way to go.
  • VenutiusVenutius Yorkshire
    edited September 2023 Posts: 3,152
    Yes, I get the sense that Dan's done too. Remember his exasperation when some interviewer asked him if he'd like to stay on and direct a future Bond movie? He sounded like he wanted to throttle somebody. :D
    Speaking of voicing games, though, there's a trailer that's being shown for some series on UK tv at the moment and one of the voices sounds uncannily like Judi Dench - but it's Samantha Bond! V. odd - but on that evidence she could definitely voice M in a game.
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