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different character to the wonderful Desmond, he's giving us a very contemporary
Q and I can't wait to see how his character evolves over the series. :)
Amen ! Actually, his caracter really annoyed me in SF. A real slappy face IMO.
In SP, it's definitely an other person! I really enjoyed his lines and his behaviour With Bond.
GE/CR reboot, fresh
TND/QOS fast paced, no time to characters action epic
WINE/SF more serious take on Bond
DAD/SP Moonraker bis
I'm guessing the circle will start again with the next one and next actor. Weird.
Surely TWINE was an unintended comedic take.....?
Not only are they tonally very different but I think SPECTRE would have gotten more praise. It seems a lot of the public's reviews are comparing it to Skyfall a lot.
You know what's braver than being a double-O agent? Publicly admitting a mistake.
That took guts.
I will see the film one week from tonight. Can't wait. I also fear that my expectations are so great that the actual film won't be what I think I should be.
In a sea of overwhelming positivity (could it be any other way on these boards as a new Bond comes out) I found both your reviews suitably balanced. Your opinion may have changed (which one is entitled to) but I definitely noted the objectivity of your observations in both reviews.
I'm sure I'll like this film when I get to see it but I'm also sure I'll have negative impressions on certain elements, which is as it should be. No Bond film has been perfect, even the vaunted CR.
Exactly ! Not a single look alike. Specially With DAD.
It's not done but I wouldn't be surprised if the next one falters in terms of money and popularity, especially if Craig leaves.
I thought the whole Craig era is one missed opportunity, Spectre is no different. Unfortunately Bond is what it is and not what I'd like it to be. It's just a camp, trashy comic book movie masquerading as something with depth and intelligence(or interesting). It's dumb nonsense but it always has been. I thought the Craig era would make a go of creating something with substance; but Mendes couldn't make Bond a tragic hero despite all the silly Bond childhood stuff.
I long for a Bond on mission film where he's not constantly talking to his scooby doo clan. Let him go, let him meet interesting exotic characters! Q and MP are not, nor is M.
Surely CR at least rose considerably above "camp, trashy comic book movie masquerading as something with depth and intelligence(or interesting)"?
I get your point on the scooby doo crowd though. This is not 24. We don't need Chloe (or is that Q......or Benji even) being a sidekick for our hero.
Actually my issues are with the Mendes ones mainly! I enjoyed CR although I think it needed a more daring director, and had problems with Bond being a reckless, terminator-esque, petulant rookie at 38 y/o. It was written for a younger actor, no doubt. QoS had an under appreciated intelligence to it. But yes, CR was more than a comic book genre movie. SF and SP, however...mutton dressed as lamb!
Truly too harsh. What are you actually expecting? Even Fleming created Bond to be escapism for adults not fine literature.
What franchise if any do you feel is doing it right or better?
Bond IS fantasy, I have no qualms about it. The difference is that Fleming had something interesting to say about the world he was in and wrote fascinating and complex characters. He wrote real people in the real world but with the tinge of fantastical escapism, not this crash, bang, wollop. Modern Bond has no idea what it wants to be. An attempt was made with CR and QoS to go in a specific direction but they always chickened out, and now Skyfall and to a greater extent Spectre dismantled have fully dismantled that direction by attempting to be 'classic Bond', yet comes across as lacking in identity and soul. Why not create a new identity for our times? It was a great opportunity to be daring and creative, but instead we get formula pretending to be an emotionally engaging drama. Bleh.
Oh, and I think M:I is a franchise which does it better. That series knows exactly what it is and goes all the way(even M:I 2 which was schlock).
I agree MI has more consistent writing but Bond has been around a great deal longer. The producers have experimented now and then with the unintentional result that not everyone's vision of what Bond is or should be as the same.
I don't think as far as character development that MI is ages ahead of Bond. That franchise isn't about character history or at least deep character history.
After a history of fantasy this territory is still new to Bond ....this is beyond just crying at your new bride's murder.
Yes Fleming did ground in a reality but the cinematic Bond has not.
There isn't a literary MI to compare.
But back to Bond I guess my retort which is what it is ..is that ok so it has faults ...some have enjoyed and others have been challenged as to how they see Bond..and still others just hate.
I for one am more forgiving but yes I do want consistency... a higher bar etc. Your comments which are your opinion and thanks for sharing just hit me as harsher than Bond deserved.
Is SPECTRE any different?
Opening scene
Bike Chase
Train fight
dragon boat casino
Komodo Dragon fight
Silvas island
DB5 scene
Silva destroying the DB5
endng gunbarrel.
And perhaps the most egregious example of the lack of Bond theme would be QoS. There's, what, 2 overtures (and that may even be including the gunbarrel). Contrast that with TND which probably had 12-15 instances (including multiple times in one scene). I think that was almost wearing it out, but I'd like to hear more than what the Craig era has had on average.
It's odd; there are just some movies that seem to have more of it than other movies. FRWL, YOLT, LALD, and LTK all stick out as movies that seemed to have it in many scene transitions and action scenes. LTK had some instances where it played through the entire action sequence (like roping Sanchez's plane and water skiing). Love it.
Preposterous thrills with a darker streak.
Right from the outset we know that this Bond instalment is intended to be bigger, better and different to its direct predecessors. An indulgent feast of a film that aims to deliver on both over-the-top action and intense drama in a way that is, oddly, both even sillier AND even darker than before.
Die Another Day attempted a similar approach in 2002 and, like Spectre, featured many throwbacks to previous moments in the James Bond series. This time around, however, the results are substantially more successful thanks to the strong cast and watchful eye of director Sam Mendes. A further attempt is made to delve into Bond’s past and link previous events within the Craig-007 universe, a brave move intended to give more depth and continuity to the character.
At the same time however, a lot of screen time is given to crowd-pleasing action. While the film may sometimes slip back into caricature territory a little too much (Bond dressed in a tux falling onto a sofa after just destroying a building comes to mind), at other moments Spectre is far more hard hitting and brutal than anything seen in Craig’s run yet. The Orwellian themes of surveillance within the government that are explored throughout the film come to a head with a genuinely uncomfortable torture sequence that goes a step or two further from what we saw in Casino Royale. Indeed, several cuts were apparently made to ensure the 12A certificate was passed – nonetheless, the violence still feels very close to the mark on occasions.
It will probably take several viewings to determine whether Spectre holds up properly. Although it may not have the overall intensity of its predecessors, this is still a thoroughly entertaining action adventure.
8/10
Because the digging into his childhood is a hack job way of trying to 'legitimate' Bond as a tragic hero. As we all know Bourne caused Broccoli and Wilson to attempt to take Bond more seriously, but they were unwilling to go all the way with it; they retained all the components which apparently make Bond what it is and yet tried to steer him into a realm of anguish and 'gritty realism'. It has made Bond schizophrenic and lacking an identity of it's own. I think they have failed to stop Bond being a parody of itself.
In Spectre we have a film where character development and pacing make way for tighter edits in order to get all the set pieces in, and as a result the believability of these 'characters' is thwarted. The Dark Knight is a top example of how a fantasy action popcorn film has the balls to pace itself accordingly and give it's characters space to become real. I'm not looking for 'serious emotional stuff', I'm looking for an adaptation of Fleming's wonderful character studies transposed onto a fantasy story. Bourne did it, Nolan did it with TDK(bit a bodge job on it's sequel but almost). It's insane how Mendes couldn't without resorting to some hackneyed two parter about oedepal trysts and VERY petty childhood vengeance. He's supposed to be the director who makes Bond a real person on screen!
Whereas Connery's era imbued those cheeky one liners with absolute aplomb, here is it done with the nuance of a jackhammer. I did enjoy the film but there is really little to talk about with regards to it or Skyfall, given how shallow they are. This is why I enjoy QoS; it's a straight up revenge flick and doesn't overcook Bond's trauma, but let's other characters reference it instead. His relationship with other characters was truthful aswell. Perhaps it was better since it was actually a Bond on mission film, and he didn't have all these interactions with his trusted allies, the secretary and quartermaster. Craig was magnificent in that film. I think he's never quite comfortable with Bond's sardonic wit in the other ones. The less he has to say the better because he shows it with his eyes and body.
I'm sorry if you find these points pretentious but it seems that raising them infront of any Bond fanboy elicits the same response. Anyhoo, thanks for reading.
I agree with a lot of what you say here.
For me SF was the low point of the Craig era. This new film is not as good as QoS or CR IMO but is a vast improvement on its predecessor.
Character development was a lot more convincing in CR and QOS I think and Craig was excellent in his first two films.
I felt an element of autopilot with Spectre when it comes to Craig. I don't think its lack of effort. I think perhaps he feels he's 'got' Bond now and what comes across is a much less edgy and interesting character than the one he portrayed in the first two films. I still like him in the role, but SP has just confirmed some of my lingering doubts about Craig. I am going to set the cat among the pigeons here, but like Robert Hardy I'm just not sure Craig is all that good an actor. Give me Connery, Moore or Dalton any day - all of them had flaws but for me are far more compelling in the role. I know this flies in the face of the received wisdom but although Craig has undeniable presence in screen, I'm just not sure he has much charisma. Still, as I've said elsewhere, he's still head and shoulders above Brosnan in the part.
Hmm... :-?
I'm sorry but I simply can not agree with this.
So we start with the obvious. Did i enjoy the film? Honestly, not really. The whole film had an overriding sense of a script that had been messed with over and over by different people, wanting different things. Insert humour here, insert humour there etc, which really didn't work, seemed awkward and at some points cringe worthy.
It also has a "Die Another Day" feel to it, thankfully not quite as bad but still it has the over the top, self referential air too it. Something, i personally, am not a fan of.
This time out our characters are a lot more shallow. We aren't given a lot of time to develop who people are or even what their purpose in the movie is. Instead we are offered more action or more scoping shots of pretty locations. It's not like we didn't have time to have everything. The film is too long as it is. Plenty of time to explore the characters further.
It's not all bad points, The film looked great. The D.O.P. needs to be given a pat on the back for his work. In particular the PTS, sensational imagery. The music score was solid, nothing to write home about and sadly inferior to that of Skyfall but still a solid score. Weirdly "The Writings on the Wall" works better in the film than it does as a stand alone record. Just something i noticed. Really dislike the song as a song, but as a companion piece to the opening titles, it kinda' worked.
Without spoilers and going in depth that's about the best I can do.
My Score. 5.5/10
On a side note. The two people who accompanied me where even less favourable than myself. They both gave it a 3/10 and both said its in the bottom 3 or 4 Bond films. One of them is even calling for a post Die another Day reboot. So there you go.
I too have my doubts, because to date (up to and including SF) I have found him far more interesting and compelling when he has real depth to delve into, like he did in CR. In the SP trailers at least, he seems quite uncomfortable and unnatural delivering the one liners....not PB or TD level uncomfortable, but uncomfortable nonetheless.
I found him strangely robotic and overshadowed in SF, particularly in comparison to Dench, Fiennes & Bardem, except for a few sarcastic flourishes here and there (e.g. first meeting with Q & psyche eval scenes).
Rog & Sean could make even the dullest of scenes interesting to watch. Craig seems like he needs something more meaty to really come alive and become magnetic.
Well explained post @AVB. I agree that DC says a lot with his non-verbal communication (seeing Vesper in the shower in CR.....looking around the room while tied up waiting for Silva's entrance in SF, psyche eval in SF etc. etc.). I'm very curious to see how I feel about this entry...Will let you know on the 6th.