10 replies to this topic

[Veteran]

Ready for the grumpiest Bond fan's opinion?

Short review: if you liked Skyfall then you'll like this. I didn't, so I didn't.

I heard someone on the radio say this more of a traditional Bond movie so that got my hopes up a little. The only way you can call it traditional is if the Craig movies are themselves completely separate from all the others. It's like they've taken the worst Craig movie, Quantum of Solace, and worked at making it better across two more movies. Problem is, if you take a turd, put sprinkles on it, and then put a cherry on it, it's still a turd.

It's better than Skyfall but not as good as Casino Royale.

Spoiler

The opening and the final 20 minutes are the best bits. Almost everything in between just takes way too long to achieve anything. Once again Bond is in a reactive situation rather than one where he's there solely to fuck up the villain's schemes.

The scheme in this one though is not clearly defined and is only to take control of the intelligence agencies of 9 countries. That's a good idea for a villain to have but they never say what they'real going to do with it. They create terrorist situations in other countries to force through this new intelligence service but that's it. Someone could've at least mentioned world domination.

Blofeld is now Bond's adoptive brother from childhood. I might be annoyed by this the most. It should become a personal animosity between Bond and Blofeld, not already there. Blofeld should kill his wife out of revenge for foiling a plan, not interfere with Bond's forgettable love life because of jealousy! Very beneath classic Blofeld.

C was a good secondary villain but terrible death. Should've died by M's hand really.

Now that I think about it more, this film could've been merged with Skyfall for the same overall effect. Skyfall ends with the 00 program up for debate then reformed in new premises. This movie is about the 00 program up for debate then reinstated in new premises. Huh.

[Fin]

I don't want to watch this film at all but I watched all the other Bond films earlier this year so there's a small part of me telling me I need to see this just to check it off the list. >=c

In general though I've noticed that since Dalton I've tended to only really enjoy each Bond's inaugural outing. They seem to try a lot harder to make a good film when they're forced to prove the new guy's worth. Casino Royale was amazing, its sequels not so much. I really have no hopes Spectre will be any better than the last two films and I won't really be interested in checking out the series again until we get the next guy.

Edited by Fin, 28 October 2015 - 02:57 PM.

[Veteran]

I agree.

Speaking of Dalton, I've mentioned before that I consider him to be the least sexy of all the Bonds, and can't buy him as a womaniser. Well Craig has taken the mantle for me. All love scenes were terrible in Spectre and it might be the only movie that's made me think the kissing foley artists were taking the piss.

[SteveT]

Vet, I can't comment on Spectre, but if you hate Daniel Craig, never read the books.

[Veteran]

Ha! Did Fleming do illustrations? I only dislike Craig because he's not sexy.

[Fin]

Excuse me Craig and Dalton are very sexy.

[SteveT]

As I remember the story, Fleming retroactively turned Bond into Sean Connery.
 
Mostly it's that the books depict Bond as an emotionally broken action man.  Most of the other actors were too smarmy, but Daniel Craig really brings the self-loathing to the character that the other actors are missing.  It helps that Casino Royale was one of the closer adaptations.

Edited by SteveT, 29 October 2015 - 11:32 AM.

[Veteran]

I've only read Dr. No and definitely my preferred interpretation of Bond is the Moore superhero type. I have previous with literary versus screen characters - I prefer Peter Ustinov's sociable Poirot to the complete snob in the books.

Excuse me Craig and Dalton are very sexy.

Dude, no. No, dude.

[Raien]

I just got back from seeing Spectre and I thought this film was a great capstone to the Daniel Craig run. It is admittedly a much safer story than Casino Royale and Skyfall (which I think is what people mean by "more traditional") in that Bond spends more than half the movie following breadcrumbs to get to the villains' secret lair. The plot also retreads ideas done in other spy films but I think Spectre implements those ideas very well so that it wasn't boring.

 

If Spectre has one big over-arching flaw, it's that the film is over-long. But that's not due to padding or pointless extraneous scenes, it's just weirdly stretched. It feels like every scene goes on just a bit longer than it needs to, which in turn makes the film feel a bit sluggish and lacking in energy. It doesn't stop the film being entertaining; it's just not gripping the way Skyfall was. If they trimmed down all the scenes to shorten the film by about twenty minutes, I think Spectre would have rivalled Skyfall easily. That said, Spectre does pick up the pace in the climax and I came away very happy with how it tied up both the film and the Daniel Craig run as a whole.

 

Spoiler

The premise that Bond was Blofeld's adoptive brother was an absurd coincidence and in any other movie that would probably have annoyed me. But Blofeld's motivation for killing his father was such a good piece of villainous crazy that it not only completely redeemed that premise for me, but it made Christoph Waltz my favourite version of Blofeld. Even if Daniel Craig leaves the Bond series after Spectre, I would be very happy to see Waltz return as Blofeld in a new Bond film.

Edited by Raien, 30 October 2015 - 07:25 PM.

[TheAvengerLever]

I really didn't like this one. The first two-thirds are fantastic but after the train fight it goes down hill.

Mr. Hinx, however, was probably the greatest henchman since Oddjob. He was terrifying.

[Crimson Lego]

Good 4th movie that I enjoyed, and if I remember correctly this is Craig's last film as well.

 

Spoiler

Good action and humour, but the storyline was just too messy for me to follow. The three other terrorist attacks in Tunisia and the two other places were barely mentioned. Maybe I just don't know enough Bond stories to understand who Christoph Waltz's character was supposed to be. Skyfall is still my favourite out of all 4.