Spectre

[Matt Wilson]

Well, that's the bitch about opinions, Dougie - they're all subjective.

[Goat Boy]

Would it be fair to say you prefer Bond when it's more, I dunno, "realistic", Matt?

[Matt Wilson]

As opposed to more cartoonish?

Then yes.

[F.o.W]

I still like the Craig films, even the two lesser ones. This quartet is miles ahead of every 007 movie since the first four Connery ones. If the producers feel that they're at a loss for ideas (doubtful that they feel this way though), then they should have done what they did with Casino Royale - go back to the novels and adhere as closely as possible to Fleming's original story. Update what you need to bring Bond into the 21st Century, but maintain the feel of the book. Ergo, the next novel after Casino Royale is Live and Let Die, which was an inferior Roger Moore vehicle which most people now can barely recall anyway. It's ripe for reinvention and would stand up for a Casino Royale-like overhaul. If they successfully did this, then they could do other novels which made for poor films in the past.

So much wrong in one post.

The notion that any of these are better than You Only Live Twice, Bonds Pepper, is absurd. Live and Let Die is riot. I love it to bits. They're just pure entertainment.

I'm with Goat boy on this one.
This was the best of the Craig films IMNSHO, the others, to my mind, were pretty dire.
Craig's portrayal, was, I grant you, closer to the books, but to me that misses the point of the franchise. I don't think these films would have held the appeal they have, for 55 years, if they had slavishly followed the books.
But as you say, it's all opinion!

[Matt Wilson]

I don't think I got past your first two sentences!

[F.o.W]

I don't think I got past your first two sentences!

Skyfall, Casino Royale & Quantum of Solace were generic, identikit action films & not related to Bond at all. Again, IMNSHO.

[Matt Wilson]

Oh no - I got that. You're wrong, of course - but that never hurt anyone. No, it's the "I'm with Goat Boy," and "This was the best of the Craig films" parts which cracked me up.

[KeithPratt]

Skyfall was awful in places - a Home Alone pastiche at the end no less. The bit in China was dreadful as well with almost no purpose to the plot - it was just a big advert for China.

[Dr Markus]

Did any of youse hear the rejected radiohead tune for spectre? I know they're probably going for a younger audience with Smith, but radiohead's tune is simply way way better.

[Geezee]

I liked the slight campness in Blofeld but I thought that he could have pushed it a bit further maybe but considering the tone of the new movies perhaps he felt this was enough. I wasn’t sure about his backstory with Bond however and why they made it more personal. To me Blofeld is above that sorta thing, he’s just motivated by money and power and Bond happens to be a recurring fly in his soup, that’s all.

I saw Spectre last night - the first Bond I haven't seen in the cinema since forever (however bad they got, it always seemed a movie most friends/partners/family could agree with as something to go see in the cinema). GB's comment about Blofeld and Bond being stepbrothers is my main qualm with it as well - it seems so weird and incongruous and, most importantly, entirely unnecessary. It brings up all sorts of weird questions that detract from the plot and add nothing to it. There's already so much that's "personal" about this Bond - the loss of his love, the loss of his mother-figure - that it doesn't need yet another personal element.

Also felt Monica Belucci was woefully underutilised, and should have been his main partner in crime. They would have been awesome together instead of this random one-off encounter. Actually it may be my main qualm, I think it's a real shame - they just discard her with "Felix will pick you up" and treat her character with about as much respect as Vincent Cassell.

Otherwise, pretty enjoyable. It does feel they get into some awkward pacing occasionally with the Craig Bonds, there isn't quite enough dramatic effect sometimes, but of course that's what they are going for with someone like Mendes at the helm.

[Dr Markus]

It basically looked like a film where the lead actor and the director were just getting the last involvement over with. Plus that sam smith tune over Radioheads? Bad bad choice. There should have been a bigger deal out of the fact it was Bonds brother that was doing this. They didn't work that well. It should have been almost, almost, Star wars "Luke, i'm your aul boy" level. Instead it was, "Oh yeah, i'm brother, aye".

[Geezee]

It basically looked like a film where the lead actor and the director were just getting the last involvement over with. Plus that sam smith tune over Radioheads? Bad bad choice. There should have been a bigger deal out of the fact it was Bonds brother that was doing this. They didn't work that well. It should have been almost, almost, Star wars "Luke, i'm your aul boy" level. Instead it was, "Oh yeah, i'm brother, aye".

Indeed - it was so strange (and unnecessary).

I could kind of see what they were going for with the Sam Smith tune - a Matt Monro style crooning. I don't think it's too bad.

[Dr Markus]

What do youse make of Bond’s background when it was explained? I thought it was pretty shit to be honest. They would have nearly, NEARLY, been better off making a prequel as a physiological thriller. One were Blofeld is just a creepy young kid, and well for those that seen the film, you know.

[LMG]

I would like to see it again to judge how well it stacks up against the other Craig films, which I love.

But the Blofeld aspect really threw me when I saw it, being a great lover of the Fleming novels. A Blofeld who is obsessed with and intertwined with Bond?

In the novels, Blofeld considers Bond to be a bumbling policeman, barely worthy of his concern for a moment. In You Only Live Twice, he is in two minds for some time whether he has actually met the man he suspects is Bond before - admittedly, Bond has had surgery/disguised himself, but having killed his wife in OHMSS, Blofeld has forgotten about Bond effectively.

Blofeld is a megalomaniac driven by the desire for power over nations. To make him Bond-obsessed and that petty is to ground him in the narcissistic, walled-in, internet-deluded 21st century.

Blofeld is bigger than that.

[Darkness_Fish]

I finally got around to watching this last night. It suffers from the same problem as most major films these days, by being at least 30 mins longer than necessary. I didn't really know what was going on for the first hour, but figured I didn't need to pay that much attention, as it was Bond and he was going to meet a bad guy, sleep with some women, fight and chase, irrespective of what the plot was. And that all happened, and was done quite well, I thought. Blofeld was disappointing, he reminded me too much of Dermot Murnaghan when he went all breakfast TV, he's just a bit camp and tanned to be threatening. Would have preferred Ralph Fiennes to have played M as he did Harry in In Bruges, a properly sweary-gangster secret service boss is more necessary than a black or female Bond, I reckon.

[Geezee]

I'd completely forgotten about the Blofeld angle on this movie until this thread reminded me about it again - my god, when I think about it now it's even more cringe-worthy. It even makes me vaguely angry - what on earth are the writers thinking? Which idiot said "Yes, that's a great idea!" to the joke "Wouldn't it be funny if Blofeld was Bond's brother?"