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2012 In Review - 50 Years Of 007
TheWizardOfIce
'One of the Internet's more toxic individuals'
http://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/index_bondat50.php3?t=&s=&id=03413
Well people with mere hours of the 50th anniversary to go what are our thoughts in this momentous year of being a Bond fan?
Looking at the link above I would award the following marks:
Events: 5/10 - Bond day was a joke (A film only yanks could see, an auction no one could afford and the not so shock release of Adeles song) but the In Motion and Designing 007 exhibitions were decent.
I don't know how to rate the Olympics. It was a spectacular success but how much of it was down to EON and Sony? I think Danny Boyle likely as not made the call here. In any case was Bonds appearance at the Olympics not more down to his status as a national treasure (the same as Mr Bean, Del Boys Robin Reliant and Mccartney appearing) rather than the 50th? If the Olympics had been in London in 4 years time instead I think it just as likely the same stunt would've occurred so in my book that makes it a happy coincidence rather than an event for the 50th.
Overall I feel there could've been more. If you lived outside England or America there was basically nothing which, considering SFs box office is currently over 70% made up of worldwide grosses, seems a bit of a slap in the face to the rest of the world.
Screenings: 3/10 - Your point of view on this probably depends upon which side of the pond you were. Screenings galore stateside but here in London you couldn't even see DN anywhere on the big screen on James Bond day! The Top Gear thing was good and the various concerts (but again who was the driving force behind them; the beeb or EON?) but don't get me started on the lamentable handling of the EON documentary. I've awarded 2 marks to the BBC and I'm giving 1 for EON as it was a good film but I can't go higher as the way it was distributed amounted to an non USA resident tax being paid straight to Babs and MGW if you wanted to see it - and the rest of the world didn't even have that option.
In print: 7/10 - The Bond Archive, poster book, MI6 Confidential DN special and the book by Rog were nice collectibles but I'd really wish they would ditch the Bond on Set format and do a proper 'Making of' book. Keep the great photography by all means but what's wrong with some meat on the bones? Sally Hibbins 'Making Of LTK' remains unsurpassed over 20 years on which is a shame as I'm sure we'd all love a book of that quality for the Craig era.
Products: 2/10 - Where to start? Remember before you think I'm ranting on as usual that this is supposed to be the 50th anniversary not just the standard release of a Bond film yet what did we get? Corgi, Scalextric and Carta Mundi all put out the same thing they had done for CR and QOS just with SF and 50th packaging. Corgi in particular a disgrace as they have loads of models if Bond vehicles they could have repackaged and I would easily have dropped £100 their way but in the middle of recession just zero interest in making money. And you wonder why China is overtaking us.
At last we get all the blu rays released (which should have been done years ago but for the legal bollocks with MGM) but do get brand new super documentaries and features? No just the same discs we've already got plus the ones that have been sat in a warehouse for the last four years like the lost ark. Couldn't even be bothered to change the QOS menu screen to match.
And finally Activision really pull the stops out with an insult of a product that's actually the worst Bond game of all time.
The 2 marks are for the bolly in a silencer presentation case and the after shave which harks back to the classic days of Bondmania.
Skyfall: 10/10 - At least EON got the most important thing right. It's not perfect (as some would have you believe) but A list talent all over the shop delivers a top 5 Bond film which I would have taken all day long.
Overall: 8/10 - With SF, to quote Seb, EON 'did it right'. The Olympics was also a nice bonus. It's far more important that they concentrated on getting the film right as all the other is stuff is fairly irrelevant at the end of the day. Just a shame we can't have our 50th cake and eat it that's all. A great year to be a Bond fan - certainly the best in my lifetime.
Well people with mere hours of the 50th anniversary to go what are our thoughts in this momentous year of being a Bond fan?
Looking at the link above I would award the following marks:
Events: 5/10 - Bond day was a joke (A film only yanks could see, an auction no one could afford and the not so shock release of Adeles song) but the In Motion and Designing 007 exhibitions were decent.
I don't know how to rate the Olympics. It was a spectacular success but how much of it was down to EON and Sony? I think Danny Boyle likely as not made the call here. In any case was Bonds appearance at the Olympics not more down to his status as a national treasure (the same as Mr Bean, Del Boys Robin Reliant and Mccartney appearing) rather than the 50th? If the Olympics had been in London in 4 years time instead I think it just as likely the same stunt would've occurred so in my book that makes it a happy coincidence rather than an event for the 50th.
Overall I feel there could've been more. If you lived outside England or America there was basically nothing which, considering SFs box office is currently over 70% made up of worldwide grosses, seems a bit of a slap in the face to the rest of the world.
Screenings: 3/10 - Your point of view on this probably depends upon which side of the pond you were. Screenings galore stateside but here in London you couldn't even see DN anywhere on the big screen on James Bond day! The Top Gear thing was good and the various concerts (but again who was the driving force behind them; the beeb or EON?) but don't get me started on the lamentable handling of the EON documentary. I've awarded 2 marks to the BBC and I'm giving 1 for EON as it was a good film but I can't go higher as the way it was distributed amounted to an non USA resident tax being paid straight to Babs and MGW if you wanted to see it - and the rest of the world didn't even have that option.
In print: 7/10 - The Bond Archive, poster book, MI6 Confidential DN special and the book by Rog were nice collectibles but I'd really wish they would ditch the Bond on Set format and do a proper 'Making of' book. Keep the great photography by all means but what's wrong with some meat on the bones? Sally Hibbins 'Making Of LTK' remains unsurpassed over 20 years on which is a shame as I'm sure we'd all love a book of that quality for the Craig era.
Products: 2/10 - Where to start? Remember before you think I'm ranting on as usual that this is supposed to be the 50th anniversary not just the standard release of a Bond film yet what did we get? Corgi, Scalextric and Carta Mundi all put out the same thing they had done for CR and QOS just with SF and 50th packaging. Corgi in particular a disgrace as they have loads of models if Bond vehicles they could have repackaged and I would easily have dropped £100 their way but in the middle of recession just zero interest in making money. And you wonder why China is overtaking us.
At last we get all the blu rays released (which should have been done years ago but for the legal bollocks with MGM) but do get brand new super documentaries and features? No just the same discs we've already got plus the ones that have been sat in a warehouse for the last four years like the lost ark. Couldn't even be bothered to change the QOS menu screen to match.
And finally Activision really pull the stops out with an insult of a product that's actually the worst Bond game of all time.
The 2 marks are for the bolly in a silencer presentation case and the after shave which harks back to the classic days of Bondmania.
Skyfall: 10/10 - At least EON got the most important thing right. It's not perfect (as some would have you believe) but A list talent all over the shop delivers a top 5 Bond film which I would have taken all day long.
Overall: 8/10 - With SF, to quote Seb, EON 'did it right'. The Olympics was also a nice bonus. It's far more important that they concentrated on getting the film right as all the other is stuff is fairly irrelevant at the end of the day. Just a shame we can't have our 50th cake and eat it that's all. A great year to be a Bond fan - certainly the best in my lifetime.
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Comments
The 50th with SF, I'd give 8/10. I think that's a fair score.
They delivered with the film, which is what matters, but if we forget SF for a second and look at everything else, I think we had a pretty crap 50th.
The 50th without SF, I'd give 3/10.
http://www.cinemaretro.com/index.php?/archives/6888-COMING-IN-OCTOBER-2012-CINEMA-RETROS-MOVIE-CLASSICS-PRESENTS-DR.-NO-SPECIAL-EDITION-ISSUE!.html
Well I couldn't list everything and I did give 'in print' high marks! I don't think one magazine can tip the balance either way and thelivingroyales very fair assessment above that without SF the 50th would rate a 3/10 still stands (although personally I'd go 2/10 myself).
I'm interested to hear what all you yanks out there thought as you did seem to get far more catered towards you than on this side of the pond.
*The car exhibit.
*The olympics.
*The Top Gear special (actually can I count that? Well it was the first good episode of Top Gear in ages so I think I'll count it just for that)
I would've given it a point for the documentary (which I really enjoyed) if the release wasn't a complete shambles (thank God for the member on here who put it on Youtube, I wouldn't have seen it otherwise since I refused to pay money for it when America could watch it for free).
When I saw how little there was ..I kept thinking maybe it is from October 2012 - October 2013 that would be a year right......But obviously not.
I do live in the states, and it has been pitiful.
Not tours, no exhibitions that I know of.Sure one of the cable channels did show EON and a Bond marathon of movies.Not all..just certain ones.
I was hoping to find some Bond 50 memorabillia around some of the stores that have this kind of stuff.But nothing.
Even Ebay has little.Card sets, DVDs, a few mini cars, posters but little else.Nothing that original.
Plenty of Dr. Who.Which is massive over here in the states ...but no Bond stuff what so ever.
Not even a Google logo on "the day" which I thought would defintely happen.
Over all I think EON have missed a great opporunity to remind eveybody not just Bond fans that Bond is the most successful film franchise of all time.
In saying that SF has been a huge success, so I guess for them, that balances out.Money wise. For us who like to collect Bond memorabillia it has been a let down.
Still the Blurays are exceptional. 4/10
Oh well.. Happy New Year to all from Qbranch.
Sorry it wasn't particularly mathematical more just a gut instinct. I guess I weighted it to reflect that a good film is more important than anything else and we got that so I'm sort of saying that the Olympics and SF were enough on their own to give us 8/10 as pretty much everything else was rubbish.
Normally I'd agree with you there but the Olympics and a new Bond film managed to blot out the predictable misery of another insipid performance and pathetic capitulation on penalties and an even more dismal year for Liverpool.
@TheWizardOfIce, it's fine, I just didn't know if you miscalculated somewhere. I agree, though: the biggest thing that mattered to me was that we got an excellent film for the 50th Anniversary.
Events: 9/10 - Really only one word is needed: Olympics. Outside of that we had Bond In Motion, the two charity auctions, Roger Moore's tour, and Designing 007.
Collectibles: 5/10 - We got the 50th anniversary Omega, the bulldog is now available for purchase (not by Eon, but you can still collect it and it be recognized), and Corgi did produce whether you like it or not.
Literature: 8/10 - Roger Moore's Bond on Bond, Bond on Set, Catching Bullets, all great entries for the year; two we wouldn't have gotten if it had not been 50 years.
Screenings: 7/10 - A few re-releases in local theaters, though nothing affordable for someone like me including travel costs, etc., Top Gear Special, and a whole documentary on the franchise.
Film: 10/10 - Skyfall was a great entry for the 50th year, offering some new, reminding us of old.
Gaming: 4/10 - A very poor effort in 007 Legends with an interesting idea, but a failed execution.
Advertisement: 8/10 - High because Skyfall was the second highest viewed movie trailer of the year, behind TDKR, not to mention the Heineken interactive online game as well as TV spots and online video, as well as Coke and Omega.
Overall 50th Anniversary Score: 7.3 / 10
Looking back, this was a good year for Bond.
Collectables: 4/10 - I had hoped Sideshow Collectables would do a 50th anniversary run of figures, much like they did for the 40th, making some Craig ones (African Rundown Bond, Tuxedo) and other Craig-era characters (M, Felix, Vesper, Camille and maybe a Severine or Silva one). Alas, it wasn't to be. Other than that, the books have been good, especially The Archives, but not much else
Literature: 8/10 - The James Bond Archives is fascinating, as is Designing 007. All the other books were also very good (Bond on Set, Bond on Bond).
Screenings: 6/10 - Everything or Nothing was good, especially on a cinema screen, but the lack of other Bond screenings was dissappointing.
Film: 10/10 - It was not a letdown. It was brilliant.
Gaming: 1/10 - 007 Legends is abysmal. A grotty stain on the 007 gaming legacy.
Overall: 9/10 - A great year for Bond. Barring a few quibbles.
I totally refute your second point and partially refute the first.
As I said originally with the Olympics I think it would have been the same if was held next year. Bond was being used as a symbol of Britain in his role as national institution. It had nothing to do with the 50th so I'm not sure it can even be counted in this list at all despite its impact.
I find your defence of the collectibles risible quite frankly.
The Omega watch retailing at 3k is an extravagance only the very rich can afford and not a collectible. You might as well say an Aston Martin DBS for £160k is a collectible too.
The bulldog and Corgis pathetic reboxing of yet another DB5 (semantically you are of course correct that 'Corgi did produce' but I class that statement on a par with 'International footballer Stewart Downing' in terms of stretching the truth to breaking point) are SF specific merchandise and just slapping a 50th anniversary logo on the box doesn't change that.
Yet despite your Chamberlain-esque appeasement you end up scoring the year lower than me?!? Go figure.
Apart from the Skyfall home video release, and maybe a smidgen of B24 news, I wouldn't expect anything else. A quiet year, for sure.
Yes but the Olympics couldn't be held next year. This is only the second time it was in England, and it happened to fall on the 50th anniversary. The key point is that Danny Boyle and the Eon producers went out of their way to make the even special for Bond fans by OPENING the World's biggest non-violent event with a movie character. I'm not judging on whether or not they had the opportunity, but judging the fact that they took it.
As far as Corgi, they didn't market this DB5 as the '50th Anniversary Special'. It was the Skyfall DB5, which happened to be extremely similar, shock, to all the other DB5's of the films. Which of Bond's cars would you pick as the definitive 50 year car? ...Most would say the DB5.
I did in fact give a very poor grade, 5/10, for the collectibles, beaten only in worst-of-the-year by that appalling attempt at a video game.
A better game and better collectibles, and this easily could of been a 9/10 year.
Perfect would have been wide re-releases of the classics, another David Arnold Bond re-mix/cover album or something similar, as well as a closing press conference/interview with the producers and Danny Boy, sometime around December to talk about the successes of the franchise, and how they felt about Skyfall's success and where they see the franchise going for the next 50..
I'm aware of how the Olympic 4 yearly rotation works - I was trying to make the point that Bonds appearance in it has nothing to do with the 50th anniversary and more that he is a British icon recognised around the globe. Mr Bean is there for the same reason. A quick google reveals that 2012 is the 22nd anniversary of Mr Bean so I dont think Bean fans (I presume they exist) can claim he is there for a anniversary, merely that he is British and will be recognised internationally. Partridge for example would neve have featured as he is only known in this country.
The fact that the Olympics in London was the same year as Bonds 50th was a great piece of luck for the marketing department for SF and just because the event was brilliantly exploited to put Bond in the global publics mind I dont think it can be claimed it was specifically an event that marked the 50th as had Paris been awarded the Olympics it would have been Asterix jumping out of the helicopter with Hollande.
Thank you for making my point about Corgi for me. You're absolutely right; 'they didn't market this DB5 as the '50th Anniversary Special' and thats why they are such a joke. They just released the Aston from the latest film as they have done for years.
Would a box set of each actors car (DB5, DBS, Lotus, Volante, Vanquish and DBS) really been too much of a strain for the 50th?
2013 never had to top it. I suppose the film is what matters and the rest is just pet peeves, but I did want 2012 to be better than it was 50th wise.
I'd give Legends a lower score myself. A very poor effort is too nice. This game put the people who made it out of buisness, butchered 6 Bond films, was no fun for the fans or for the general public and made hardly any money.
Nobody gained anything from it.
I'm not sure the trailer getting lots of views deserves extra points. They released the trailer on YT, it just happened to get popular.
Trailer wise, I thought the teaser was ok, the full trailer was good, the IMAX one was fantastic and the TV spots were alright.
Heineken did a great job. I thought the coke ad was crap myself, didn't get a laugh out of me. Stupidly cheesey.
And then we get to the posters, my main complaint with advertising and the main reason I'd give it a lower score.
We got a good teaser which did it's job but was a bit gloomy imo, we got a generic poster of Bond lying down firing his gun, we got a grey depressing poster of Bond with the DB5, and then finally we got the final theatrical poster. It had colour, which was a start, but it was a crap photoshop job of Bond standing in a gunbarrel with London in the background. They could've put much more effort in.
My point is that the Olympics happened to fall on the 50th, the opportunity was there, and Eon and Boyle took it. Yes, he would of appeared if it were any other year. But, it was part of THIS year, the 50th anniversary. So your telling me to ignore it? It wasn't a part of the celebration of Bond and Britain? I have to count it in as part of the year's Bond celebrations, and it's a pretty big event. You can't say it has nothing to do with the 50th anniversary if it fell on the 50th anniversary. 8-|
Never did I say the Olympic opening only happened because it was the 50th. I said it did happen, so I included it in my year's review. If you didn't want other people's opinions, why start the thread?
You've confused me. Is your point they just threw the anniversary logo on it and sold it, or didn't do the hype and sold it?
No. So they didn't do anything special for the 50th, just the normal for a new Bond release, which is indeed upsetting. Hence my score in that category of only 5/10. We got the normal, but not the exceptional.
They bought Paul Mcgann back for a one off minisode, there was all sorts on the telly about it, they even used the old title sequence while Bond didn't even put the gunbarrel in the right place, let alone use the old design.
Also I'd argue that the 50th special had just as good a cast as Skyfall (John Hurt), and that Mark Gatiss' docudrama was not only better than the EON documentary, but it was also released for free so everyone could see it.
And then there's all the merchandise which I'm not personally fussed about (for Bond or otherwise), but lots of fans are and I know thanks to @MajorDSmythe that Doctor Who had an audio story with all the old doctors, and I know thanks to this thread that the Bond merch was piss poor.
Instead of producing radio plays with Toby Stephens, why not do a one off audio starring Roger Moore or Timothy Dalton (those are the two that I think would do it)?
Don't get me wrong Skyfall was really good but everything else could've been so much better.
Mod Edit - Removed inappropriate language.
Very good observations Sir and after all, to paraphrase the original Wizard himself - 'who is Who compared with Bond?'
When all said and done was the 50th very much different to the 40th (apart from the obvious cavernous gulf in the quality of the film released that year)?
Also, Bond got a tribute show from Bafta from the 40th, wasn't brilliant but it was a decent watch with plenty of interviews with past Bonds and tons of former cast members in attendance. And for the 50th? Tom Jones singing over a montage at the awards ceremony.
You're forgetting Dame Shirley being wheeled for the Oscars so she could sing Goldfinger for the one billionth time. That was the sum total of the Acadamy's tribute to one of the biggest cultural phenomenon of the twentieth century. Oh and Halle Berry introducing a two minute montage of Bond clips! Whoopee-do!