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Another mid level Bond. The Tank chase is a highlight (that has to go down as one of the best Bond moments), Samantha Bond's Moneypenny is a lowlight (she is mildly tolerable in TND, TWINE, and DAD), but she if awful here (worse even, than Pamela Salem in NSNA). Not only did we get the "sexist misogynist dinosaur" talk from M, we have to suffer it from Moneypenny too.
Random Bond Viewing 2016 (in order of viewing):
January:
1. You Only Live Twice
2. For Your Eyes Only
3. Tomorrow Never Dies
4. The Living Daylights
February:
5. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
6. From Russia With Love
7. Spectre
8. Octopussy
9. Diamonds Are Forever
March:
10. Quantum Of Solace
11. Goldfinger
12. Moonraker
13. Goldenye
Oh common!! :p
I still greatly enjoyed it, although I understand some of the criticisms. All of the character arcs were well-executed and developed throughout the film, from Bond's battle with his own mortality, to M's struggles with the modern world of espionage and governmental skepticism, and finally Sliva's rage and bitterness at M for betraying him. My only criticism of Bond's arc is how it fits into the larger story of his tenure: he goes from young and inexperienced in CR/QoS to possibly old and past it here to hale and hearty in Spectre. It's all a bit of a mess, as great as his arcs are on their own (except for SP, where he has no arc). I don't mean to dump on SP yet again, but the difference between Bond's character, the villain's connection with the story, and MI6's relationship with the modern world in this movie and in the next movie are like night and day. Here they are fully developed, in SP they are tacked on.
Concerning some of the criticisms about the plot, my opinions are a bit more mixed. Some of the little holes don't bother me at all (like the train passengers not noticing the fight or Mallory rescuing M rather than Tanner), but others are a bit more substantive and deserve a longer response. The only two I really cannot understand are how Bond escaped after being shot and severely wounded and how Silva escaped from his cell despite two armed guards standing by. I noticed both of them on my first viewing and still haven't figured them out.
As to the other problems: Moneypenny didn't shoot again, obviously, because she was in shock after having (seemingly) killed another agent and wasn't thinking clearly. This is a bad move for an agent, but they paid it off by having her step down from field work and take a desk job. Patrice used the uranium bullets because they're extraordinarily powerful, as M tells Bond it would have torn him in half had it connected. Perhaps it's still unsatisfying that he uses something easily traceable, but this one is also minor enough to ignore.
M doesn't pull the covert operatives out of their embedded units because she doesn't want to lose valuable sources of intelligence that it likely took years to embed and who are likely doing extraordinarily valuable work of their own. It's also not guaranteed that the tape will be posted online before MI6 can get to it, so she weighed the different options. She also refused to leave the hearing because Silva was pursuing her anyway, and would have come to the hearing and killed some of the attendees had she left. Waiting to meet Silva there also gives them a better shot at capturing him rather than letting him run off.
Finally, the decision not to have a squad of SAS commandos or MI6 agents or whomever waiting outside Skyfall Manor was M's own. She didn't want anyone else involved, and she recognizes that she's messed up (as she almost literally says) and seems to be at peace with her possible death from this catastrophe.
All in all, Skyfall remains a top tier Bond movie and stays at #6 on my personal ranking.
Watched this outing last night. This would be about my fourth viewing of it. Ever since my first viewing of it, it has been at the bottom of my Bond list. It was just an outing that fell rather flat with me and I would get so bored that I would have trouble paying attention to the plot. That all changed this last time around! I was able to get into everything about it. It's very much a more grounded and realistic Bond movie. While I still don't adore it as much as other fans, it will have to move up a few spots on my ranking list.
CR and QOS worked fine arc wise.
Skyfall made a complete mess of Craig's tenure. Everything happening there was so illogical and Bond behaved as if he had been a 00 agent for decades and M was his mother.
SF may work on its own if you disregard how they depicted Bond and M before.
The story of SF should have happened at least 10 years after QOS in a timeline to make at least some sense.
Spectre on the other hand works perfectly as now enough time has passed since CR to have Bond being a believable character who has experience and a wiseness to act how he does in SP.
Instead of the soap drama story of SF there should have been something between QOS and SP. It could have been a gritty action drama around M, dying early in the movie and Bond going after Silva for revenge. Of course instead of that Austin Powers like depiction of Silva it should have been some very sinister, dark and menacing villain.
EON missed so many chances for greatness after QOS, luckily they got on the right track again for Craig's fourth movie.
Fast forward to TND, which is twenty years later, and it's the next time we see Bond in his naval uniform. Not for long, of course, but I liked the little reference. As for the film itself, it's pretty good, but I'm still unable to elevate it beyond the "average" tier. It's fun and enjoyable with a couple of good scenes and a good cast, but that's about as much as I can give it. The finale still doesn't feel like Bond.
Not my favourite of Moore's 7 Bonds, but TSWLM is easily is most relaxed.
Random Bond Viewing 2016 (in order of viewing):
January:
1. You Only Live Twice
2. For Your Eyes Only
3. Tomorrow Never Dies
4. The Living Daylights
February:
5. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
6. From Russia With Love
7. Spectre
8. Octopussy
9. Diamonds Are Forever
March:
10. Quantum Of Solace
11. Goldfinger
12. Moonraker
13. Goldenye
14. The Spy Who Loved Me
Like Last_Rat says, better every time!
This is pretty much when I tune out. Up to this point, I think quite highly of it. Even higher up to the Austrian clinic part.
What thread would this be?
I'll comment here because that thread is just for reviews, but hot DAMN that was one Hell of a thoughtful & detailed review(s)! =D>
All I can respond with is this:
After the string of latter Moore films I though the Bond I grew up with was dead & buried.
Then came Dalton. Cool.
But then the hiatus and eventually Brosnan. Bond was retooled. A total hero. And I thought that was the end of it. I like Brosnan, so I retooled my own concept of present-day cinematic Bond. And I was okay with it. I'd always have Connery & Dalton.
Then came DAD. Umm, not so cool.
Then came CR. The anti-matter DAD. Lots loved it- I thought it was as ridiculously straight-faced as DAD was ridiculously outlandish.
Jump to SP. I loved it because it had bizarre elements I loved, and a serious Bond. That & QOS are as close to a Dalton film as they've done since then (IMO).
I cannot fault your review(s) at all. But until they can produce a Bond film on the level of Sean's or Tim's again, I'll happily extract whatever joy I can can from any Bond film that at least gives me some identifiable traces of that which I enjoy best about these movies.
If I had been totally spoiled for SPECTRE I might not think it was all that right now.
"...the daughter of an assassin; the only one who could understand you..."
Combined with the little lip furl before Bond says, "Out of bullets."
This means to me that this is Dan saying goodbye to his Bond. No more an assassin.
Retired.
And I'm fine with that. In the end, a great run.
Unless they want to kill Madeline for a [yet another] revenge flick (and I don't think Craig would be into repeating himself), or an even more OTT story where ONLY BOND can save the day during a world crisis, lured out of retirement (*yawn*) than t-t-t-that's is all, folks!
As they drove off in the BD5, I truly got misty-eyed. B-)
I forgot to do this with Skyfall, thanks very much for reminding me.
Of course Don (the boyfriend of my wife's friend) was like do you own all the film can I see them so I took out my collection and still have them displayed on my coffe table from Dr. No (as Royale 54 is a bonus feature rather then it's own disc) to Skyfall (I don't own Spectre yet as I will likely be getting it for Easter)
Over all as bond fans I have to say we are incredibly lucky when I think of other franchises or fictional characters I like ( for example Batman sigh 7 films from WB really only 7 8 now with BVS sigh and the less we say about how MacGyver numerous attempts to come back the better though this fall might change that) 24 official films 3/4 unofficial (depending on how you view Diamonds Aren't Forever) 6 official actors so far (come on Craig come back for one more film please) and the franchise is showing no signs of slowing down, Spectre though it received mixed reviews still made a lot of money..
Yeah I think we are incredibly luck indeed.
Most overlooked Bond film.
Enjoyed it this time around. The fastest paced bond film along with QoS, imo.
I think part of what has made Bond such a long lasting franchise is that the producres only have Bond and they give all their energy to that character and franchise.
And its been owned by the same guys since it started.
The Big Studio, Like MGM or Sonny are only their backup to distribute the films but all are made by EON.
DC has Batman, super Man and many others so they don't know much what to do with all of them and Batman has been in so many hands that it has lost his identity.
And each of the directors own the character till they close their thing.
With Bond the director is just hired to get Barbara and Michael's take on the character.
Bond is a franchise owned by a small movie company which is only dedicated to make James Bond films.
I neither love nor dislike this Bond outing, it's just kind of there to me. To be honest I always seem to forget about this one when I go through my Bond list. There's really not much more for me to say about this film. Up next, A View To A Kill.
Its such a great film with great style and a very good story.
Craig was a great Bond since the beginning and his chemistry with Eva Green is definitely there much better than how he was Madeline. Vesper is a fantastic Bond girl one of the best and Caterina Murino was very good too even though she just had 10 minutes or less on screen.
Definitely one those Bond films which will always be in my top 10
Im gonna watch Skyfall right now to pay close attention to those moments you point as its weakness. But as far as i remember the film does imply many years passed since Casino Royale and Quantum and M's relationship with bond i guess it was settled since Casino that their relationship would br much closer than all the previous Bond-M relationships.
The whole thing is a bit of a conundrum. Sometimes the slow pace is fitting, like the darkness and silence that one finds deep under the ocean. Barry did a wonderful job of creating just the right atmosphere, as usual. However, there are times when all the tension seems to be eliminated as things just drag on.
Connery sizzles as Bond but I find both Largo and Domino to be quite bland at times. Fiona always makes everything better. It's a mixed bag. This for heat and these for cold. TB always ends up somewhere in the middle for me.
2016 Rankings
1) From Russia With Love
2) Goldfinger
3) Dr. No
4) Thunderball
5) Casino Royale 1954