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Neither bothers me. The look of the film perfectly reflects the themes of death and loneliness that permeate the film. The script, while not without its flaws, is not a big problem for me either. I truly enjoy SP.
Still enjoy it a lot! The pts is simply awesome!
The walk and long take is pretty great. I've had criticisms about it in the past. You can argue, for example, that it's all style and not much substance, or that they could have started at a later point just as easily, probably with Bond already on the roof.
Honestly though, f*ck that. It looks cool, the music's great, Craig's swagger is wonderful to watch, and it's such a classic Bond scenario. It's a great way of communicating Bond's back and on top form after SF.
It's something I would have said not long ago. But it looks great, tells you what you need to know about Bond at this point (and to some extent what type of bond film we're going to see), and it gets the film going with style. And if it gets that invested, emotional reaction from the audience the creative choice has done its job.
And yeah, like you say, it's full of style- the parade was such a good idea. I know it cost megabucks but it makes the whole sequence. Bond stalking Sciarra through it is really nice and tense. I think Bond was going to chase him more at full speed, but Craig couldn't really run because of his leg injury, so it became more cat and mouse and I think it really works. There are shots where Bond is sprinting at full pelt, and if you look closely you can see it's a double in a Craig mask, obscured by various market stalls etc.
Hoyte is a fantastic cinematographer but imo Spectre is not his best work.
I completely agree on this mate. I remember seeing pictures in the newspaper of them filming in Mexico and it looked so bright and colourful, it never really had that same spark on screen
Have we ever found out why the filter was used in Spectre?
And instead of Blofeld being Bond's foster brother, he's actually just laying the trail about Hannes because he's aware of Bond and has found out this information about his childhood thanks to all of his surveillance techniques, and is trying to lure him into some sort of situation which will help his grand plan; so the slightly awkward brother stuff can go.
Agreed. I recall some folks screaming that Craig wasn't "fit" enough for Bond because he got injured during the filming of some amazing stunts. That comes from people who most likely wouldn't dare to jump over a fence.
Brosnan also was injured several times on his pictures, hurting his leg, knee or ankle and he blamed himself for not stretching properly beforehand. Doesn't these actors' commitments make it a nice change from back in the days when the critics complained Moore was an occasional stand-in for the stuntmen?
https://notperfectedyet.wordpress.com/2020/07/23/five-changes-to-the-spectre-script-that-could-have-improved-the-film/
Having Mr White in the opening is an interesting idea, I guess that could work.
Okay, here's an expansion of that Octopussy idea: how about if Blofeld lays a trail of breadcrumbs for Bond to follow. Hannes Oberhauser's body has been found, Bond goes to Mexico or wherever off the books to deal with Smythe (let's say is his name) who the trail leads to. Bond is disposed to kill the guy out of revenge but at the last minute decides not to (maybe the message from DenchM tells him not to take everything at face value?). What he doesn't know is that Smythe is some vitally important diplomat or something, and an MI6 agent killing him would start international destabilisation. Blofeld is basically exploiting the Oberhauser situation as part of his plan to ensure that he can take control of MI6 and make Nine Eyes go live.
Ooh, I like that! It gives Blofeld (and actually Bond) a bit more agency in the story.
I'm sure it could even be ironed into a future Bond film.
But yeah, I did think that someone exploiting Bond's history to try and make him kill someone is an idea you could potentially still use in a future story.
I do like the way, incidentally, Mr White's death in Spectre is basically an adaptation of Bond going to see Smythe in Fleming's Octopussy.
You'd have to have SPECTRE coming up with a contingency plan after Bond doesn't kill 'Smythe' or whoever, although that may well give us the SPECTRE meeting we needed in that film (Bond eavesdropping isn't quite as compelling as SPECTRE plotting some intricate plan independently and showing the audience how dangerous they are in isolation). Or perhaps 'Smythe' could have been killed by a SPECTRE operative during the Mexico sequence when Bond doesn't follow through and have framed him subsequently/have set the whole story in motion. Bond would have been framed/suspended and investigated for the this personal killing and have gone on his own to figure out what has happened, obviously running into White and Swan along the way.
Recently I realized what probably irks me the most about Oberhauser: he never, ever cares about SPECTRE's schemes.
The first time we see him, SPECTRE’s leaders report their deeds and update him on recent events. Blofeld completely ignores them, and his only dialogue focuses on Bond.
Then Bond shows up at his lair and all dialogue focuses on Blofeld's relationship with Bond and Madeleine. He babbles a couple of things about "information being everything", but then his speech shifts to him being the author of all his pain. He doesn't seem to care in the slightest about Nine Eyes, and even at the end it's only C who tries to move their plan forward, with Blofeld only being interested in taunting Bond (and Madeleine).
Even NTTD follows this pattern, as Blofeld's only plan revolves around killing Bond (first in Matera, then at his birthday), and then taunting Bond again, though I guess this is a consequence of Safin hijacking his plans. This is partly why, as much as I loved Rami Malek's performance in NTTD, I kind of wish Blofeld had escaped Belmarsh and been the main villain in NTTD.
Granted, Silva also did this, but in his case his only goal was to get his revenge on M. Blofeld, as the leader of SPECTRE, supposedly has different goals, but the moment Bond shows up at the meeting in Rome he only seems to care about taunting Bond, which makes it feel as if Blofeld's only goal in life was being "the author of all his pain". Him having some evil monologues (like he does in Fleming's novels) about what he could achieve with Nine Eyes would have made him more appealing as a villain.
That’s nice, yeah, I like that a lot with the Spectre operative doing it anyway. You could have Moneypenny investigating what Bond is up to, and uncovering the Oberhauser thing and confronting him with it, thereby informing the audience and letting us in on it. And of course when she hears his side of things she trusts him on it.
Yeah, you’re right. There’s good stuff in Spectre, but the elements aren’t tied together enough. Blofeld shows no interest in his scheme to take over the world, as you say; Blofeld and C are working together but we never see them share a room or speak to each other (and Bond only meets C once); Blofeld killed Bond’s foster father and was his adoptive brother but Bond never shows any emotion or interest in either of those aspects etc. Without joining all these bits up, the motivations and drives behind everything don’t really register. For example there’s no doubt that Blofeld and C are working together, it is spelt out, and yet I never really feel it.