Title Sequences: ROYALE v. QUANTUM v. SKYFALL

edited December 2012 in Bond Movies Posts: 202
What Craig film held the greatest title sequence?

- CASINO ROYALE, designed by Daniel Kleinman
- QUANTUM OF SOLACE, designed by MK12
- SKYFALL, designed by Daniel Kleinman

I like SKYFALL the most.

CASINO ROYALE was a fresh and interesting title sequence back in 2006. Today when I watch it, it doesn't appeal to me. I think it's too cartoonish or animated, and the rotoscoping effects done on Craig for the titles really look shoddy. I also never really understood why they had Craig stare blankly at the camera for nearly 10 seconds at the end of the titles. I don't think that works well.

As for the titles in QUANTUM, I think it's just very bland. It doesn't even seem like a Bond title sequence. There's a lot of sand blowing around and bullets being fired. Craig's Bond aimlessly flies and falls through out the whole sequence. We see some women, but they're not sexy or appealing. They're just sort of there.

Kleinman gets it right with SKYFALL's title sequence. I love the weapons falling into the sand, the woman aiming the Walther at us, and the foreshadowing of the film's locations (dragons for Macau, stag for Skyfall, etc.). It looked really good and worked great with Adele's song.
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Comments

  • Posts: 501
    Casino Royale. It's the best TS, with GoldenEye, since the Maurice Binder era.
    Quantum Of Solace. It is not boring, but it gets a bit repetitive at times so Second.
    Skyfall. Although I liked the TS as a whole, and how it was combined with the music, I believe the theme of the house falling apart and the eye of Bond there, be it young or the one we know, it's repetitive and it was enough having it just once. Again I liked it but it's nowhere near Kleinman's best.

    So:
    1)CR
    2)QOS
    3)SF
  • I have to say Casino Royale, followed by Skyfall, and miles behind is Quantum of Solace. I like the general card esthethic of CR, I'm a huge fan of that. The song is great as well. The general look of Skyfall's is pretty generic as well, but a major improvement over QoS. That one is just grey, grey and more grey. It's dull. The song is one of the worst as well.
  • For me:

    1, SF
    2, CR
    -
    -
    3, QOS
  • AliAli
    Posts: 319
    Casino Royale mainly because I really, really can't stand the music on QoS and I found Skyfall bland. CR isn't that great though. Looks like a late 90s video game.
  • I'd rank the three like this:

    1. Casino Royale
    2. Skyfall
    3. Quantum Of Solace

    I really like them all, but Casino Royale just seems pitch perfect for me. Love the way the themes of that movie are incorporated into the title sequence. Skyfall has the same thing going for it, but I feel the incorporation of women into the title sequence was there for any other reason than it was a Bond film.
  • Oh, forgot about one thing. I love the fact that Vesper is in the opening of Skyfall. Kind of a nice touch.
  • KerimKerim Istanbul Not Constantinople
    Posts: 2,629
    Skfall was the better one. Brilliantly combines elements of the movie and Adele. Casino Royale was good too, but now it comes off as a little cartoonish. The graphics for QOS are decent, but the song ruins the whole thing.
  • Kerim wrote:
    Skfall was the better one. Brilliantly combines elements of the movie and Adele. Casino Royale was good too, but now it comes off as a little cartoonish. The graphics for QOS are decent, but the song ruins the whole thing.
    Much as I like Skyfall's opening credits (for many of the reasons you mention) it is a lot choppier than Casino Royale's, I think. It doesn't flow quite as well for my tastes.

  • Posts: 11,189
    1. My reaction when watching Skyfall's title sequence mirrored Dr Belloq's reaction when he opened the Ark:

    "It's beautiiful"

    2. CR

    3. QoS
  • danielcraigbonddanielcraigbond Suspended
    Posts: 39
    Oh, forgot about one thing. I love the fact that Vesper is in the opening of Skyfall. Kind of a nice touch.

    i dont remember her being in it ???
  • TheWizardOfIceTheWizardOfIce 'One of the Internet's more toxic individuals'
    Posts: 9,117
    I have to say Casino Royale, followed by Skyfall, and miles behind is Quantum of Solace. I like the general card esthethic of CR, I'm a huge fan of that. The song is great as well. The general look of Skyfall's is pretty generic as well, but a major improvement over QoS. That one is just grey, grey and more grey. It's dull. The song is one of the worst as well.

    Pretty much spot on. CR possibly the best ever, SF not too far behind and then a massive chasm to QOS.
  • edited December 2012 Posts: 11,189
    I have to say Casino Royale, followed by Skyfall, and miles behind is Quantum of Solace. I like the general card esthethic of CR, I'm a huge fan of that. The song is great as well. The general look of Skyfall's is pretty generic as well, but a major improvement over QoS. That one is just grey, grey and more grey. It's dull. The song is one of the worst as well.

    Pretty much spot on. CR possibly the best ever, SF not too far behind and then a massive chasm to QOS.

    Calvin Dyson described AWTD as one of the worst songs ever done in the history of recorded sound :)) Even Madonna's DAD grew on him.

    It's not THAT bad but its a fairly forgettable song. Adele's SF smothers it.
  • TheWizardOfIceTheWizardOfIce 'One of the Internet's more toxic individuals'
    edited December 2012 Posts: 9,117
    BAIN123 wrote:

    It's not THAT bad but its a fairly forgettable song.

    Mate it is that bad. 'Whooooo. Bang, bang' - absolutely horrendous.

    You're also wrong when you say it's forgettable. If only. It's etched onto my soul and I'm about as likely to forget it as Fritzls daughter is the last 25 years. Maybe with therapy I can learn to live with the trauma of Keys screeching. I honestly think I'd have preferred Richard Keys having a crack at it.
  • Posts: 1,107
    Casino Royale title sequence is the best for me :
    This opening is also the best use of the gun barrel as Bond turns to shoot the guy he thought he drown in the sink. And the theme song, which felt strange in it's preemptive release before the movie's but seems perfect now as it plays over images of cards and sixties feeling, Bond-shaped, moving paper dolls. The most powerful and disturbing of all the openings this one is classy and packs a punch while revealing Bond's beginnings and reminding audiences why we all love our double O agent. Daniel Craig is a vision as Bond. Blue eyes, dusty hair and more muscular than any before him, he was the center of a heated debate which ended after this opening proved he had the acting chops to carry the mantel into the new Century of Bond.
  • Lancaster007Lancaster007 Shrublands Health Clinic, England
    Posts: 1,874
    Casino Royale is one, if not the best, title sequence.
    Skyfall is great, and lagging a fair way behind is the awful QoS titles. Hate it!
  • Posts: 12,506
    Its CR for me followed closely by SF.
  • I liked the SF titles but when I rewatched the film I thought the titles seemed a bit random at times. It moved on from one theme to the next really quickly, ooh water, death, now DRAGONS! and SHADOWS!

    I think CR's were the best.
  • edited December 2012 Posts: 11,189
    BAIN123 wrote:

    It's not THAT bad but its a fairly forgettable song.

    Mate it is that bad. 'Whooooo. Bang, bang' - absolutely horrendous.

    You're also wrong when you say it's forgettable. If only. It's etched onto my soul and I'm about as likely to forget it as Fritzls daughter is the last 25 years. Maybe with therapy I can learn to live with the trauma of Keys screeching. I honestly think I'd have preferred Richard Keys having a crack at it.

    That's pretty dark but =))

    There's only three cool songs with the lyrics Bang Bang. One is this:



    Another is this:



    And the third is (of course) this:

  • Posts: 161
    Casino Royale for me has a actor playing Bond ever looked as cool walking up to camera in dark shadow with that intense look. You knew straight away this ain't Brosnan and Moore Bond but someone more kick ass.
  • Skyfall was the best I truly feel, even if both times, I watched it with hands over my ears. But Kleinman knows how to do a good title sequence, and once again, didn't disappoint. QOS was a little too nauseating, as was the overall movie, and Royale, a little mundane or banal, but it was simple in it's defense, nothing too extravagant, and more than componsated by a great theme from Chris Cornell, but I did enjoy the Skyfall credits the most (on their own)
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    edited December 2012 Posts: 13,350
    Great thread idea @MrBrown.

    Why not pick two films to face off against one another like the Bond film and villain threads? Keep this as an ongoing discussion.

    Anyway, for the topic at hand:

    1. Casino Royale
    2. Skyfall
    3. Quantum Of Solace
  • 1.Skyfall
    2.Casino Royale
    3.Quantum of Solace
  • doubleoegodoubleoego #LightWork
    Posts: 11,139
    CR - Was ridiculously impactful. The great animated sequences showing off a more physical and brutal Bond in action with Cornel's amazing song.

    SF - More in line with the classic TS with an eery mood, coupled together brilliantly with Adele's amazing song.

    QoS - It was mediocre at best, nothing special. Had the AWTD been an instrumental, the TS may have fared better.
  • edited December 2012 Posts: 624
    1.) Skyfall
    2.) Casino Royale
    3.) Quantum of Solace
  • 1-CR
    2-QoS
    3-SF
  • edited December 2012 Posts: 612
    Casino takes it for me.

    2nd QoS
    3rd SF

    Skyfall felt like it had mistakes in it. When the guns and knives were falling into the ground as graves, they just instantly stopped. There wasn't any downward momentum. It felt too CGI for me. I liked the hand dragging Bond and the white font, though.
  • edited December 2012 Posts: 5,745
    It felt too CGI for me.

    Too much CGI... in a CGI title sequence. Right. Bad on you Kleinman.
  • For me it is:

    1) Skyfall - Kleinman's best in my honest opinion, It felt like it could have been done by Maurice Binder if he were still alive. Also The music goes well with it.

    2) Casino Royale - Another great effort by Kleinman, I loved the way Bond approaches the camera at the end while Cornell is screaming "You Know My Name!".

    3) Quantum of Solace - The imagery was fairly good. The song really killed it however. Worst... Song... Ever... I actually like Die Another Day better than it, it at least has some good melodies, AWtD is just one big mess.
  • Skyfall was more surreal and different but I would have to go with Casino Royale in this comparison. Quantum of Solace, as with almost everything, is way behind the other two.
  • edited December 2012 Posts: 612
    JWESTBROOK wrote:
    It felt too CGI for me.

    Too much CGI... in a CGI title sequence. Right. Bad on you Kleinman.

    I understand that it's a CGI sequence, but it lacked a realistic fluidity that the other two had. It took me out of it.

    The fist fights in Casino Royale moved as if they were real people fighting, and the edginess was only the art design. Same deal with the san in Quantum.

    Skyfall's sequence just looked like it had mistakes. I work as a graphic designer, so maybe I'm just more picky about these things.


    Side note, James Bond 007: Blood Stone has a pretty great sequence, except for maybe the song.
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