007 SPECTRE |OT| It's me, Austin. It was me all along, Austin.

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I think the only real character development(knowing that he'll go back to status quo in the sequel) is of real romantic relationship as the dramatic spine of the movie. Not a coincidence the best Bond movies(FRWL, OHMSS, FYEO, TLD, GE, CR) are romances, or at the very least have women giving legit performances with actual arcs/involvement with the main plot.
 
they do indeed exist, and I look at them like they're out of their minds. What a drab, unappealing movie

It really was. The editing was atrocious, truly the worst I've ever seen in a film. Didn't help that the movie was incredibly boring. I loved Skyfall though, I thought Javier was such a unique villain. I haven't read any of this thread cause of spoilers but I miss "It me, Austin."
 
just saw it a few hours ago -

really enjoyed it. easily the most fun bond film out of the craig era.
however, was easily disappointed and quite frustrated with how
blofeld and
spectre were used.
yay for stupid, nonsensical retconning of previous characters in the series as a lazy way to establish a big baddy for the series!
really drags the film down in a way.

will probably elaborate on what i liked and didn't a bit later, time for sleep now.
 
just saw it a few hours ago -

really enjoyed it. easily the most fun bond film out of the craig era.
however, was easily disappointed and quite frustrated with how blofeld and spectre were used.
yay for stupid, nonsensical retconning of previous characters in the series as a lazy way to establish a big baddy for the series!
really drags the film down in a way.

will probably elaborate on what i liked and didn't a bit later, time for sleep now.

You might want to spoiler tag a little bit more...

And I liked QoS a lot. Like the poster above said, it's the second half of CR, and for me personally it has some of the best sequences of all Bond movies.
 
Quantum of Solace is one of the best Bond movies (which doesn't say a lot) but it was a very solid entry in the franchise. Totally digged it, and it was by far superior to Skyfall. I hope Spectre can compete with Quantum of Solace, as I will be fine if it isn't on par with Casino Royale.
 
Quantum is a top 10 Bond, easily. I still don't know why people hate it. It's essentially the second half of CR and it will be looked upon fondly in a few years, much like OHMSS has.

i really appreciate them following through with the storyline casino royale set up but it's edited like a damn mess, i wish they gave that whole film a redo. some strong stuff in it but the movie aint good.
 
Seen it last night, somehow the cinema managed to ruin he start up until the credits as it was zoomed in way too far. A lot of pissed people got up when the title sequence came on and all the actors names were clearly cut off.

Apart from that I enjoyed it, expected more as I thought Waltz wasn't used enough. Regarding Craig, I came away thinking, 'It's time for a new bond'.
 
Seen it last night, somehow the cinema managed to ruin he start up until the credits as it was zoomed in way too far. A lot of pissed people got up when the title sequence came on and all the actors names were clearly cut off.

Apart from that I enjoyed it, expected more as I thought Waltz wasn't used enough. Regarding Craig, I came away thinking, 'It's time for a new bond'.

That's exactly what I happened when I saw Casino Royale - I had to go out and inform someone that the aspect ratio was fucked.
 
i really appreciate them following through with the storyline casino royale set up but it's edited like a damn mess, i wish they gave that whole film a redo. some strong stuff in it but the movie aint good.
I like Qunatum of Solace more than most people here it seems, but I really didn't like the fact that it's an immediate sequel to Casino Royale.
I totally didn't get it on first viewing by the way, I mean, Bond cold opening usually involve people that you don't know, and it's not like Mr. White had this huge memorable role in the previous film.
I also didn't think they did anything super interesting with it, like, the same plot could've been achieved without that, it just would've made the start of the movie less confusing.

I do agree with you on the editing, it's fucking terrible, and it's a shame since I think the film has one of the strongest scripts of any of the Bond movies.
 
I actually really enjoyed Quantum in the end with more repeated viewings. In the beginning I was disappointed at first I admit, but once you piece it together as directly sequel to CR, it actually turns out pretty decent. Now Skyfall on the other hand. . . Nope.
 
Ok I'm gonna try and sum up my thoughts... I'm just gonna spoiler tag the whole damned thing. I wanna cover some of that character development/Bond's past stuff too but i don't wanna risk spoiling - but there will be bigass spoilers in here.

So the character development and whatnot. We've got another character from Bond's past apparently, trying to get to him psychologically, destroy his world, etc. Now this would all be fine if at any point I actually believed that were the case. Like no this wasn't all Blofeld's overarching plan for the last 3 movies - you guys just decided that now because all that shit was barely connected in the slightest. I think I'd really like some sort of overarching story about his past and some shadowy villain being the ultimate reveal but I really don't believe it was actually planned that way.

At the end of Skyfall I got excited because they were setting up a Bond movie for Spectre. I thought i wanted a classic Bond movie again, but now I'm not sure I did. Blofeld literally walks him through his fucking lair while revealing all his plan and then puts him in no less than 2 escapable positions instead of just fucking killing him.

I thought I wanted Waltz to be Blofeld, in fact I said at the start of this thread I still think Waltz is totally Blofeld. But by the time it was revealed I realised it doesn't matter if he is - so what? It's just the name of a character, give him the scar and all, great, but it doesn't actually make a lick of difference at this point.

Also after they get rid of Mr Hinx, 2 people applauded at the 2 of them immediately taking off each others' clothes, most of us laughed as if to say "Oh come the fuck on." I was actually kinda hoping they'd never sleep together. We get another Bond girl being like "Stay away from me I hate you!" to "I love you" in the space of all 2/3 days apparently.

Oh and 'C', I really hoped he wasn't actually going to be a bad guy, it was way too obvious from the moment he started talking, I hoped he'd just be some guy who wanted to head this big surveillance thing and was a bit of an idiot which would become apparent when he finds out that this big genius network of his is being utilized by a huge evil organisation.

Ultimately I think I wanted classic bond but it came off feeling formulaic and a tad contrived... I still feel like there's more I could say but thoughts keep coming and going.

EDIT: Oh the humour was great, Ben Whishaw is a fantastic Q, gotta give it that. Also the opening and most of it before they get to
Blofeld's "lair"
was decent, at least action wise. Also I really think they jumped from place to place too much, he was all over the place without any sort of transition.
 
I actually really enjoyed Quantum in the end with more repeated viewings. In the beginning I was disappointed at first I admit, but once you piece it together as directly sequel to CR, it actually turns out pretty decent. Now Skyfall on the other hand. . . Nope.

We can't be friends anymore.
 
Yes they do. There's quite a few and I'm one of those, who loved Quantum of Solace and not so much Skyfall. Hopefully someone with the same opinion will share impressions.
 
You might want to spoiler tag a little bit more...

And I liked QoS a lot. Like the poster above said, it's the second half of CR, and for me personally it has some of the best sequences of all Bond movies.
sorry, edited my post - wasn't sure what constituted as a spoiler or not but should probably be more careful in this thread

also on the lines of QoS - after rewatching it the other day i can see why people like the film, but i honestly can't get over how shite the shooting and editing is. for example, what could have been the series best car chase ever was turned into an incomprehensible mess that looked like the camera man was having a seizure whilst strapped to a motor and the editor was just told to fuck that shit up. it's crazy frustrating to watch because you know the stunt coordination etc are no doubt good but the film just doesn't give a shit if you can tell or not. comparatively, casino royale and especially skyfall and spectre stand above it as action films, even though you could argue how QoS had some better set pieces (although spectre definitely takes the cake in terms of that now).

there was something else that i couldn't quite put my finger on why QoS didn't feel... right. maybe it was because it was a little thin? also seemed to lack a sense of humour in favour of fleshing out the darker aspects of royale.
 
Vesper Lynd should be the lowest on any lost looks-wise. But character wise with depth and all that, she's probably the best.

Olga Kurylenko is probably my favorite.
 
Spoiler free thoughts.

It's a mess. The action's mostly great, everything around it is shambolic. Very Star Trek Into Darkness-y, overburdened with poorly considered references to previous movies. Links to Craig's previous entries don't work at all, and the key continuity decision behind the villain is catastrophically misguided. The first half of the movie is generally good, especially the sensational pre-titles sequence (wonderful to have the gunbarrel back where it belongs), but the whole thing rather collapses in on itself in the second half.

Daniel Craig is occasionally good, often bored. Lea Seydoux does charismatic, sweet work in a nothing role. Christoph Waltz is badly miscast. Monica Bellucci is barely in it and Dave Bautista, while a great presence, is only there for the muscle. Naomie Harris' Moneypenny gets the least to do of all the MI6 staff, despite being the most action capable. Andrew Scott has nothing to work with, and gives nothing back.

There's some good stuff in there, with humour that mostly works (thanks to Ben Whishaw's dry delivery) and a willingness to have fun which Craig's movies have often lacked. Could do with being half an hour shorter - the narrative structure moves Bond from point A to B to C, etc, lacking any variation or surprise - having one location fewer, and finding a willingness to be its own thing rather than constantly referencing the past and trying to tie everything together, usually very badly. The score is forgettable and the film looks nice, but not especially distinctive. The ingredients for a great film are all there, and with even token consideration, could have at least equalled Skyfall (which I love). Instead, it's marginally ahead of the joyless Quantum. The highs are very high, the lows very low.

6/10, I think. Can't imagine repeat viewings would help it much.

EDIT: To answer two questions from this thread, no, the NOC list from Skyfall is not mentioned in any way, and the OHMSS theme/remix is not used.

Thanks for the Spoiler dude :(
 
I don't have a problem with character development, but we're watching this to get a spy thriller (with some hot babes and maybe a cool car), not a four part character study on the man.

Well I'm perfectly fine with a four-part character study on the man at this point. :P

I get people wanting to ease up on making the movies less about Bond, but then I think of the Mission Impossible movies: really fun, slick, well-made spy action films. But who the fuck is Ethan Hunt? Absolutely no one. There's no real character to Hunt, not much of an arc to him, he's just Tom Cruise -- which is fine, but also makes the movies somewhat forgettable for me. Whereas something like Quantum of Solace, despite being a demonstrably sloppier and half-baked movie compared to any MI (except 2), has more bite to it because of its focus on and development of Bond's character arc. His anger over Vesper, or scenes like Mathis' death, resonate more strongly with me than virtually anything in the MI series even if those movies are technically better. And I feel the same about a lot of the pre-Craig Bonds too.

Quantum of Solace was totally unnecessary, and imo the angle they took with Bond retiring then coming out of retirement and being super old and grizzled in what was to be only his third of five films (barring some kind of extention or early retirement) was another misstep. Not that Skyfall was a bad film, but those character beats were not why it was enjoyable, in fact I'd say they were some of the least enjoyable parts of it.

I actually liked this -- moreso on rewatch (as with the film itself really) -- but agree that it felt a bit too soon in Craig's tenure to do the old and grizzled Bond thing even if it made sense as 50th anniversary story. Had MGM not gone through bankruptcy we would've probably had another movie in between QoS and Skyfall that would've made the transition from young, fresh Bond to washed-up a little more natural.

Variety is fine. I'm not sad we got CR the way we did. One of the best loved classic bonds is OHMSS, which very much involves character development.

Unpopular opinion: I thought OHMSS was kind of bad (and not that out of step from Moore's films), and its character development fairly overhyped -- there's much ado about the Bond/Tracy relationship, but she's absent for like the entire middle section of the film!

I think the only pre-Craig movies that had something interesting to say about the man were Thunderball and Goldeneye (and maybe License to Kill? can't remember).

Vesper Lynd should be the lowest on any lost looks-wise.

What the fuck.
 
GAF is so weird with revisionist history.. QoS was hated so much at the time.. Now, "it's actually pretty good!" My take on it hasn't really changed, it's decent as a part 2 of Casino Royale, but it's horribly fragmented and really needed more time in the oven.
 
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