SPECTRE Review Thread

[imsounoriginal]

Interesting little piece about author Anthony Horowitz's thoughts on the newer Bond movies, chastising the newer movies for making Bond "weak." I kinda agree and disagree with him; it's important to develop the character and do something different, plus Craig is so good that he makes it all worth watching, but I do long for the older-style Bond movies where it was simply Bond, girls, gadgets, villain + henchman, exotic locales and fast cars.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/cele...successor.html

[chip75]

Originally Posted by imsounoriginal

Interesting little piece about author Anthony Horowitz's thoughts on the newer Bond movies, chastising the newer movies for making Bond "weak." I kinda agree and disagree with him; it's important to develop the character and do something different, plus Craig is so good that he makes it all worth watching, but I do long for the older-style Bond movies where it was simply Bond, girls, gadgets, villain + henchman, exotic locales and fast cars.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/cele...successor.html

I was going to get annoyed with him, but I've said the same things he has (not about Bond been weak - he's just human), they seem to see Bond as some sort-of super-hero story where it's all backstory and predestined nonsense and he played cricket with the super villain who became evil when he brained him with a bouncer at the end of an innings. I don't care how he became the thing he is I just want to see new adventures and him been Bond. It's bordering Austin Powers territory.

The whole point of Bond was he didn't have much of a backstory yet they keep embellishing on it. The mystery was part of the appeal.

[Geoff D]

Aye. I didn't mind it with Casino Royale because the whole point was that it was a reboot, and QoS was a direct continuation which ended with the classic gun barrel motif that surely signified that Bond was back....and then we got more backstory related shenanigans with Skyfall with yet more to come in Spectre, it seems. Hmmm. If the rumours are true that this one will finally put all the classic pieces back in place ready for the next Bond actor then that's fine, but I don't think I could put up with another one after that where we learn of Bond's anguish when he was 7 and he had to flush his dead goldfish named Nobby down the toilet.

[imsounoriginal]

If Spectre does Skyfall-y box office numbers, the backstory/complicated dark brooding Bond will continue at least until Craig hangs up the tux and Walther. If the numbers come down far enough (under $900M worldwide, maybe), we may see a return to more formulaic Bond. I'd really love to see Craig do one "normal" Bond movie before he's done.

Originally Posted by Geoff D

...but I don't think I could put up with another one after that where we learn of Bond's anguish when he was 7 and he had to flush his dead goldfish named Nobby down the toilet.

RIP Nobby

[Show spoiler]

[chip75]

I guess Nobby was killed by Blofeld's cat. Cue images of young Sean Connery "Bad Pushy ..." entering 007's World through our warped head-canons.

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Aye. I didn't mind it with Casino Royale because the whole point was that it was a reboot, and QoS was a direct continuation which ended with the classic gun barrel motif that surely signified that Bond was back....

It's fine like that, but I have a bad feeling Craig's run will end with him finally becoming Bond and the rise of Spectre and I'll feel, "well what was the point of that? when we could have had 3 cracking adventures with a fully-fledged Bond?" It seems Craig is doing all the heavy lifting for his replacement!

[baheidstu]

Originally Posted by chip75

I guess Nobby was killed by Blofeld's cat. Cue images of young Sean Connery "Bad Pushy ..." entering 007's World through our warped head-canons.



It's fine like that, but I have a bad feeling Craig's run will end with him finally becoming Bond and the rise of Spectre and I'll feel, "well what was the point of that? when we could have had 3 cracking adventures with a fully-fledged Bond?" It seems Craig is doing all the heavy lifting for his replacement!

Yeah, and then as soon as Craig leaves and perhaps Bond 25 underperforms because everyone's tired of the reboot / origin story nonsense, they'll bring a new guy in whose a throwback to the lighthearted Moore / Brosnan films and all that heavy lifting will have been for nought.

[Infernal King]

Originally Posted by baheidstu

Yeah, and then as soon as Craig leaves and perhaps Bond 25 underperforms because everyone's tired of the reboot / origin story nonsense, they'll bring a new guy in whose a throwback to the lighthearted Moore / Brosnan films and all that heavy lifting will have been for nought.

That would be pretty funny actually.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by baheidstu

Yeah, and then as soon as Craig leaves and perhaps Bond 25 underperforms because everyone's tired of the reboot / origin story nonsense, they'll bring a new guy in whose a throwback to the lighthearted Moore / Brosnan films and all that heavy lifting will have been for nought.

Depends how Spectre performs, I think. Skyfall's box office run was a bit of a freak result in terms of modern Bond movies, and if Sony have indeed spunked $300M (as the emails said) on Spectre with the assumption that another billion-plus take is guaranteed then they may get an ASM2-style bite on the arse if it brings in "only" $800M/$900M. (Not a dreadful failure on paper, but an extremely modest return relative to the budget.)

Still, making another one after this may not even be Sony's concern because this is the last of the Sony/MGM Bonds under their current deal IIRC, and with the rights to make further movies up for tender it may well be that the series will go down a more traditional path anyway if it ends up at another studio.

[imsounoriginal]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Depends how Spectre performs, I think. Skyfall's box office run was a bit of a freak result in terms of modern Bond movies, and if Sony have indeed spunked $300M (as the emails said) on Spectre with the assumption that another billion-plus take is guaranteed then they may get an ASM2-style bite on the arse if it brings in "only" $800M/$900M. (Not a dreadful failure on paper, but an extremely modest return relative to the budget.)

Still, making another one after this may not even be Sony's concern because this is the last of the Sony/MGM Bonds under their current deal IIRC, and with the rights to make further movies up for tender it may well be that the series will go down a more traditional path anyway if it ends up at another studio.

Reportedly WB is the most likely candidate to pick up Bond if it leaves Sony, but I dunno if that's any indication of a return to the older formula.

[Canada]

Originally Posted by Riddler The Slag

With Adele's new album dropping in November, did she just become the front runner for the Spectre title song?

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/08/28...album-november

I'd be down for another Adele Bond song!

[Foggy]

Daniel Craig on Spectre fears, Hints not fully committed to Post-Spectre Bond

The pressures of following Skyfall were "massive" says Daniel Craig, and he's not committing to a further 007 film post-Spectre right now.

There is language of a fruity nature in this piece.

The 24th James Bond movie adventure, Spectre, arrives in cinemas at the end of next month, and as such, the next stage of the film's promotional campaign is cranking into gear. As part of that, Daniel Craig has given a new interview to Esquire, where he's chatted about the part of James Bond, and specifically, how all concerned went about following the gigantic success of Skyfall (the first Bond movie to break the $1bn barrier at the box office).

"I think everyone was just daunted, understandably", Craig said. "Like, it's the biggest British movie of all time. What does it ****ing mean? Where do we go from there? How do you process that? It could have been an albatross around everyone's necks. It turned out not to be, but there was a massive amount of pressure at the beginning".

Laughing that Spectre is "Skyfall times 10", Craig added that "hopefully my Bond is not as sexist and misogynistic as [earlier 007s]. The world has changed. I am certainly not that person. But he is, and so what does that mean? It means you cast great actresses and make the parts as good as you can for the women in the movies".

Not that his Bond is happy. "He's very ****ing lonely. There's a great sadness. He's ****ing these beautiful woman but then they leave and it's... sad. And as a man gets older it's not a good look. It might be a nice fantasy - that's debatable - but the reality, after a couple of months...".

As for whether he'll be back for more James Bond after Spectre? "At this moment, no. I have a life and I've got to get on with it a bit. But we'll see".

[Infernal King]

Yaaaay more depressing Bond

[LuckyDragon]

Originally Posted by Infernal King

Yaaaay more depressing Bond

The Simpsons - James Bond

I like Craig's movies but can't argue with any of that.

[levcore]

Craig always seems like he thinks Bond is soooooo beneath him and that it's a hassle having to play the character. This is what i don't like about Craig, he's a good actor (good not great) and he's brought a lot to his interpretation of Bond but he just acts like he's way above it all and not once have i ever gotten the impression from him that he enjoys the character.

[Foggy]

Originally Posted by levcore

Craig always seems like he thinks Bond is soooooo beneath him and that it's a hassle having to play the character. This is what i don't like about Craig, he's a good actor (good not great) and he's brought a lot to his interpretation of Bond but he just acts like he's way above it all and not once have i ever gotten the impression from him that he enjoys the character.

I dunno, he seemed genuinely thrilled with Skyfall and how that turned out. On the other hand he seemed a bit unexpired with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I think it's just the way he is, a bit plain spoken and rubbing stuff down to a very basic level to get a point across. I also heard Spectre's production process has been particularly long and tiresome, which might explain a bit of animosity towards talking about it and wanting to return.

[imsounoriginal]

TIME Magazine interview says Craig might be done: http://time.com/4018778/daniel-craig...re-james-bond/

But if he were to decide right now, he would probably leave the franchise behind.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I really don’t know. Honestly. I’m not trying to be coy. At the moment I can’t even conceive it.”

When asked specifically if he would do just one more Bond film, he replied: “At this moment, no. I have a life and I’ve got to get on with it a bit. But we’ll see.”

The fact that he isn't really doing anything else outside of the Bond franchise makes me almost 100% certain he'll be back for one more. Even the movies he does do outside of Bond, good or bad, just don't do great business. It's a cash cow for him, and doing one more at least gives him that much more financial freedom to do whatever he wants once his contract runs out.

[levcore]

The moment he stops doing Bond, his film career stops. He won't get cast in any big movies as every movie he's headlined outside of Bond has flopped or underperformed. He's a mediocre actor who got very, very lucky. He needs to appreciate this role and character a bit more as once its gone, he can kiss goodbye to plum roles in big movies.

[imsounoriginal]

Originally Posted by levcore

The moment he stops doing Bond, his film career stops. He won't get cast in any big movies as every movie he's headlined outside of Bond has flopped or underperformed. He's a mediocre actor who got very, very lucky. He needs to appreciate this role and character a bit more as once its gone, he can kiss goodbye to plum roles in big movies.

I think he's better than a mediocre actor. His problem with getting roles outside of Bond lately has been that his quote is too high (at least according to rumors re: Dragon Tattoo sequels and being dropped from Monuments Men). Probably needs a new agent, I dunno how he was convinced to do Dream House and Cowboys & Aliens.

[spectre08]

Originally Posted by levcore

The moment he stops doing Bond, his film career stops. He won't get cast in any big movies as every movie he's headlined outside of Bond has flopped or underperformed. He's a mediocre actor who got very, very lucky. He needs to appreciate this role and character a bit more as once its gone, he can kiss goodbye to plum roles in big movies.

I expect many mediocre romantic comedies starting Daniel Craig after he leaves Bond behind.

[imsounoriginal]

Originally Posted by spectre08

I expect many mediocre romantic comedies starting Daniel Craig after he leaves Bond behind.

But... but he's above all that.