SPECTRE (Bond 24) - Oct 26, 2015

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PostRe: SPECTRE (Bond 24) - Oct 26, 2015
by Tafdolphin » Sun Nov 01, 2015 9:21 pm

Yeah, that's probably a bit generous. Let's call it a 6 with an extra point for Lea Seydoux who is still just utterly wonderful in everything, ever (although she's massively underutilised here).

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PostRe: SPECTRE (Bond 24) - Oct 26, 2015
by BID0 » Sun Nov 01, 2015 9:59 pm

I don't understand the hate for QoS :? Perhaps because I went in to it with such low expectations after Casino Royal and all of the negative comments online surrounding it.

I've only seen it once but from what I remember it's more interesting that Casino Royal. The plot makes way more sense than both Spectre and Skyfall, which were both lacking in the motivations for the bad guys and the evil plan they had which seemed to be based purely on luck more than anything.

QoS also benefited from being short, something which the others could have learned from. And I felt it had better action sequences, violence and chases.

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PostRe: SPECTRE (Bond 24) - Oct 26, 2015
by Trelliz » Mon Nov 02, 2015 12:57 pm

I enjoyed this, but it definitely has some issues. The whole reveal of the meta-narrative plot connecting all the Craig films was pretty lame, and the car chase was incredibly dull. I'd avoided hearing the theme song until seeing the film, and it's totally forgettable; made worse by the big Odeon in Leicester Square playing the other and more memorable bond themes as people were coming in and sitting down etc. I'm glad I saw it, but i'm not in a hurry to see it again.

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PostRe: SPECTRE (Bond 24) - Oct 26, 2015
by deathofcows » Mon Nov 02, 2015 3:36 pm

Not a big fan.

And seeing this has made me question whether or not overall i'm a James Bond fan, or more a Casino Royale (/Goldeneye) fan.

Now i didn't expect this to top Casino Royale, which for my money is up there as one of the most wholly satisfying films ever made, with not a dud action scene, failed joke or flabby scene at all. It also has a convincing, involving romantic journey and a a great unifying central plot-nucleus in the Casino game.

Detectiveness: Importantly, and i think its most underrated feature, is that in Casino Royale James Bond does actual spy work and earns his pay-offs. He crashes a carpark car to lure the guards to gain access to the security room on the Island etc. He has a tense, bag-swapping, door-watching stalking scene with the guy prior to the plane scene. He gains access to M's computer etc. etc.

In Skyfall he does dumb things like open a guard's bag to find a single poker chip saying 'Macau' (because assassins trade in highly identifiable novelty items?) for leads.

In Spectre he does much the same, finding the most tenuous isolated links between world-hopping places and the film somehow managing to convince itself that its a proper breadcrumb trail instead of a poor excuse to globe-trot. When he gets there apparently its completely reasonable for people like Q to quickly fly out to deliver minimal messages to him on apparently isolated, exclusive mountain-top clinics before planning to hop back to London, for no discernible reason except to justify the dumb blood-based GPS plot-point, which itself was an undercooked element of the confused Snowden-alluding 'theme' of the film.

Action-ness: Talking of dumb detail, i was thrown from my suspension of disbelief for a good 5 minutes in the (otherwise film-highlight) opening scene, in which a huge building explodes and crumbles (presumably killing at least one person? Making some noise? Alerting some authority? Making someone think there'd been a terrorist attack surely?), only for James to pooter back round the corner into an oblivious swathe of carnival-goers.

But the ensuing helicopter scene was exciting and tense, unlike literally every other action scene in the film. It's near-inexcusable for so much money and location-work to be wasted on such pedestrian action scenes - someone in the editing room should have piped up and said: 'you know, it looks lovely and all, but the editing does not make it very exciting or interesting does it'? - From the car chase to the snow plan it all felt pedestrian.

Story-line-ness: Why are we still trying to humanise Bond's past in some post-Batman wannabe way? Who cares about his childhood? Weren't the interesting perceptions by Vesper on the train in Casino Royale just the right amount to pique interest and reveal something about Bond, without swathing it in un-earned schmaltz?

Girls-ness: That ending, based on that 'investment'? Seriously?

Funny-ness: Actually some good funny bits (especially 'Stay!' which was a big laugh in my cinema, and conveyed Bond's general alpha-ness). And i don't remember any forced duds like in Sky Fall ('Circle of Life').


Overall: Not offensive, just perfunctory, worse than Skyfall (which had the Turkey scene and the Shanghai Sillhouette scenes, both of which bested anything in this, amongst other things) and an unfunny joke of a film compared to the All Killer No Filler Casino Royale.

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PostRe: SPECTRE (Bond 24) - Oct 26, 2015
by The Watching Artist » Mon Nov 02, 2015 4:19 pm

I'm siding with the Skip here. Whilst I enjoyed SPECTRE and wouldn't call it shite, its pretty good for a Bond film, its inferior to Skyfall in just about every way I can think about. I suppose he doesn't borderline rape someone in the shower. There is that.

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PostRe: SPECTRE (Bond 24) - Oct 26, 2015
by finish.last » Mon Nov 02, 2015 10:30 pm

Watched this tonight. It was alright, I suppose - 6 / 10. Some good bits, some really shite bits.

But two things stood out for me.

1. On arrival at the desert meteor crater, it was just so close to Christopher Waltz arriving and shouting "WELCOME TO MY UNDERGROUND LAIR!" in a Dr Evil voice.

2. Can't believe how quickly the police got the 'Do Not Cross' tape up after Blofeld's helicopter crash

I called off his players' names as they came marching up the steps behind him....All nice guys. They'll finish last. Nice guys. Finish last.
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PostRe: SPECTRE (Bond 24) - Oct 26, 2015
by Tomous » Mon Nov 02, 2015 11:40 pm

Regarding the the helicopter crash, I like how saying "Mallory, MI6" is enough to get past a police blockade. No ID required, just say those magic words to any police officer and they'll stand down

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PostRe: SPECTRE (Bond 24) - Oct 26, 2015
by finish.last » Tue Nov 03, 2015 12:21 am

Haha! Yes that made me smile too! My mates and I resolved to try that at some point in the future.

I called off his players' names as they came marching up the steps behind him....All nice guys. They'll finish last. Nice guys. Finish last.
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PostRe: SPECTRE (Bond 24) - Oct 26, 2015
by BID0 » Tue Nov 03, 2015 7:58 am

It's because Mallory is a code name for head of MI6 and thus out ranks everyone at the scene of a terrorist incident ;)

I pretty much agree with @deathofcows. It's okay to say "well it's a movie, a James Bond movie" but when it's trying to be realistic and gritty then it can't use that excuse anymore. As for the opening, I can't believe people liked it. It was just Daniel Craig rolling around in front of green screen, so over the top that it wasn't interesting to watch at all. I miss the days when they wrecked 20 boats, or 7 cars doing an action sequence.

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PostRe: SPECTRE (Bond 24) - Oct 26, 2015
by Tafdolphin » Tue Nov 03, 2015 8:18 am

Didn't they destroy $50 million worth of cars or something? No idea where, unless that Aston really did cost £3 million a pop.

Also, did anyone else feel the gender politics in this were really, really out of whack? I mean, Bond knobbing every lass he meets was maybe acceptable in the 70s but he shags a widow 5 on-screen minutes after killing her old man. And Dr Madeline "Empowered Female" Swann is so empowered she manages to resist for a whole scene! Fancy that.

Left me feeling oddly grubby.

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PostRe: SPECTRE (Bond 24) - Oct 26, 2015
by chalkitdown » Tue Nov 03, 2015 1:02 pm

All the female roles in this were awful. I feel like they've regressed a lot in this regard. Still enjoyed the movie quite a bit.

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PostRe: SPECTRE (Bond 24) - Oct 26, 2015
by Skarjo » Tue Nov 03, 2015 3:28 pm

I haven't seen this yet, but regarding Skyfall I really do think it's a movie of two halves and the first half is such a drag to get through.

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PostRe: SPECTRE (Bond 24) - Oct 26, 2015
by CitizenErased » Tue Nov 03, 2015 10:04 pm

Typical harsh review from 'The Verge' here but they do raise some good points.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/3/96654 ... niel-craig

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PostRe: SPECTRE (Bond 24) - Oct 26, 2015
by tomvek » Tue Nov 03, 2015 11:06 pm

Skippy wrote:
Well that was rubbish. It was the film people feared the Skyfall might be as the 50th anniversary celebration - just a succession of Bond clichés with very little tying it all together. Skyfall by comparison recognised the history of Bond in a way that didn't pander to smack audiences around the head.

Spectre IS wonderfully shot and well directed in part. The action scenes were poorly directed except for the train fight, which had some of the intensity and impact the film lacked overall. The car chase was incredibly dull - you could sense the filmmakers trying not to damage the Aston for three quarters of it.

Monica Belucci and Craig's scenes together were good apart from they had no reason to shag. Seydoux and Craig's chemistry was tepid to say the least and by the final act their relationship felt unearned.

Then there are the villains. Christoph Waltz is the main baddie, and Andrew Scott is more antagonistic but both are actors known for playing villains, so audiences know what to expect from them. Even then, their characters are two dimensional and the actors have little to do. Waltz is passable but Scott is bad, simply playing a sedate Moriarty without the psycosis.

It felt like everything, the Craig films were trying not to be made by people who thought they were above making "just" an action film or spy thriller. It was desperately trying to be arty, really self indulgent and far too long. I love Casino Royale, really like Skyfall and think Craig is one of the best Bonds ever - he encapsulates everything the charatcer is better than anyone. But Spectre is vapid, terrible and now I hope Craig is done. It's time to move on, all Spectre did was make me wish they had done so after Skyfall.

And now some huffing great spoilers

What a strawberry floating waste of Blofeld. The reveal was well handled with the cat (except the forced "hello pussy" line) but we all knew Waltz was playing him a year ago. It's nearly as bad as the Khan shite in Star Trek Into Darkness.
Just saw it tonight and have to agree with many of your points. It's a shame as I really wanted it to be great. I thought Mendes did a great job with Skyfall but here it's a meandering, pointless mess at times.

As someone said earlier, it's almost criminal to spend so much money on an action movie like this and have so few great moments. Compare the car chase sequence here to something like the one in 'The Raid 2' which is much more creative and on a fraction of the budget.

Highlights for me were: Bonds sitdown with Mr White ("you're a kite" line) :wub: The train fight with Dave (except the "gooseberry fool" line :| ), the opening tracking shot in Mexico and the "cuckoo" bits.

Overall a 6/10 for me.

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PostRe: SPECTRE (Bond 24) - Oct 26, 2015
by BOR » Wed Nov 04, 2015 12:51 am

I respect people's different view on Spectre and I would say it is a great film and it's on par with Skyfall, but not Casino Royale. I still think Casino Royale was the best for Daniel Craig yet he's definitely best Bond since Sean Connery.

Anyway, the more I think about Spectre and I wouldn't surprised if...

Hinx make a return to the next Bond film, as he got away from the train and it reminds me of Jaws. Dr Madeleine Swann as well to make brief appearance and most importantly of all that Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) should make a return. I feel he has got more to offer with the role as Blofeld and I'd be intriguing how his character would develop afterwards the ending of Spectre.

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PostRe: SPECTRE (Bond 24) - Oct 26, 2015
by Peter Crisp » Wed Nov 04, 2015 5:40 pm

I suspect the next film will

be about Blowfeld being sprung from whatever maximum security complex we shove him into and that the Wrestler guy (can't remember the name) will be leading the charge as head goon. I can see another cameo for Judy Dench as she reveals yet more info via spooky death video clips as a Bond film without her is unthinkable. Not sure how they can keep her in it after that unless the Bond film after the next is Bond digging up her corpse and re-animating her though but she needs to be shoehorned in somehow.


I know I may be in the minority here but I thought the theme song worked pretty well and was a decent Bond theme and sounded ok in Imax.

One thing I didn't understand is why did the glass break on the swanky new spy HQ when shot with just a pistol? Surely all the exterior glass would be ultra hardcore bullet and bomb proof otherwise it's just an ordinary building with a big old sign saying please blow me up as all the spies work here.

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PostRe: SPECTRE (Bond 24) - Oct 26, 2015
by Miguel007 » Wed Nov 04, 2015 9:06 pm

Seen this today and some general thoughts:

Christopher Waltz was great and glad he survived, C was awful. The best thing about that character was M's line about being a C. Monica Belluci was excellent and should have been the main female lead, the actual lead was rubbish there was no spark between the characters and I didn't care for her. It was almost as if they were trying to make her another Vesper Lynd in world record time, wasn't feeling it.

Didn't like the Sam Smith song in the intro but loved the opening set piece lots of nods to past films and Baron Samedi. The folks running from the helicopter and crowds were very well done.

Dave Bautista was menacing and a decent adversary but that last line before he died ruined the whole character, there should have been more photos / shots of Javier Bardem given he was the most recent baddie in this timeline.

...and we've waited so long to understand / see the motives of Spectre on film and this is the best they can come up with :fp:


That probably sounds more moany than I thought but I enjoyed the film and felt as if it flew by. Looking forward to the next and seeing how the story progresses.

I'd rate them: Skyfall, Casino Royale, SPECTRE & QoS.

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PostRe: SPECTRE (Bond 24) - Oct 26, 2015
by Skippy » Wed Nov 04, 2015 10:12 pm

Miguel007 wrote:Seen this today and some general thoughts:

The best thing about that character was M's line about being a C.


They spoiled that with the follow-up line

M: I guess we now know what C stands for...

Audience: :lol:

M:... careless

Audience:

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PostRe: SPECTRE (Bond 24) - Oct 26, 2015
by Memento Mori » Wed Nov 04, 2015 10:29 pm

Skippy wrote:
Miguel007 wrote:Seen this today and some general thoughts:

The best thing about that character was M's line about being a C.


They spoiled that with the follow-up line

M: I guess we now know what C stands for...

Audience: :lol:

M:... careless

Audience:

Image


Yeah it was completely unnecessary.

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PostRe: SPECTRE (Bond 24) - Oct 26, 2015
by Miguel007 » Thu Nov 05, 2015 12:48 am

Memento Mori wrote:
Skippy wrote:
Miguel007 wrote:Seen this today and some general thoughts:

The best thing about that character was M's line about being a C.


They spoiled that with the follow-up line

M: I guess we now know what C stands for...

Audience: :lol:

M:... careless

Audience:

Image


Yeah it was completely unnecessary.


Your both right and that GIF is perfect! :D

It was implied - he didn't need the extra quip. Must of been to satisfy the 12A rating.


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