New Bond Film - "Spectre" - October / November 2015

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An awful Bond and I can't believe they dragged it out for 2.5 hrs. The opening canned action was inferior to CR in every way and that car chase was limp. Right up there with QoS in my view.
 
Mike Rotch
that car chase was limp
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I'm not really sure what happened there. On paper, it seemed like something that couldn't go wrong, but in the end, it fell a little flat. I think that the issue stems from the editing: the average shot length is actually pretty long. And the phone call mid-chase was distracting.
 
prisonermonkeys
I'm not really sure what happened there. On paper, it seemed like something that couldn't go wrong, but in the end, it fell a little flat. I think that the issue stems from the editing: the average shot length is actually pretty long. And the phone call mid-chase was distracting.
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I must have also missed some humour, as the "hardware shop" look of the gadgets in the Aston looked cheap. Also, who knew, you can drive hypercars up and down stairs at speed and the body and suspension are just aces.
 
Mike Rotch
I must have also missed some humour, as the "hardware shop" look of the gadgets in the Aston looked cheap.
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I think it's more in keeping with the series philosophy of being more grounded in realism. Some of the more gadget-laden cars in the past were actually inoperable because the gadgets too up so much space in the engine bay.

Mike Rotch
Also, who knew, you can drive hypercars up and down stairs at speed and the body and suspension are just aces.
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Suspension of disbelief (in more ways than one).
 
The car chase was ok, just nothing much happened. They never really got too close, just both driving along. Bond pushed the local 500 driver along and then parachuted out. That was about it. Although in saying that at least this one was well shot, the QoS one might have been more action packed but it was very hard to follow with the purposely shaky camera work.

Anyway I watched it again for the second time a few days ago and I still like it. Not the best Bond, not the worst, just a solid outing which hopefully sets up an even better one coming next, with Blofeld still alive and surely featuring again.
 
Samus
Bond pushed the local 500 driver along and then parachuted out.
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The local 500 driver is producer Michael G. Wilson. He regularly makes cameo appearances - he was also the Montenegro chief of police in Casino Royale and the man in the Port-au-Prince hotel lobby in Quantum of Solace. He has been in every single Bond film since The Spy Who Loved Me (and was also in Goldfinger), but his scene in Skyfall - he was a mourner at the funeral of the agents killed in the MI6 bombing - was cut from the final film.

Samus
QoS one might have been more action packed but it was very hard to follow with the purposely shaky camera work.
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I know a lot of people criticise it, but I think it's one of the few strong points of the film: the steadicam lends a sense of chaos and confusion; you can never quite see everything that is happening, which I suppose is exactly what a car chase would be like. Plus, the "worst" of the shaking camera comes when we get an interior shot of Bond as the Aston Martin takes a hit.

Samus
Not the best Bond, not the worst, just a solid outing which hopefully sets up an even better one coming next, with Blofeld still alive and surely featuring again.
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Christoph Waltz has said that he will be back for at least two more films, but only on the condition that Daniel Craig stays in the role.

I think Spectre will ultimately be remembered for how Bond 25 plays out. Large parts of the film feel like they're setting up the next film. Spectre itself tries to address the problem the organisation would have if it actually existed: intelligence agencies would spot them immediately. So the plot of the film has them trying to hijack the world's intelligence feeds to give them an edge over the agencies. However, there are still two outstanding issues that Bond 25 would need to address:
  • The "Bond and Blofeld are brothers" issue was very controversial among fans. Personally, I think that a lot of the backstory was cut, but it's something that needs to be resolved. The producers need to commit to it and make it interesting (ie Blofeld is the son of a Pole and a Greek - his original backstory - forced to seek asylum in Sweden, adopted by a Belgian and a German, raised in Austria and sent to school in Switzerland; consequently he has no nation to identify with and established Spectre as a supranational entity) or they need to back away (ie Blofeld spotted Bond interfering with his plots, so researched him and found the Oberhausers and assumed the identity of Franz Oberhauser as a psychological trick). I suspect they will commit, because Spectre appears to be setting him up as a criminal mastermind whose judgement is comprimised by his irrational hatred of Bond.
  • Blofeld is in MI6 custody, but he needs to sonehow get free. The problem is that his escape cannot be down to MI6's incompetence. They were caught out with Vesper Lynd, Dominic Greene and Craig Mitchell, and easily manipulated by C. To have a supercriminal like Blofeld escape on their watch would be pretty embarrassing.
I have contributed to some Bond-themed forums in the past, so I have actually put some thought into how I would make Bond 25, and this is what I have:

Bond is sent to Africa at the request of a CIA agent to investigate the disappearance of Felix Leiter. In reality, Leiter staged his abduction to get Bond out of London without arousing suspicion. Bond and Leiter investigate Hugo Vanderdaatje (who I imagine would played by Michael Fassbender), a former Legionnaire who now provides security to African leaders and has become the de facto leader of Spectre since Blofeld's capture. Vanderdaatje is using his position to secure mining rights for colombite, a relatively rare mineral that has shown promise as a near-room temperature semiconductor with a variety of commercial and military applications. Bond finds that Spectre's client is China - the only other nation with significant colombite deposits - and they are planning to launch a satellite code-named "Synecdoche". However, Synecdoche has been sabotaged to explode shortly after launch, dispersing colombite isotopes into the atmosphere and disrupting communications worldwide. With a monopoly on colombite, the Chinese will be immune to the blackout as they are now able to create technology that counters it, giving them military, technological and economic superiority. Meanwhile, M has been interrogating Blofeld until the Chinese claim that he is an informant, and M is forced to release him. Blofeld demands that Bond be the one to hand him over, and Bond reveals that he sabotaged Synecdoche. Blofeld chastises him for being unimaginative and that the Chinese will not kill him, because they still control the colombite. Blofeld is handed over, but the damage is done: Spectre is now divided into two factions - those loyal to Blofeld and those loyal to Vanderdaatje.
 
prisonermonkeys
Blofeld is in MI6 custody, but he needs to sonehow get free. The problem is that his escape cannot be down to MI6's incompetence. They were caught out with Vesper Lynd, Dominic Greene and Craig Mitchell, and easily manipulated by C. To have a supercriminal like Blofeld escape on their watch would be pretty embarrassing.
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A possible suggestion is to do what the California prison gangs do and send messages through proxies. If say, Blofield wanted person X assassinated, he could have a system in place where a high ranking member of SPECTRE could send a low-level thug to relay messages to and from the organization in code and have Blofield decode them in prison for a while. Any potential escape would have to come later.

Again, I don't claim to know how the UK prison system works, so something similar may or may not be possible.
 
Sanji Himura
A possible suggestion is to do what the California prison gangs do and send messages through proxies.
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If I were writing it, I would play on the idea of Blofeld's hatred of Bond compromising his judgement. I would have M putting him in a minimum security prison on the charges of public endangerment and wilful destruction of property for the premature demolition of the Vauxhall Cross building. While incarcerated, M would then attempt to aggravate Blofeld by arguing that his crimes were so well-planned that MI6 has no evidence that a crime was even committed in the first place. M would gradually feed information back to low-level Spectre agents, making it look like Blofeld is co-operating with MI6, furthering the division between the Blofeld and Vanderdaatje loyalists in the organisation. I would also have Blofeld reveal that he is not Oberhauser, but when Bond hands him over to the Chinese, hr contradicts himself instead.
 
Well if he wants to contradict himself, the writers have to make it so it isn't obvious. Lot's of movies made it so obvious that it killed the twist. Other than that, it sounds good.
 
How on earth did THAT win an Oscar, it is an atrocious song. If I were Adele I would be offended that it's been given the same praise.
 
I couldn't believe it won either, I'd not heard that Gaga song before but based on the performances it was miles better than the Bond song. I mean it's no 'Die Another Day', but it was pretty bad.
 
Robin.
How on earth did THAT win an Oscar, it is an atrocious song. If I were Adele I would be offended that it's been given the same praise.
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I'd say slim competition this year:

Earned It, Fifty Shades of Grey
Manta Ray, Racing Extinction
Simple Song #3, Youth
Til It Happens To You, The Hunting Ground
WRITING’S ON THE WALL, SPECTRE - WINNER!
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Samus
I mean it's no 'Die Another Day', but it was pretty bad.
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Mainstream fan consensus is that "Die Another Day" and "Another Way to Die" - two from the absolute bottom of the barrel - are better than "Writing's On The Wall" because they at least tried to do something different. "Writing's On The Wall" was written in twenty minutes (and sounds like it) and apparently never went through a re-draft. Plus, it's a product of the obsession with trying to force Bond to be more human rather than trusting that the character can actually be engaging for audiences.
 
Even though i enjoy the song, i still think the lyrics and the singer ruined the song though.

The lyrics made it sounds like Bond is an emo, and Sam Smith voice wasn't powerful but the melodies are good.
 
prisonermonkeys
Mainstream fan consensus is that "Die Another Day" and "Another Way to Die" - two from the absolute bottom of the barrel - are better than "Writing's On The Wall" because they at least tried to do something different. "Writing's On The Wall" was written in twenty minutes (and sounds like it) and apparently never went through a re-draft. Plus, it's a product of the obsession with trying to force Bond to be more human rather than trusting that the character can actually be engaging for audiences.
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I loved Die Another Day but that's just me! I agree that at least it was different and kind unique at the time because Bond hadn't really had a dance track. The Violin rift in the song is still the best thing about it and the music video was epic compared to Sam Smith moping around.
 
if they change the lyrics and get Shirley Bassey to sing it, it would possibly be miles better than what we got now.
 

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