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Forums - Movies & TV - The James Bond Rewatch: Current Movie - SPECTRE

 

Which is the best movie of the Craig era (so far)?

Casino Royal 13 76.47%
 
Quantum of Solace 0 0%
 
Skyfall 4 23.53%
 
Spectre 0 0%
 
Total:17

Holy wall of text Batman!



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I just watched Casino Royale. It's still my favorite. I love the music. I love the intro. I love the one-liners (not over the top). I love his Aston Martin. I even loved that Ford Focus (only because Bond was driving it). I also love the fact that Bond doesn't sleep with every female he meets.

I never tired of CR. Not only is it my favorite Bond movie, it's an excellent movie overall. 10/10

Also, RIP Chris Cornell. You made the best theme since Dr. No.



I also watched Quantum of Solace for the first time. It was also great. Too many chase sequences though. Not enough Spectre. 007/10



New poll up!

Old poll results:



Very early days of course, but there's currently only one movie on nothing... Wouldn't have thought it'd be GoldenEye that'd be the last to get a vote



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I just saw Casino Royale.

After people's general reaction to Die Another Day, the producers decided to reboot the whole series after more than 40 years of a singular continuity. This also takes into account the general loss of interest for the sillier stuff in favour of the most serious and "realistic" aspects of the series. And it is really good. Craig is a very different kind of Bond, a Bond that constantly looks like he's repressing himself or else he's going to lose it, the pressure and the regrets of being an 00 being something very real in this story. The character of Vesper as a Bond girl is also great. Half of the movie is dialogues, very well written dialogues, between Bond and Vesper, and that really helps you to understand the characters. Their interactions with each other are very sweet, and that makes her betrayal and death that much sadder. The other half of the film is the poker games. The filmmakers manage to create very intense scenes where the actors can really show their acting chops (despite the point of poker being emoting as little as possible), and it makes this movie the most sofisticated one so far. A bit of a surprise for a Bond movie is how down to earth the villain plot is: the guy's just a terrorist banker who's lost his client's money and wants to recover it at all costs in a game of poker. That's it. Everything is so down to Earth in this movie, no weird gadgets, no world ending plots to foil... Not even the fight scenes are that complicated. The most developed one is the one on Venice at the very end, and even then it feels very grounded. This movie is also the one with the least amount of action, though that feels quite intentional. Even the middle fight between the african warlord and Bond feels like it was forced by the studio, it could have been solved by a shooting and it would've gotten the same amount of emotional effect. A bit of a nitpick I have is that they stay in the Montecassino Hotel for way too long. I know that's something unavoidable, but part of the charm of Bond movies are the exotic locals, and the high class casino, while cool to see, it's in pretty much all Bond movies (how many movies do we have with Bond playing cards with the girl or the villain?). Also, that fucking torture scene. I know you want to be realistic, but did you really have to go there? And, by the way, did you know Sony got a hand in making this movie? I wouldn't have been able to tell! So much Sony product placement. So, so much Sony product placement...

Overall, it's a strong movie, but I feel like it's lost a bit of the essence of the Bond movies to try and capture regular spy drama. 7/10



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So I just saw Quantum of Solace. Finally managed to catch up.

Quantum of Solace is a somewhat polarizing movie for me. On the one hand, it has very strong acting from Craig as Bond, as an agent who is just barely holding it in before crashing down. We also see his smarts, the theatre scene is one of the few times we actually see him as a bloody spy, discovering a good chunk of the villains' plot and identifying many of the players in the enemy organization. I like the fact they are continuing Bond's struggle with loss, both with him mourning Vesper's death and by just talking to Carmille. M takes a much more active role in this movie, which is great, because Judi Dench is a great actress and pulls off the character flawlessly, though why the hell does she doubt Bond's loyalty after the traitor's reveal from the beginning of the movie is anyone's guess (if he was a traitor, then he wouldn't have stopped the traitor from killing her). The side characters around Bond are a general positive for the movie, considering how much they develop this spy world. However, the movie has a decent amount of negatives as well. The most obvious being the editing during fight scenes. For some reason, they decide to keep changing shots almost every second during intense action scenes, which I get in theory, but the execution meant that there are no shot that lasts more than 5 seconds during a fight scene, which doesn't make the scene more intense, it just makes it dizzying and disorienting. Also, Bond's actions are directly responsible for the death of those around him, and he is fortunately called out on this. Seriously, remember Mathis? How Bond decided to accuse him of treason and have him tortured? It turned out he was clean, and he managed to retire with a small fortune. Bond asks him for help, and what does he get for it? He gets shot and killed, because BOND USED HIM AS A BODYSHIELD! What the hell? The other female agent M sends to bring back Bond? Seduced by Bond and killed horribly. This is not just collateral, Bond is directly responsible of their deaths. The villains are also very hit or miss. On the one hand, yes, having people everywhere and not being able to trust anyone is pretty crepy, but the actual villains are morons with little threat or presence to them. The main villain is just a generic business man that folds immediately once he sees everything crumbling around him (but for some reason puts up a fight against Bond?), the main henchman does absolutely nothing in the whole movie, and their villainous plan is just to control the water reserves of Bolivia, which I thought it would be a plan on a worldwide scale, but it apparently wasn't. The reveal of Vesper's original boyfriend was an enemy agent al along was a much tense confrontation than the whole final battle.

Overall, this was a decent continuation of Battle Royale, but it doesn't reach its same standards. 6/10



You know it deserves the GOTY.

Come join The 2018 Obscure Game Monthly Review Thread.

I watched Casino Royale last night, which will get an 8 from me.

A really enjoyable flick, although perhaps a little on the long side. Craig is OK as Bond - character wise he lacks the charm of his predecessors (although I guess this is the point), but has the physical presence to really sell the action scenes. The fights are really well choreographed, and the prolonged chase scene to the embassy near the beginning is great. The supporting cast is really strong, with Eva Green and Mads Mikkelsen really making a mark, and Judi Dench continuing to deliver as M. The middle third in the casino is where this film really excels. I remember seeing this in the cinema and finding it absolutely exhilarating. Superb stuff.

Shout out to David Arnold for the music (as well as Chris Cornell for helping to write and singing the magnificent theme), as well as Daniel Kleinman for the opening credits.

The only real criticism is it feels a bit derivative of the likes of the Bourne franchise, although it's such a good film that it's easy to ignore.



Quantum of Solace scores a 6.

A decent enough watch, but ultimately forgettable in the context of the Bond canon. I understand there was a lot of issues in production, so that it turned out relatively good is something. There's some nice stunts, sequences and locations, but you've come to expect that at this point. I do love the opera scene - it looks fantastic. I have to wonder how Bond and Camille survive that fall from the plane. Even in the Bond universe, that seems absurd.

Can't think of much more to say really... except that the theme song is awful. Just diabolically bad.



Casino Royale has also been my favourite. Coincidentally they're showing the Craig movies on tv here, which means (because I physically have all the other ones) that I could've participated in this from the beginning. If only I knew.