James Bond - "Spectre" (SPOILERS)*

Did anyone read the article in Entertainment Weekly a while back which asserts that the last act of "Spectre" takes place entirely in Bond's mind because he has, in fact, been lobotomized by Blofeld? It puts a "Brazil" twist on the whole thing.

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/11/10/spectre-ending

 

eh eh, looks like the ending of "Repo men"

 

Just finished the Blu ray. My subwoofer asked to be allowed to rest for a few days.

 

I like that theory, it makes more sense than the actual film does... but if Craig comes back for one more (which he is still under optional contract to do so), then it's a theory all for naught.

Spectre is a frustrating film in that the broad strokes of the story are fine... up until the illogical, nonsensical, and frankly incomprehensible final act in London. If they had begun the film already mid-way into the story - in other words, SPECTRE was already a threat and MI6 were dealing with that, then it would have eliminated a lot of unnecessary exposition; there's been a wave of global terrorist attacks by a new shadowy group known as SPECTRE led by the reclusive and never-seen mysterious figure known as Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Bond is in Mexico City tracking a suspected SPECTRE courier, and away we go - that would have given the story an overall propulsive momentum, and also a singular purpose, namely the search for Blofeld... and which also would have given the late reveal regarding Blofeld's true identity actual dramatic weight in that the name itself meant something to Bond... which it clearly doesn't in the final film itself.

Plus, the big finale should have taken place at Blofeld's lair, with Bond being nearly tortured to death, and then having to fight his way out of impossible odds against the full weight of the enemy... and if you're really generous, have the M/Q/Moneypenny/Tanner London setpiece take place in concurrence with that, thereby heightening the overall stakes and drama. But having Bloferhauser appear in London (presumably) mere days after taking a bomb to the face and having a mere facial scar like he's only had a mishap with the electric knife at Christmas dinner utterly destroys what lingering, residual thread of believable suspension is left in that sorry state of affairs of a Bond film.

Christ, I've spent more time discussing this wretched film than I ever have on any other... I'm not sure if that says more for me or that film, this has to end.

But it's late and I'm very drunk so I'm hoping this post is actually coherent, guess I'll know come morning (or afternoon)...

 

A trenchant analysis, Hermit. And very true. I'd like the film more if you had written that script instead of what we got.

Nice theory, but it doesn't persuade. The script writers aren't that bright.

 

It wasn't great writing that saved "Spectre" but the tremendous set pieces and that's what the entire film revolved around.

It's entertaining spectacle. Is it the best Bond film? No. Is it the worst? No. The opening sequence by itself made it fun for me. The ending was absurd but it wasn't jump-the-shark cringe worthy like we got with many of the Moore or later Connery films but those absurd moments have been part of the Bond canon for quite some time. I think people object to them because the writing is sloppy but, more importantly, because the Craig Bond films had a grittiness that had long been missing from the films and then they take a turn from the past. It's part of the Bond pulpy past and you just can't get past the pulp origins of Bond which are amplified on the screen.

It wasn't the puzzle that was necessarily bad but the way they cut they pieces.

The twist was nice with Blofeld.

Yeah, I don't think that the writers even entertained this notion.

 

Drunk or no, you make some very good points.

 

The sad thing about DC Bond films apart from CR, the other three aren't going to date well in 20 years time. QOS will be remembered for Olga K.
At least Moore's got the kitsch value and loads of glamourous ladies.

 

I don't mecessarily think its because they aren't that bright but they know it would piss off the Bond faithful and alienate others while critics would embrace it a decade down the road. That doesn't help box office today.

They could have sneakily put that in there for that reason and that was their own homage to "Brazil" .

I agre with a hermit however and HIS outline is better. I suspect that's probably what it was more like when written before Michael Wilson got his hands on the script and it was simplified to give us a Michael Bay type conclusion.

They clearly believed in Hitchcock's ice box idea. I'd also point out that Hitch's films had some pretty preposterous conclusions but he was, again, about the themes and set pieces more than logic.

 

It begins all over again;

BOND 25 Chatter Begins - In Norwegian ».

Firing Purvis and Wade, hiring Martin Campbell, and keeping the budget to around a lean $150m would be a good start methinks... strip everything down to the bone like they did in Casino Royale, and for the love of mercy, no more Blofeld... Austin Powers killed that character but Spectre burnt it's corpse.

Here's to The Craig redeeming his Bond legacy before he hangs up his Walther PPK...

 

Craig.

He quit.
Said" good f luck to the next guy"

 

That would be wonderful...

 

Where and when did he say that?
Link?

 

He wants to do a American TV Series.

 

Daniel Craig Is Quitting James Bond, According to Mark Strong

 

I read somewhere that he's contracted to do a fifth but I believe all this talk is set up with the collaboration of his agent to get the biggest paycheck possible.

 

"SPECTRE" is a great popcorn flick, but that incestuous storyline ... no.
But the baddy is very close to the description we got in the books.

Last 1/3 drags and I agree M ( yes we don't want to waste Ralph but )
has too much screen time. The resolution between baddy and Bond meh.

 

Call me blasé, but it simply bored me.

 

Craig signed on to do two more Bond films in 2012; one definite (Spectre) and another optional. Whether he does another one is probably dependent on how his upcoming new series Purity does, if it does well and gets renewed for a second or even a third season, taking it into 2019, the Bond producers will cut him loose and start looking for a replacement... if they're not already as a fallback position. If it gets cancelled, he'll likely be back as Bond one last time... probably, but with Daniel Craig, who knows?

If he doesn't return, I think we can look at the finale of Spectre as Bond's lobotomized fantasy... interesting way to end one's 007 tenure if nothing else.

 

Another Daniel Craig starring James Bond movie. I’ve not been a fan of any of his Bond movies. This probably isn’t his worst but I couldn’t work up the enthusiasm to finish it. I at least finished the previous movies. I gave up after fifty minutes when he ejected from the car and said, ‘Evening,’ to someone on the street. It was obvious it wasn’t going to get better so I bailed early to watch some TV on my hard drive. A very, very muted film. Strangely very flat and quiet with all the obvious drama leached from it. For two hundred million dollars of action and excitement they appear to have made the world’s most banal action movie. It has no pulse. It’s a dead film walking. I could detect numerous jokes and not one of them even began to land. It’s in the running for the most unfunny movie ever made. Utterly dead humour that just sits there on the screen in an embarrassing way. The brown colour palette during the pre-credits sequence looks almost like Heaven’s Gate (1980) but with the added obvious digital manipulation of the colours (Bond looks punched into the scenery with different cinematography on him). There are lots of extras and stunts during the opening, but now with computer effects nothing impresses as you just assume three quarters of it was added later. The movie was just so mediocre and banal. Considering the money involved making and marketing it you would expect a certain level of nuts and bolts action excitement. I was just left totally unengaged and faintly bored. As I said, strangely quiet and muted.

 

Some want more action, some want more dark, some want more laughs, some want I have no idea. OTOH, I seem to enjoy all of them, some more then others but enjoy all and always look forward to the next.

 

Finally watched this the other night. After hearing about how bad it was my expectations were low. Maybe that's why i liked it but i thought it was pretty good. Better than Skyfall for sure. And yes, my subwoofer also needs some rest.

 

I finally watched it and was impressed actually. Did they have to tie the girl up at the end though? Why not tie her to some railway tracks?

 

According to several industry sources, SPECTRE actually cost $250 million, plus more than $50M in promotion and distribution, making it not only the most expensive Bond film ever made, but one of the most expensive Hollywood films in history. This came out when the Sony Pictures email scandal broke a couple of years ago.

We do have the ability in mastering to separate the actors out from the background to some degree and color-correct each separately -- even color correct every actor in the shot differently -- but I think in this film, they just leaned on warm & yellow and just pushed it that way, removing all the green, magenta, and blue. This goes back to Steven Soderbergh's very influential 2000 film Traffic, where they decided "if it's yellow, it must be Mexico," and so they gave every city a different color palette as a bit of story shorthand. I don't necessarily like this idea, particularly when it's overdone, but I understand why they do it. The London scenes were very cold and desaturated, almost the opposite of Mexico.

What's miraculous on that opening Bond sequence in the film:

1) they shot all the city street material with a single camera on a massive Super Technocrane

2) the interior of the hotel is actually at Pinewood Studios in England, including the elevator and the second floor

3) once the camera follows Bond out the hotel room and through a window, they seamlessly return to the Technocrane as he walks down a narrow ledge, onto a roof, and then peers across the way to an enemy in another building.

4) Daniel Craig actually walked on that ledge over the street, and if I believe the "making of" documentary, he doesn't appear to have had any harness or wires to secure him.

5) many of the helicopter stunts were 100% real, and they were able to get permits for the copter to do flips and spins and all kinds of stuff overhead; clever editing made it appear the helicopter was very close to the crowds, but nobody was ever in any real danger (save for the pilot and stuntpeople on board).

It appears to be a single uninterrupted 4-minute shot, but there's a half-dozen little cuts and wipes and fixes here and there to make it feel completely seamless. It's a beautiful job, yellow or no, and I think it's the best opening Bond sequence ever done; I actually like it more than I do the movie. I wish they had gone into much more detail about how it was shot on the Making of SPECTRE documentary on the Blu-ray.

 

I was wondering about that as I was watching that scene. That's impressive. To me at least...i'm not too fond of walking on high ledges.