maybe they should just turn James Bond into a sort of Dr Who type, the name remains the same but the person assuming the identity is different every few missions. Meaning, 007/James Bond is the identity given to the best agent in the service, and it’s handed to the next one whenever said agent ages out/quits/dies. I recognize of course this is exactly what happens anyway in a sense, but there’s no reason it couldn’t be baked into the entire mythology at this point and explicitly acknowledged. Then one could incorporate the whole history of previous Bonds into subsequent films. Imagine a scene introducing the next Bond, where he’s being given the lowdown. “This is only for our best agents…007 has passed through many others before you…” and there’s a file or something with photos of Connery, Moore, etc…I mean that would be pretty fantastic.
In all the years since Casino Royale, I've never seen anything to indicate the Craig movies were supposed to literally take place prior to Dr. No. They were a reboot to the series starting with how Bond earned his license, and took advantage of the happy coincidence that they hadn't done a proper adaptation of Casino Royale, Fleming's first novel, to do so. That doesn't mean people can't just make things up, of course. Yes, it's odd that Skyfall features a weary Bond who they've talked about losing his edge, even in his third outing. Yes, it's a fun easter egg that Craig!Bond has a 1960s Aston Martin with some very familiar gadgets. (5oth anniversary celebration, anyone?) But I think in this age of Marvel Cinematic Universes and Star Trek fans grousing about canon betrayals, too much emphasis has been put on being able to put these projects on a neat and tidy timeline (this has even infected video games, with Nintendo putting the Legend of Zelda games on a timeline, with fans having supposedly tried to do it for years before the parent company made it official, even though the series only pays lip service to the progression of time/reincarnation of the hero). It's fun to connect the dots; as a Trekkie I'm familiar with the process. But it shouldn't come at the expense of letting these films tell their own stories. It should be noted that Casino Royale came out in 2006, one year after Star Trek: Enterprise left the airwaves, itself a prequel, and around the time Abrams, Orci and Kurtzman were brought in to do their own reboot of the series. I'm not one who foams at the mouth raging at Alex Kurtzman but he does have a reputation as an idea recycler. I have to wonder if the whole alternate universe reboot idea may have been inspired, if not by the final product but the pre-film buzz, by the decision to reboot Bond. tl;dr: let films be films, not just franchise entries. even if they're just franchise entries.
Spectre blows any attempt at continuity out of the water. Blofeld bears no relation to the Blofeld in previous movies. He has hair! He has ear lobes! And that's just the trivial starter.
Wasn't that "unnamed bald guy with distinctive facial scar" (and possibly cat)? Eon didnt have rights to the Blofeld name for that movie.
It was unnamed for coyright reasons at the time. But unless I'm mistaken, recent home video editions refer to him as Blofeld in the subtitles. By the way, the official, EON-owned 007 official site calls the man in that scene Blofeld and that's enough for me to accept that he was killed "For Your Eyes Only Blofeld Drop" For Your Eyes Only Blofeld Drop | James Bond 007 ..and of course that the Craig-Bond is a total reboot. As for the continuity, I can see the Dr. No-A view to a kill films as stories all about the same guy. With suspension of belief, I can accept an extra- extension until 1989, if Dr No features a 25 years old agent retiring at 52---but the Bond Dalton was too young to have been 52 at the time of Licence to kill. Was 43 y.o. They started again with Brosnan in 1995 -M calls him "a relict of the cold war" and there's a 1986 pre title sequence, so it would be before "The living daylights". Uh? More suspension of belief needed. It's a mess. But imho, it sounds about right stating that the Craig movies are totally unrelated to the 1962-2002 films. Depending on how "No time to die" ends, it'll be interesting to see what they do next. If the film ends with him retiring again, they'll reboot again? Also a friend of mine is not ruling out the possibility of a surprise Spoiler: spoiler they might even let him die at the end and stop doing Bond films, at least for a while. I don't know what to say. Let's see in about 4 weeks.
To be fair, Blofeld had hair in Diamonds are Forever, and the continuity of Blofeld/Spectre from the earlier films was questionable at best in that one.
I removed this pre-title scene from the film in my fan-edit. It was a last- minute addition shot after the film had been completed and never really fit in with the rest of the story. It's not missed. The tone of the film is more consistent without it. I replaced it with the sinking of the trawler and assault on the yacht, as writer Richard Maibaum originally intended.
I don't mind the scene because it shows the merciless side of Moore/Bond -something we haven't really seen in the previous films. Also I believe that at that time it seemed a clever way to retire the Blofeld character with no need to ask for permission. But you had the whole PTS removed in your edit, or did you leave the bit with Bond bringing flowers to Tracy's grave?
It's played for comedy not "the merciless side of Bond." "...the bit with Bond bringing flowers to Tracy's grave" was the keynote to Maibaum's story and essential to the film.
Hey, to each his own I guess. Dropping a guy in a wheelchair inside an industrial chimney is not my idea of comedy. He could've sent it to jail but he chooses to follow the easy and merciless route. All Imho.
I can see where that might come off as comedy, especially compared to the books. The literary Bond just puts bullets in heads and that's the end of it.
I also think these could have been good Bond, but I think maybe they're a bit old now for the role? Eric Bana Joel Edgerton
eh the bit that doesn't resonate as comedy for me is that Blofeld has no way to defend himself at all, he is at the mercy of Bond. I know well that the literary Bond and it's different. But literally or in the movies, he always plays "fair" and I don't remember killing a disabled like he does on that PTS
New James Bond actor ? Early days yet. Maybe an announcement after No Time To Die film premiere. I remember the outcry in the press when Daniel Craig was chosen... too ugly, etc....
Fascinating point. Is this the closet genius of Bond? Enough plot lucidity that fans can watch any single movie and place it in a mentally customized time line on how they have come to perceive Bond? Lol that'd be crazy if they did it that way.
Hey man. Every actor's got their caveats. After watching enough Behind the Bonds videos I've learned that Connery was such a diva that he could've made J-Lo look like an easy hang on set.
It's something you just have to roll with. The Bond in Dr. No through Die Another Day is the same Bond, despite everyone else around him aging. It's weird but that's just the way it is. Each actor had their own interpretation of the role but ultimately he's the same person in all those films. With Craig they've gone with a more in-depth character and so they're going to have to reboot again after this. They've written themselves into a corner and it'll be interesting to see what they do next, for better or worse.
It is a fairly unique franchise to havr in Hollywood. No other franchise has ever done this to this extent. The Jason horror films might be close but he had a mask making it easy. We've accepted the continuity of Bond because it's happened so many times. Even if you don't prefer or like the interpretation, we don't even question that a new actor takes over. Will be quite interesting to see if they do this with unmolested properties like Indiana Jones. I still am not a total buy-in on the Star Trek reboot. A new Indy will just be . . . ugh. X-men was done right because they did a film that actually had both. I can accept it better.
Remember when they did The Green Hornet starring Seth Rogen and were considering doing Green Lantern starring Jack Black. So, yeah, how about James Corden or Josh Gad as James Bond.
