Bond 23 complex/dark?
Smiert-Spionam
Posts: 318MI6 Agent
I've read a couple of articles in which it was rumoured that Ralf Fiennes could be playing a 'dark complex character' and that Sam Mendes was going to make the film darker and more realistic.
Don't get me wrong I don't mind my Bond films being realistic and slightly dark (FRWL and TLD are two of my favourite Bond films and they are generally seen as grittier entries in the series) but I don't really think they should be going completely OTT and ruining the 'traditional' Bond formula of good action-packed family fun.
With the character development in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace virtually sorted I was hoping we'd go back to a good old fashioned action film. Not too sure this will be the case though. What are your thoughts?
Don't get me wrong I don't mind my Bond films being realistic and slightly dark (FRWL and TLD are two of my favourite Bond films and they are generally seen as grittier entries in the series) but I don't really think they should be going completely OTT and ruining the 'traditional' Bond formula of good action-packed family fun.
With the character development in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace virtually sorted I was hoping we'd go back to a good old fashioned action film. Not too sure this will be the case though. What are your thoughts?
Smiert Spionam
Comments
I share your optimism.I am no EON fanboy, and I feel that Bond may do better in other hands. However I think that they are smart enough to realise that QOS at best divided opinion, and that Box office aside (it was bound to do well after the veritable Tsunami of praise heaped on CR) that they need to pull something special out of the bag.For me that would be a gritty espionage type mission, with Bond in real peril, plus some glamour and the odd bit of fun at strategic moments to vary the pace. Most of the required elements are in place, so here's hoping...
The humor has been toned down in DC`s Bonds, yes. But the espionage? In CR he is shadowing the bombmaker, breakes in with M to get to MI6`s computer network and sneaks into the security room at the Club in Bahamas to track the text message to the bombmaker. That is espionage. I think CR had Bond do more espionage than in most Bond movies.
I don't think it has to be a case of either or, but a fusion that retains some of the classic elements. I'm not in favour of double taking Pigeons, or cheesy quips either.
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Of course when Craig was first announced as 007 I was sceptical in the extreme. Then I saw Casino Royale and decided to shut my face on Bond casting decisions UNTIL I had seen the completed released film to avoid making myself look like a damned idiot!
One thing that Daniel Craig has done wonderfully in CR is highlight a version of Bond who seems to have accepted his life but is a character with a dangerously loose screw in an otherwise civilised head. - I remember him quoted as saying he wanted his Bond to appear dangerous, deadly, and technically a bad guy on the right side. (Not exact wording of course). To me he has achieved that. James Bond as played by him, is a murderer. - Quite viciously on a couple of occasions. The stairwell fight in CR ends in a vivid strangulation, and the stabbing of Slate on QoS is brutal. - Neither are a quick clean gun shot "bang." Both stay with you afterwards, because they are brutal and horribly realistic. To me trying to make Craig's Bond make light of his lifestyle or behaviour after establishing such behaviour would not work. To me it puts his take on Bond in a different league from the others.
Connnery established a smooth operator who could schmooze and smack, Lazenby made Bond vulnerable without compromising him as a character, Moore brought out a comedy side that for the most part worked wonders - his own self deprecating comedy, not that of the writers or producers. (They gave us the double take pigeon etc!) Brosnan made Bond feel relevant and up to date in a post cold war world. Dalton tried in his films, and Craig has succeeded in making 007 a darker, deadly character who has a menacing side to his nature, matching the enemies he fights. - This man will go to all lengths to achieve his ends, even murder. Trouble is, CR got it right, but QoS made him seem more like the T1000 rather than an interpretation of Flemming's character!
Lets wait and see what the powers at be come up with. - Has Mr Fiennes been confirmed in the cast? - For all we know hoe could be the Craig era Minister of Defence! (I assumed Mr Piggot-Smith was the Foreign Secretary in QoS?)