Jarvio wrote:Gassy Man wrote:Eh, take out the silliness about Bond and Blofeld being brothers, and it pretty much is a standard Bond film, with the exception that its actions sequences generally underwhelm. It's certainly the closest thing Craig has made to one.
I respectfully disagree, the nine-eyes plot and heavy MI6 focus is very prominent too.
Taking out the Blofeld brothers plot would certainly make it more standard, but you could say the same thing about the other 3 DC films in terms of taking out certain elements of them too. And even with that, nine-eyes remains.
I'm not sure what the most 'standard' Craig bond film is. Maybe QOS, but it is a very hard choice, because none of them are even close.
I get what you're saying, but it's the most formulaic of Craig's Bond films. Scene for scene, it ticks of all the particulars in the order we expect -- teaser on mission, check, meeting in M's office, check, scene with Q, check, etc. The other three Craig Bonds are either missing these scenes or they're in a different order. Of all the Craig films, it seems to recycle elements the most, which makes sense given it's really the first one that brings back a classic Bond villain.
The reason it doesn't work as well -- at least to me -- is that Mendes fails to deliver on the action (past the teaser) and the suspense. The torture scene is a great example. In Casino Royale, the torture scene was taut and menacing. It had genuine tension. The stakes seemed real. Craig and Mikkelsen play it brilliantly. In Spectre, it comes across as thin by comparison, other than some squirming because of the concept. The scene isn't helped by having a socksless Blofeld clear across the room at what appears to be a 1970s era rollaway CRT stand.
Bond and Swann's escape is equally underwhelming. In what could have been a pretty major action scene, it got reduced to a shootout with a few thugs. Once again, there's no "umph" to it at all. More is shown on TV shows these days. But then Mendes isn't really a strong action director.
I don't find Nine Eyes or the rest particularly compelling. Not much is really done with it in the plot, either. It's mentioned, and I guess it allows Swann to see what happens to her father, but it's mostly a Maguffin.
I still think Casino Royale is Craig's most successful Bond for any number of reasons.
...you'd think Mr White would be high up in SPECTRE, probably Blofeld's right-hand man...hence Blofeld seeing Madeleine as a child...maybe Quantum was a 'cut-out' for SPECTRE...layers upon layers kind of thing...?
...and in that respect SP is very traditional. But doing it right in London is a notable departure.