There’s this…antidote! Yes, you inject yourself right before the agent is dispersed, and you and your family will be fine.
[Disclaimer: no actual antidote exists.]
I think that wouldn’t work great on the scientists who are making the poison for you.
“An antidote? But I specifically made this poison to be uncurable! You even called it out in my quarterly performance review! See? ‘Goal: Make uncurable poison. Result: Exceeds expectations.’”
But it would probably help with the guy in accounting who’s responsible for tracking how many vats of nerve gas you’ve shipped up to your secret orbital lair.
Drax: oh, yes. You’re a smart one. [shoots scientist]
Now you’ve got me thinking: like the exhaust port in the Death Star, suppose someone in Drax’s supply chain figured out what was going on, balked at the idea of global annihilation, and made a flaw in the dispersal weapons that will just cause them to burn up on reentry, or just not work at all. And no one, especially Drax, knew. If Bond hadn’t stopped them, nothing would have happened. And the guy just quietly pocked his payment for his product, and never told anyone. Bought a house on the Rivera.
I’d be interested in what you mean by “authentic.” If you mean true to the roots of James Bond, and the Fleming books, I’d say he’s the most authentic of them all. The books have Bond as a bad ass. Funny yes at times, and a womanizer, but a bad ass. The silliness and buffoonery of the Moore films just wasn’t there.
I’m afraid I don’t mean anything particularly insightful, just that the younger Sean Connery has been subjectively but irrevocably established in my perception as the archetypal James Bond. In large part this was just because he was first, but he was also damn good at the role. I was also young and impressionable at the time, and was duly impressed by the big-budget production values. Subsequent actors had pretty big shoes to fill, and IMHO none of them were quite up to it.
Or lamenting, with the fourth wall intact, that his situation isn’t more like Prince Charming’s.
Even better: a scientist realizes Drax’s monstrous plan, and develops a chemical agent that, added to the gas, will render it inert. Late at night, he sneaks into the lab to add it to the vats - and is shot between the eyes by Bond, who’s in there trying to figure out Drax’s monstrous plan.
I’d agree with that. When I think “Bond” I think “Connery.”
I agree with Casino Royale being great. I like Bond being half hard-ass and the other half smart ass. Well done. The next two I can barely remember. Maybe not terrible, but Man With the Golden Gun level mediocre.
Skyfall was a joke. Bond is not a commando, and he’s not an idiot, but he got to be both in the same movie. It had some promise, but he’s fighting an enemy who can bring off – let’s face it – impossible strings of coincidences through intricate planning, and Bond’s plan is to escape to an empty house in the middle of nowhere? And Tom Jones has sold off his gun collection, because oops, forgot to call ahead. Don’t worry! I’ve studied my Macaulay Culkin, and anyway we’re in the third reel where villains always turn into idiots. We’ll be fine as long as no one starts shining more flashlights than they could possibly even be holding out the windows of a building they’re hiding in. No spymaster, even one riding a desk for god knows how long, would be that dumb, right?
OK, pausing for breath … I never saw Spectre because, you know, Skyfall.
Skyfall is very silly but done so slickly that I can live with it and even rate it pretty highly as mindless entertainment. But you’re right, the ending is ridiculous. Bond’s idea is to lay breadcrumbs that only Silva can spot, so that they can have a final showdown in the middle of nowhere? Fine. But why not do that whilst having M hidden somewhere else entirely, and then get half of MI6 to wait with Bond as the trap? It makes absolutely no sense doing it alone the way he does. And what’s more, after M is killed, due in no small part to Bond’s terrible plan, he then gets given his job back! He should have been on the scrap heap at that point with no way back.
This part bugged me in “real time”. I really thought the point of the trap was to have, you know, many agents lying in wait at Skyfall (cue Adele). Then it becomes obvious that, no, Bond intends to do it alone. What the fuck kind of plan is that? No wonder they call Bond a “blunt instrument”, because he’s certainly no strategist.
Between M standing in a dark field waving a flashlight around until someone shot her, and Q plugging a terrorist’s laptop directly into the computer that controls all the security systems for MI6 headquarters, Bond’s still coming out ahead as the smartest guy working for British Intelligence.
can’t argue with that.
(Worse, Silva’s plan DEPENDED on Q hooking in the computer. He knew they’d be that stupid.)
My two favorite Bond films, period, are Casino Royale and Skyfall. I’ll always especially have fond memories of the latter because I actually saw it
a) while on a trip to the U.K.
b) a week or two before it was released in North America
c) in a family-run movie theatre in the small town of Welshpool, projected on film no less.
I sort of like Quantum of Solace. I know it’s a mess, as they were shooting without a complete script, but I still find it full of striking, memorable images. Plus it featured Gemma Arterton, and her portrayal of Strawberry Fields is, to this Bond nerd, one of the absolute bombshell-iest of the entire series.
Everything went to hell with the fourth movie. The plot that was simultaneously rehashed (the “everything all in one place” intelligence data plot point also showed up in the dire fifth Bourne movie and that incoherent Terminator sequel) and way too convoluted, and I hate the retcon of Blofeld and Bond being foster siblings. I agree with everyone above who’s spoke in favor of episodic standalone stories rather than a series-long arc.
I was so disappointed in that last one…ugh. Basically nothing in it worked for me, and I was endlessly depressed after watching it.
Yes I tend to agree we don’t really need a story arc over several films. I was quite happy assuming that Mr White got his comeuppance at the end of Casino Royale and that was the end of that particular story. The next film could have shown Bond as a more experienced operative but essentially in a new, self contained story. I’m hoping, if the series is to continue (of course it will, it still makes money…), that the producers abandon the idea of longer arcs and just concentrate on the entertainment over a couple of hours.
FTR: Here is a close approximation to what book-Bond looks like:
It’s weird to me the physical appearance thing. I can absolutely buy that Connery, Lazenby, Dalton, Brosnan, and Craig are all supposed to be the same guy allowing for different time periods. I see the physical similarities and personality quirks. Moore has always stuck out like a sore thumb in that group. He just has a foppish quality that I don’t see in the others.
For me Connery and Craig are 1A and 1B. I love both of their movies but Connery has to get the nod for being the original and defining the character in pop culture. Craig’s are more slickly made but I love how Connery’s come across as period pieces now being so far removed from their initial filming. FRWL is still the best.
Even though they’re probably objectively the worst I’ll always have a soft spot for Brosnan as Goldeneye was my intro to Bond.
For me it is
- Casino Royale
- Skyfall
- No Time to Die
- Quantum of Solace
- Spectre
Casino Royale was actually, within bounds, close to the actual book. Of course everything was modernized, but a lot of the plot, including the torture scene, were in the book. Although they tried to minimize some of the camp, for the most part, it still felt like a Bond Movie.
Quantum of Solace on the other hand, felt like some other kind of movie. It did not feel like it was a Bond movie. Yes there were some touches here and there, but to me, it just felt like just another action movie that was really not that interesting.
Spectre was so forgettable, that I recently decided to watch it thinking I had not see it before. After a few moments I realized that I had seen it before, but could barely remember the plot an wasn’t finding the film engaging. So I just fast forwarded to some relevant parts that explained what was going on while also trying to find some scenes that were interesting, but did not have much luck.
//i\\
The opening at the Day of the Dead parade is memorable. The massive explosion, largest on film, was memorable. A lot of the rest wasn’t.
According to a QI book, before the film, Mexico City had no such parade, but they do now.