Presumably some White boys heard the shots and chased Bond as he escaped with the bad guy.
Logical.
But neither of the two films bothered to show the link - which emphasises the childishness of the Director (quick cuts! unexplained links! I’m so wonderful!)
I watched this movie yesterday with friends. We watched Casino Royale on Thursday night to get everyone prepared, which was a good thing because the one person who didn’t got confused about the players, even though he followed the plot fine; everybody else had little problem figuring out what was going on, though admittedly the movie is not forgiving to an inattentive viewer.
A few observations follow:
Those who complain that there is no plot are either not paying attention or are expecting to have the plot explained in the archetypical cliched expository scene where the villain describes his plan to a trussed up Bond and attendant woman, and then leaves them to die in some horrible but readily escapable fashion. The film explicitly avoids that paradigm by essentially giving only Bond’s perspective (with hints of what is going on with the CIA). There is definitely a plot her, with multiple strands that feed at least tangentially back to Casino Royale. While knowing the fine details of the previous film are useful, all the viewer really needs to know is that Bond was betrayed by Vesper and that Mr. White fronts they mysterious Quantum organization.
The movie was a bit heavy on the art house symbolism (not surprising given who they had directing it) which was both good and bad. I thought the chase/fight sequence in Austria intercut with scenes from the opera was brilliant, but it was far and away different than what one expects from an action movie. The shakycam was a bit obtrusive, especially in the opening teaser sequence, but it also provides some verisimilitude in combat sequences, where it conveys the utter confusion of a real fight. The knife sequence with Mr. Slate is one of the most realistic knife fights I’ve ever seen, even more brutal than the stairwell fight in Casino Royale. I thought the fight sequence in Barcelona was somewhat over the top, too close to a Tomb Raider esthetic, but things generally improved after that.
I thought they generally underused the supporting players, especially Jeffrey Wright. Felix should have had a larger and more compromising role, and reportedly was supposed to except that they cut script pages for time. Frankly, I think the movie could have stood to be twenty or thirty minutes longer with a few more quiet, expository scenes, though I liked seeing Camille field stripping her weapon before invading the compound. Mathis was severely underused, I think, which kind of undermined the impact of his dead (especially as Bond essentially sacrificed him as a human shield, harkening back to Vesper’s observation of “…maladjusted young men who give little thought to sacrificing others to protect Queen and country…”) Agent Fields seemed to be kind of an afterthought, which is a shame because her death could have had more of an impact, although I liked the callback to Goldfinger (where Jill Masterson dies due to a similar miscalculation on Bond’s part).
I did like seeing the Ken Adam inspired production design, especially in the compound. The big bold lines evoke the classic Bond movies like Dr. No and Goldfinger. The opera setting and Bond’s actions in it were, again, an inspiration.
I thought the film as a little lacking in the sharp dialogue found in Casino Royale, especially compared to the dining car scene in the prior movie. The interactions between Bond and Camille were, frankly, pretty flat.
Also, WTF is Bond doing with the PPK? It’s classic, of course, but the thing is a piece of junk. Get a real gun, bub.
I still like the theme song, though I don’t like some of the cuts they did on the cinematic track versus the version released as the video.
Overall, I really liked the movie, though I’d have to rank it a notch down in narrative complexity and coherency compared to Casino Royale. I’ll definitely watch it again and buy it on video, as I think it will improve with repeated viewings.
Stranger
I can’t say I ever remember any Bond solving a mystery. Usually, they try to kill him, and he starts killing them back until there are no more left, or an occasional low-level local agent wanders by and points him to his next kill zone. Iv’e never considered Bend even remotely like a detective with a puzzle to solve.
I noticed that, too. I believe it’s because there was no background audio to distract the viewer. As each actor lunged or was struck, you heard the grunts and oompfs that you would expect if seeing the fight in real life.
Um, sorry, but Bond movies are typically hung on a standard investigational plot. Something happens (nuclear weapons or codes are stolen, an agent is killed, a Space Shuttle is hijacked, a defector is kidnapped, et cetera) and Bond is sent to investigate, stepping through a sequence of revealing plot elements. It’s true that he’s often not a very good detective, at least insofar as getting ahead of the game–generally he ends up just stopping the action at the last minute instead of reporting in, letting the RAF send the Hello Kitty Welcome Wagon, and go get rightly pissed–but they’re definitely clockwork investigation stories. In fact, aside from Casino Royale (where Bond is explicitly sent not to investigate but to beat Le Chiffre in poker), From Russia With Love (Bond is sent to acquire the Lektor), and The Living Daylights (Bond is sent to facilitate the defection of Col. Koskov and later to assassinate Gen. Pushkin) I think that all the movie plots have been primarily investigative in nature.
Stranger
A good movie, but not quite as good as Casino. Hopefully the next director will be less enamored of the shakycam/quickcut school of editing.
I get the feeling that QUANTUM is a stand in or at least an offshoot of SPECTRE Or at least I hope they go in that direction. I also hope they got someone good to play Blofeld, or at least Blofeld By Another Name
A good way to connect the new series to its roots.
Saw this with a group of friends Friday night. I loved Casino Royale; I really liked this too, but I’m not sure yet which I put on top.
Loved the callback to Goldfinger with Agent Field’s death. I’ll have to rewatch Goldfinger to check, but I think they even mimicked the camera angles. I’d rather die coated in gold than oil though.
I liked the opening credit sequence a lot as well; I think it recalled the older credits while still being updated, however, I thought that I had
somehow blinked and missed the gunbarrel sequence, until the end of the movie.
As far as looks go, I much preferred the secondary Bond Girl to the main one; Gemma Alterton is adorable. I think she’s my new girlcrush.
The shot is almost exactly the same from Goldfinger in position and angle; clear homage.
Stranger
Yeah, it’s really not that complicated to figure out. Bond captures Mr. White, the White Boys (heh) find out about it somewhere along the way, perhaps via their infiltration of MI6, and the car chase ensues after Bond has thrown White in the trunk (lots of people thrown in trunks in this movie).
Another thought: I really liked Medrano as a minor villain. Kinda wish we had seen more of him, but I get the idea that there never really was very much of him to see. The Colonel of Police seemed like a cheap knockoff of Captain Renault, although that did not occur to me until he packed up his briefcase full of money and declared that he was disgusted with the level of corruption in his nation’s government. (I bet he was shocked, shocked to hear of bribery going on in his police force!)
Actually, Bond didn’t have much choice. He may not be sentimental, but if there’d been any way to protect Mathis he would have. He knew the cops were going to shoot them and that would be lights out for both of them. Cold, maybe, but not wrong.
Just got back from the movie. I liked it. I understood the plot but hated the editing
I have a question: Does Connery have a cameo in it? I could swear he was the old guy reading the paper in the lobby of one of the hotels.
I don’t know about that, but Charlie Chaplin’s granddaughter, Oona, has a bit role as a receptionist in the Perla de las Dunas.
I agree, my wife and I went to see it on Friday and that was exactly what we thought.
Maybe I’m getting old, but the shaky camera work does not appeal to me at all.
The plot was simple to non existent and therre was really nothing for the viewer to try and work out. Could have done with more plot and less fight scenes.
Daniel Craig makes a great Bond, much more liek the Bond of the books, so that is good, but unfortunately as a follow up to Casino Royale this lacked a cetain spark.
It wasn’t a bad film, it just wasn’t that good either. Certainly many times better that Pirates of the Carribean 3 for instance.
It was a shame they killed Mathis as IIRC he appeared in at least one other Bond book and could have been a good secondary recurring character alongside Felix.
One good thing was the escape of Mr White, maybe he can return for a final showdown in the next film.
All in all not bad, but could have been much better. Maybe it’s just a sign of the times and the generally low attention span of the cinema going public, but I like films that make you think as well as having action.
I saw this opening night and was disappointed. In addition to what everyone else has been mentioning, I found the villains to be quite bland. There was nothing terrifying about them.
The editing was the biggest problem. To pick but one of several ruined action sequences, the boat chase should’ve been a showstopper, but I found myself recalling the superior (if vastly simpler) pursuit in From Russia With Love. The way that sequence was filmed and cut (with enough long distance/wide angle shots and leisurely edits), you see Connery’s Bond analyzing his predicament and thinking his way through it. When he starts dumping the perforated oil drums in the water, you’re not sure if that’s to protect the boat from blowing up or something else, but know it’s for a damned good reason, and the scene plays out at a pace to let you think it through for yourself. When Bond finally reaches for the flare pistol, you’re right there with him, so to speak, and the edited sequence is honest enough so that the fiery outcome seems plausible. Contrast that with Quantum’s Magical Anchor of Death; I was eager to see how this would work, but the pacing was so frenetic there was no time to build up a customary degree of suspense, and the camerawork and editing were so elusive, I didn’t catch how it was supposedly done, so it came across like a huge cheat.
I can only hope they’ll offer a DVD “director’s cut” edition that will rework some of these scenes, or at least offer them as extras, with deleted footage and scenes.
Some minor quibbles: since the real prize wasn’t oil at all, Bond’s final taunting of Green seems superfluous; as for killing off Agent Fields, since Quantum was sending Bond a message, it would’ve made more sense if she had been drowned in the hotel bathtub (or hot tub?), but the Goldfinger homage made it worth it. And why bother to give the girl the name “Strawberry Fields” if you don’t make a moment out of it?
Speaking of the Bond girls, this one was underwritten, unimpressive and altogether too sullen. I got the sense that they didn’t know what to do with her character in the middle act, so they knocked her out cold in the boat chase and had Bond literally hand her off to an extra, so she wasn’t developed as a true partner (albeit one born of exigency) to Bond, in either sense of the word. And fer Pete’s sake, it’s not as if there’s a shortage of stunning South American beauties willing to play a Bond girl, so why choose an ethnic Ukrainian for an expressly Bolivian role?
And yes, the pubic flash was inexcusable, because its vulgarity (I almost typed “vulvarity”) breaks with the Playboy-like code of Bond’s classy but fantasy sexuality. Bond generally seduces two or three girls per film (the present one being an exception) – and as Umberto Eco once observed, Bond always mates in seven [plotting] moves or less – but the nudity is always tasteful and never goes full frontal, just as the sex is always sanitized of any realistic grinding, precautions, or kinkiness (Bond doesn’t do, or receive, oral, let alone anything else). On edit, the scene in question was between the general and his [about-to-be] rape victim, so the ugliness of the moment dovetails with his character, but it’s still out of character with the series as a whole.
Jack White wrote the second-worst theme song in the series (that raspberry goes to Madonna for “Die Another Day”), which was actually okay until the duet got stuck on that uncomfortably high and unresolved note and stayed there for about a minute-and-a-half. (This is a song seemingly calculated to make babies cry and goad dogs to howl and bark.) The minimalist Cage-like piano plinking was a nice touch, though. I wasn’t impressed by the score, either, although it was probably constricted by the wall-to-wall action that dominated this one as well as the melodic inspidness of the theme song. One thing you could count on in the classic Barry scores with the Bricusse (and even post-Bricusse) theme songs was a frequent (if not constant) reiteration of the theme song in the score, in a variety of arrangements.
These gripes aside, Daniel Craig has never been better and it was all still more fun than it should’ve been, although the Purvis-Wade-Haggis plotting falls apart under examination like a tissue when wetted, as usual. [In Casino Royale, we were to believe that a loose association of terrorists and bankers could infiltrate the British government’s financial operations (by blackmailing Vesper Lynd), which would only help them in future should Vesper find herself, oh, personally overseeing the financial backing of an MI6 operative in a poker tourney in which the ring has a player… which doesn’t make any sense whatsoever, given the vicissitudes of civil service careers and love affairs, for that matter, and the fact that LeChiffre set up the whole high-stakes poker game in the first place to recover his losses from selling the airline stocks short (losses incurred when the jet bombing was foiled unexpectedly by Bond). Besides which, LeChiffre’s risky playing with his client’s money (both the market speculation and the poker) were in violation of his contract with his client and against his association’s rules, so he couldn’t be leveraging the [Quantum] assocation’s assets to further his renegade schemes anyway, so explain again why would the group have gone to the prior trouble of blackmailing Vesper? At least in the novel, these machinations were more plausible because the enemy in question was the KGB/Comintern/Soviet government (with LeChiffre, a French Labor leader and Soviet puppet) and the political context was an ongoing Cold War, with occasional heated flare-ups.]
Which brings me to the current offering, with the ultimate prize being not Bolivian oil (or copper, diamonds, or something else that’s realistically exploitable and high-value), but water rights. I almost laughed out loud at this. (I read too much Latin American history in college to fall for this one.) No criminal, foreign-controlled conspiracy is going to make a long-term* killing out of squeezing the urban laborers and rural Indios of Bolivia for their water, for two reasons: 1) there’s precious little private wealth to be squeezed from the general public/economy of Bolivia (as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid learned a century ago); and 2) regardless of who rules Bolivia, the minute that the masses hit the streets with general strikes and protests over their water rates (and they will, rest assured, with the Church marching in lockstep), the guy or junta, be he a communist, socialist, Christian Democrat, or [suddenly populist] nationalist or militarist general running the country will nationalize the water-controlling monopoly. Simply put, Quantum’s contract isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on, their threats of coup/assassination notwithstanding, especially since they’re all foreigners anyway, so any political alliance with them would be burdened by that stigma (or necessity of secrecy), leaving the generalissimo free to play the xenophobia card when the proverbial water balloon hits the fan.
- I’d give the Quantum group two months, max, of induced drought/agua extortion before the general catches the Populist fever.
I must have blinked and missed that bit.
I think you’ve written possibly the best review of the film to date. Much more detailed than I could write, even if I could be bothered to write that much.
Thanks.
I thought Bond’s final taunting of Green was payback for Fields’ death, not symbolic of Quantum’s plot.
You’re right, of course. That’s the only reason for it. :smack:
I actually didn’t get at the time what was in the can. (If a motor oil doesn’t advertise during football games, I’m not familiar with it.) It took M’s explication to spell it out for me.
Me too. I had no idea it was motor oil - wasn’t quick enough to spot it when the flashed on it.