Scots Taffer on 27/11/2008 at 01:12
A decidedly middling Bond experience mostly hamstrung by the direction and probably the director's input to the script. In short, too much poorly-cut action and not enough character and too much breathless momentum at the sacrifice of deliberate pacing. Disappointing given how good CR was.
In a bit more detail...
Pros:
- Sienna roof chase
- La Tosca opera
- the continuing interpretation of the hard-nosed former-SAS assassin-like Bond
- Bond's single-mindedness gave the film a thematic focus, at least
- Almaric's slimy little bastard actually worked for me and I love the way he just loses it at the end, I like the consistent portrayal of these villains as guys hiding behind their hencemen who then spazz out in fear when cornered
- The way they've grounded the WORLD DOMINATION archetypes into a consortium of government influencers / corps that aim to monopolize, destabilize and institutionalize is nice, very post-modern villainy
- Olga is pretty
- M continues to own this role down to the fucking ground and her interplay with Bond is the real charm and wit of the movie
- Nice to see Mathis and Leiter return (although...)
Cons:
- Can I be allowed some spatial awareness in my action scenes please? The car chase, the interrogation shooting and sewer chase, the fight in the art gallery or whatever, were all horrific. All close cuts chopping all over the place and no sense of direction.
- Jesus fuck that song is DREADFUL and the credits didn't work for me at all
- Olga's entire character is one big fat cliche and bogs down the entire fucking movie
- Mathis and Leiter are criminally underused, Leiter's character is very blank and confusing, Mathis gets a ridiculously quick wrap-up from the events of CR and is then dispatched to keep things moving along
- Their parachute opens a metre from the ground? Really? Honestly? Why in the fuck did this make the final cut? The audience actually GROANED when this happened. People don't take this shit lightly any more. It's fucking stupid and JUST DON'T EVER DO IT AGAIN, OKAY?
- FUEL CELLS? SOUNDS HIGHLY UNSTABLE, I WONDER IF THESE WILL FEATURE IN SOME RIDICULOUS SET PIECE?
And poor Astin Martins can't catch a fucking break in Bond movies these days :(
And to echo the above, yeah, Bond's dumping of Olga and lack of recall about not killing someone when confronted by M definitely bothered me. Also, why did Bond even save Olga if he then dumped her 5 seconds later? Yeah, I fucking hated her character's existence basically.
Molock on 27/11/2008 at 20:42
Watched it a week ago, this movie was so boring and random; I couldnt pay enough attention to remember everything what happened. Wasnt worth the money, the bond girls were boring, the story was random and shallow, and at the end it was all about water. I was just sitting there and thought ''What the hell?''. Its goddamn James Bond and its an action movie, but water? :rolleyes:
Very dissapointing film, but I expected something like that after the first movie and the big change with D. Craig.
It felt like the video games today, they have to be fast to produce with as short as possible development time, easy to understand for the people with short attention spans, action scenes with explosions and fire wherever possible, location changes every 5 minutes and a small story to hold the stuff together and keeping the randomness low enough to call it a whole game/movie.
This movie is made of puke.
Morte on 27/11/2008 at 22:30
Quote Posted by Scots Taffer
And to echo the above, yeah, Bond's dumping of Olga and lack of recall about not killing someone when confronted by M definitely bothered me. Also, why did Bond even save Olga if he then dumped her 5 seconds later? Yeah, I fucking hated her character's existence basically.Quote Posted by Molock
and at the end it was all about
water. I was just sitting there and thought ''What the hell?''. Its goddamn James Bond and its an action movie, but
water? :rolleyes:
There's been analysts suggesting that most wars will be fought over water within a couple of decades, and Bolivia's water supply was privatized a couple of years ago, leading to riots when the rates predictably doubled. It's not the idea that's bad, it's the execution. I *know* this, and the movie still failed to sell me on the evil scheme.
rachel on 28/11/2008 at 01:23
Well I liked it. It had an over-the-top villain with a plot for world domination, gorgeous babes, Aston-Martins, and lots of action.
I loved it. I did prefer Casino Royale, but I didn't think this one was bad at all.
Also, vintage DC-3 <3
I can see why people are turned off by the new style but I think it's a welcome breath of fresh air in the franchise. This second movie is more formulaic but compared to what came before CR, I don't think it should be judged too harshly.
I did hate the Sony product placement though.
Scots Taffer on 28/11/2008 at 01:33
Quote Posted by raph
Also,
vintage DC-3 <3
was that kind of obscured by a bush outside of Mathis' villa?
rachel on 28/11/2008 at 08:26
uh? :confused:
Scots Taffer on 28/11/2008 at 08:44
whoops, just realised you're obviously referring to a plane and not the astin martin I thought I glimpsed!
