First, a quick plea--let's try to be as spoiler-free in our comments here as possible for a week or so. Not everyone is as twisted as me and connived a vacation day, a shift trade, a favor and some luck to get get a 4-day weekend to watch Bond...
Less than half an hour after first viewing, head still swimming. Random thoughts:
**Marc Forster is no Martin Campbell.
**I managed to stay virgin on the theme song until tonight...completely unmemorable after one listen...seriously, can't remember a thing about it, which is depressing coming from Jack Black
**Good, but no Casino Royale (2006). I'm in like with it at this point, not in love with it
**Brutal, cynical, nasty.
**See, this is why they shouldn't have been changing Leiter's every goddamned movie...see what a little continuity in the role will get you?
**The shortest Bond film ever...and it follows the longest...rumors of lots of cuts, gotta see the DVD now...
**Revealed in the credits: of course that was her name...
Still wired. Must try to sleep, digest, see more tomorrow.
Ditto: head swimming...
ReplyDeletebrutal/cynical/nasty was the only place it could go.
Almost not even a sequel, but the last hour or so of Casino Royale. Like a final, dream-like inferno-drenched chapter.
007's ready to go. He's learned a lot. Went to surprising depths for him to get there.
Enuff can't be said about DC.
Forster is no Campbell. Seems he felt threatened by the action sequences.
Look forward to your full out analysis.
Peter
You mean Jack WHITE? Thank goodness Jack Black never did a Bond song. But I am in the minority that liked it, at least better than You Know My Nwwwwaaaaame!
ReplyDeleteI also like the song. Thought opening credits were very cool/retro.
ReplyDeleteYou mean Jack WHITE? Thank goodness Jack Black never did a Bond song.
ReplyDeleteSorry, 2:30 am will do that to you. Still the thought of Tenacious D doing a Bond theme has me giggling right now...
I found Marc Forster's direction a little annoying. Overuse of the WHIGAC (What the Hell Is Going On Cam) in the action sequences, and occasionally trying too hard to be arty in the other parts. Good movie, though.
ReplyDeleteCurious casting of a Ukrainian to play a South American as the female lead (and she's several shades darker in the movie than in her IMDb photo), but it works, somehow. Makes her look more exotic.
I liked the movie better than most people did and thought Marc Foster did an extraordinary job as far as auteurs attempting to direct Bond films go (cough... Apted... cough).
ReplyDeleteNo one has commented on this but I loved the "title cards" announcing each location and how they were stylized to fit each environment. I really, really liked those.
I liked the title cards, too. I didn't like the credits sequence at all, bad song, boring imagery. Especially after the stellar work Daniel Kleinman did on the last one. I like the fact that it hints that from now on, he's Bond as we know him, his 'origin' story is now complete. Would've preferred to see the gunbarrel at the beginning, though. Daniel Craig is fantastic, and Jeffrey Wright's Leiter is a vast improvement on his predecessors also. I agree that Forster's forté isn't the action scenes, but this film wasn't really lacking in action, and didn't do thatd a job. The scene where the camera follows Bond and his assailant as they fall through the roof window was fantastic.
ReplyDelete"Curious casting of a Ukrainian to play a South American as the female lead"
ReplyDeleteI think it was mentioned in passing that the character is half-Russian.
I didn't think the film "lacked" in action, there is an action/fight sequence every ten minutes. Bond directors rarely direct the action sequences though (let's not forget those are left to the 2nd unit.) I liked the credits sequence a lot, better than Casino Royale's (which was a bit too simplistic for its own good).
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, no gunbarrel at the start is a HUGE no-no.