I thought it was quite inconsistent - the main thesis was solid - but dwelled on inconsistencies in the films he didn’t like. It was sooooo nit picky for quantum of solace - while completely ignoring how stupid the 2nd act “let myself get captured” cliche of Skyfall was. Pitch meetings has done it wayyyy better - but seriously Javier Bardem’s plan to get captured, let Q plug his laptop into the mainframe at a convenient time and then wait for a tube train to fall on Bond is THE dumbest villain plot ever. Like how would that work?!!?? But no mention of this bs in 2 hours of video - but 15 minutes more detail on minor plot strangenesses in quantum? Almost like the preferences override the detail?
The Blofeld reveal has as much impact as the Khan reveal in Star Trek. If you didn't know who the character was it meant nothing, and if you did know who the character was you'd be like, "Hell no you're not."
Both also signaled the beginning of the end. It took 5 years for them to make a follow up to Spectre. Star Trek Into Darkness is the reason Beyond tanked and brought any future movies in that timeline down with it.
I keep trying to overlook the constant blaming of the writers but, as an independent (i.e. no name) screenwriter myself who has suffered though meetings with producers and directors demanding change after change, I can tell you that the writers are NOT "in charge" of the story and plot. They are simply tasked with the hands-on work. But often the notes they're given even cause THEM to shake their heads and say, "This is awful." Yes, they could quit. So could the cinematographer if he doesn't like the director's taste in framing a shot. But it's your JOB. You do it to the best of your ability. If you DO leave, you get replaced yet often STILL get writer credit. Sometimes you even get SOLE writer credit for a script that is only half yours (if that). If there's a totem pole, imagine the director and producers at the top of it and the writers below them. Dario Argento says everyone on a film, including the writer, should be there to serve the director's vision. Not the other way around. Of course, in a franchise like 007, the producers are the ultimate "show runners." Still, writers do NOT always get their way. So if you hate an idea or whatever, please don't just assume it came from a writer. Thank you. And goodnight.
Good points. The more I learn about how these blockbuster movies are made, the more I realise how little respect there is for writers and their work. It must be infuriating and demoralizing, after years spent honing your craft, and months of hard work to write a decent script, to have it utterly butchered by untalented, uncreative higher ups with no idea what makes a good story. This explains how, while the bar to entry is so high, the end results are often so poor when it comes to screenwriting. A good example of this is the ridiculous 'Brofeld' twist in Spectre. Making Bond and Blofeld stepbrothers was producer Michael G. Wilson's brainwave, not the writers'.
Speaking for myself, when I hear something like "wtf were the writers thinking?" I don't equate "writers" with the folks whose job title is "writer" but rather with the *literal* writers -- whether that "writer" was the director, the producer, or some meddling executive. I don't work in the film industry but in software engineering where things are somewhat similar -- the programmers who write the code often get blamed for bad decisions (like in video games -- "what were the devs thinking?") when in reality majority of those decisions are made by the executives/directors/people who have no idea how to actually write code. Either way -- in both industries you would hope the director, whose job it is to maintain the creative vision, would stick to that job and let the professional writers put his creative vision into actual words, but that is so rarely the case especially when dealing with the kind of egos that exist in those types. So that's where you get directors doing more writing than actual writers because they think it's so easy. Anyway, I sympathize.
These are very good points. I really enjoyed reading this part of the comments. I know it had nothing to do with the video I just really enjoy learning movie making lol 😆
One note about the NTTD opening. It’s the fact that Madeleine specifically tells Bond to go to Vesper’s grave and then that it exploded that set him off.
Still feels like a lazy move from the writers since considering the events of Spectre that were brought up, there's no way a woman who's tied to a building that'll blow up would be working with a villain. And if she's was, well then what if Bond didn't fall for the trap? Then Blofeld just made one of the dumbest gambles ever.
@@osmanyousif7849 Yeah it's like it feels so over-the-top obvious that if I were Bond I'd be questioning how simple it seemed. Like "if she was really evil, she wouldn't be THAT dumb and lazy about it, right?" But also, when I first watched the movie I was like "Dude, why the hell would you seriously visit her grave?" Like, regardless of whether or not someone TOLD Bond to do that, if I was a villain trying to kill James Bond, and I had no idea where in the world he was hiding, but I DID know that he had an ex-girlfriend whose death he'd been openly sad about for years now, my FIRST instinct would be "Why don't I plant a bomb in her grave and leave a camera watching, just on the off chance he decides to visit someday?" How the hell did he not see that shit coming?
Great stuff, Mr Macabre. That ending left me unexpectedly emotional: Craig's Bond was my Bond too. I love what he brought to the character and I still love Casino Royale. It breaks my heart that all that potential was squandered by such a lack of vision and poor quality control from those running the show: so many bad story choices, so many missed opportunities, and so much sloppy and lazy writing. Craig and his wonderfully human Bond deserved better, and reading some of his interviews, I get the impression he had a better understanding of the character and the direction the saga should have taken than the people in charge. Also, I was wondering if you'd consider doing a rewrite for the Craig Bond films in the same style as your GOT videos? I'm attempting something similar myself, but I'd be so fascinated to hear your thoughts on how it could have been improved. Anyway. Top stuff. Time well spent.
Yup. Casino Royale has stuck with me far more than I had expected even though I've only seen it once at release when I was young. Daniel Craig and Eva Green sold that movie so fucking well. It's sad the series suffered from a disjointed vision and fell flat when the prospect of a continuous Bond series with a fantastic opening opened up so many possibilities.
It was Daniel Craig's idea to kill off Bond, so I'm not very kind to Craig at all. I solely put how Craig was great in CR to director Martin Campbell and writer Paul Haggis.
@@EthanKnight97 I was fine with Craig's Bond dying (I always thought this version existed in an alternate universe and has no effect on the earlier Bonds), but I thought it was done poorly due to bad writing, both in NTTD itself and the problems left over from Spectre. This Bond deserved a better ending. Campbell and Haggis totally made Casino great. Apparently Paul Haggis also wrote a script for NTTD but it was rejected. I'd kill to get a copy of it.
@@Thomasmemoryscentral It would be great to read rejected screenplays (both from Bond and various other films). It's aIways interesting to imagine what could have been. I guess it all depends on who owns the rights to the scripts and if they'd be willing to share them. Apparently Haggis's last Bond script had the working title 'Shatterhand', so that might help with searching if it's ever made available online.
Having refused to seen No Day to Die out of disgust after Spectre, I can't help but feel like your synopsis of the former makes it sound like a MGS movie Like, nanomachines made to specifically assassinate a specific strain of DNA? That's literally just FOXDie lmao
At least they allowed bond to die heroically in that movie. I watched it and it was fine, definitely better than spectre. They could’ve used to nano shit as a mcguffin, and just had a cure, but it’s a decent ending
Dude don't forget about the fact that he sneaks onto a shady island wearing a black sneaking suit and kills himself at the end. I feel like someone MUST have known.
@@TheWizardGamez The way he goes across the supervillain's fortress, shooting down extras like a T-800 on steroids keeps the ending from being decent.
For me the meaning of "the writing on the wall" is the looming threat of spectre as the big bad behind all the previous film's bad guys. This however would only work if the previous films had actually set up such a looming threat instead of retroactively shoehorning it into this one
I'm pretty sure the deal with Bond killing himself was that earlier in the movie M explained that project Heracles spreads rapidly from person to person by human - only killing those with the DNA it is programmed to kill. In that way it's the most effective method of assassination for an intelligence agency as one doesn't even have to come within contact with the target, eventually, it'll just make its way around. This is shown earlier in the film when Blofeld dies - it spreads to Bond by simply touching Madeleine but only kills Blofeld. Hence, the argument that Bond could just be in isolation while they research a cure really isn't feasible when you realise he wouldn't be able to touch a single person throughout all that time, for fear of it eventually spreading to Madeleine and Mathilde.
Exactly. I like the Heracles McGuffin, and funnily enough Bond sacrificing himself is almost a cowardly act. I would have ended the film with Bond getting off the island. Time passes and he is in bed with a woman who resembles Vesper. He leaves her early next morning to go and see Madaleine and Mathilde from afar, the little girl sees her father and they both smile at each other. When Mathilde get her mother’s attention and she points to where Bond is, Madaleine doesn’t see anyone. However she knows Bond was there and smiles to herself. Bond drives back to his apartment, as he enters the main entrance that last verse of Eillish’s song is heard and as Bond enters the building the screen fades to black and the song ends.
@@spaceodds1985 post-credits scene: Madeline's doorbell rings and it's the woman Bond was sleeping with who has come to answer a job advert for a nanny. She puts out her hand for Madeline to shake and as Madeline reaches out the screen fades to black for a final time...
To the credit of the scene with Maddy's daughter reveal, I felt like the way she said 'she's not your daughter' had the subtext of 'she may biologically be your daughter, but you left, so you don't get to just walk in and be her dad now'. Or at least I remember thinking that at the time, but then later on the movie does treat it as a reveal, so I guess that's just more evidence that the acting is better than the writing in most of these movies.
I can't believe I'm saying this after Casino Royale and Skyfall but I'm ready to cleanse my palate of Craig and his gritty weeping. Also it'll be nice if we could actually get some SUPPORTING characters again. In the Craig films there seems to be this pressing need to turn every member of the MI6 team into badass field agents. I want to go back to the days of seeing M, Moneypenny, and Q at the beginning and end of the film and that's it. I don't need them out in the field doing things Bond should be doing. And, please, no more "Bond goes rogue" plotlines. Craig has done that to death. It used to be a super rare occurrence for Bond to go rogue but Craig does it in every freaking movie.
Amen. I'm just sick of his era completely. Whenever I do a Bond marathon again I'm going to dread getting to his movies. I just want Bond movies to be fun again. No Time to Die was shaping up to be that, then the second half ruined that.
Agreed. I want him to play “The Gentleman” in a Spider-Man movie. I always was interested in the character ever since The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Daniel Craig’s acting is awesome
Not all characters are necessarily made better with character arcs, and the problem with a character like Bond is that while you can explore the character, his charcter arc is not why one generally goes to see a Bond film. I think the Mission Impossible franchise handled and is handling the development of a character over a series of films much better within the same genre. Still when you look back over the entire franchise, one has to wonder if the team at EON actually understand the Bond character at all. In the beginning when they had Flemming's source material, there was some consistency, but without that they seemed to be constantly struggling to find ways to keep Bond relevant, and ended up making the franchise derivative of whatever trends were happening at the time. Last I really appreciate the Days of Our Lives quip, because I'm glad somebody remembers some of the crazy situations that show had back in the day with characters returning from the dead, changing their appearance, and getting possessed by demons, and ALL of that made more sense than Spectre.
Exactly. Bond is a paragon. He's not an everyman character. The story of an everyman is the story about how the events of the story change them. The story of a paragon is how he (or she) changes the world due to the events of the story.
@@Roper122 Exactly, Bond like Sherlock Holmes is a steadfast character. These characters are already fully formed and have already done their "heroes journey".
Amen. He's an action hero. He drinks, drives fast, beds endless women, survives unbelievable danger. He kicks ass. He's not meant to have his kicked emotionally for five damn films. It's too much
Masterful analysis, thank you. With scripts this bad, it speaks to Daniel Craig's immense acting talent that we weren't laughing where we weren't meant to while in the theater.
You're right. The reveal of his name 'Blofeld' was just like the reveal of the name 'Khan' in Star Trek into Darkness: meaningless to the central characters in both cases, and meaningless to the audience unless they've seen the relevant, classic-era earlier film(s). Either way, completely undeserving of the THIS-IS-SIGNIFICANT emphasis.
Yes it's the writers breaking the fourth wall for a cheap wink to fans. It's kinda like in The Force Awakens when Han Solo and Finn capture Phasma and Solo says something like "is there a trash compactor around here?". To the fans who have seen the original Star Wars in which Solo gets trapped in the trash compactor in the Death Star this is a throwaway gag, but it wouldn't have made any sense to Finn - from his point of view, Han Solo would have seemed like a sadistic psychopath who wanted to kill Phasma in the most gruesome way possible for no particular reason.
The fact that the MI6 building is just sitting there with no guards is amazing. In the real world it would have been overrun with homeless people, bored teenagers and criminals in seconds if it was just abandoned. Which also would never happen because it's a huge building in the middle of London. Such a stupid setting for the entire finale of a film.
Originally Radiohead were supposed to do the theme but it got rejected for being too dark, so my guess is they rushed it and got Sam Smith. Radiohead released Spectre and it's far far superior and I think it's the best bond theme ever made, your getting Radiohead plus Paul Thomas Anderson's composer (Jonny Greenwood, who's in Radiohead). The strings in it are amazing and the lyrics make more sense.
I’m learning this now and I’m checking it out. It makes me even more pissed now, considering how it seems like the studio just didn’t care all that much about what the movie’s title song was suppose to be talking about.
I think you should’ve given a mention to the theme song Radiohead made for Spectre, which ended up not being used for being too dark (which is fucking weird imo). I think that so much better encapsulates the themes of the film and even fits the opening credits better. The only reason I’d say it shouldn’t be used is because it’s too good for the film it’s in lol
As much as the Yakuza games, Kiryu frustrates me with his "no killing" code, even when the villains scream they're going to murder his friends and family.
Agreed. After QoS was poorly received, I think the producers got scared and veered hard in the wrong direction. Instead of learning the one lesson they should have learned (get a good script written and hire a director who understands Bond movies), they just kept making one mistake after the other.
For those who have not already, the original (later scrapped) lead soundtrack for spectre is worth checking out. It was written and performed by Radiohead
@@jmgonzalez4It's called "Spectre" and somebody on TH-cam lined it up with the opening credits of the movie if you want to watch it 50 years after leaving your comment lol.
Goldeneye Pen Grenade Scene. Q: “Don’t say it!” Bond: “….the writings on the wall?” Q: [while giggling] “Along with that rest of him!” *snorting laugh*
Just gotta say preemtively that it's kinda funny that what started as a promisingly fresh and modern take on Bond turned out to be the most consistently underwhelming and mediocre Bond eras to date.
And a waste of award winning actors, playing what could’ve been great villains but turned into just mediocrities (except for Le Chiffe and somewhat Silva).
Jesus... After watching this breakdown, Spectre was even more convoluted tgan i thought! Also, doesnt Bond escape the villains base waaaay to easily? He shoots a pipe and the whole place goes up! Something like that. I swear, the villains base in the first Oncredibles was more interesting. Oh...you covered the base thing. Cool!
I've been in awe of Craig's abilities as an actor after watching "Our Friends In The North". His character goes from teenager to middle-aged man in the series and he portrays each stage brilliantly.
Craig's one of my favorite Bonds in the franchise and it's because of his stunning performance. He's such a great actor and my favorite film he's starred in was Defiance. It's a shame that he got the short end of the stick in terms of story writing.
I wouldn't be surprised if the "Writing on the Wall" just refers to the name 'James Bond' being written on the memorial wall of the old MI6 HQ...the writers of the song probably just saw that screen shot and went with it...I can't really come up with any other metaphorical meaning atm
He might not have had a lot to work with. Billie Eilish dropped No Time to Die almost two years before the actual film came out, and during that time there were rumors they rewrote most of the plot. Writing on the Wall probably made sense with an earlier version of the script, but they didn't have time to go back and change the song they finished months ago.
@@mariokarter13 nah, it was the opposite. Radiohead was originally commissioned to write the theme, but their song was rejected by the studio (they subsequently released it as a free download). Smith was brought on to write a new theme last minute, which he has subsequently admitted was a rush job (saying it took about 20 minutes to write) and released it only a month before the film came out. The Radiohead version works pretty well with the opening sequence and ulimately I think works better as a theme (especially given they had more time to write it), although it's characteristically Radiohead so recognise not for everyone: th-cam.com/video/COP0XlYHvto/w-d-xo.html
Damn, Daniel Craig is such a class act. His and Dench's performances especially elevated Bond into something that might still be relevant after all. While I grew up with Pierce Brosnan who had more solid movies in his run in my opinion it was refreshing to see that a Bond can be more than an action flick while still keeping in spirit with the original character. It's a shame that I'll never be motivated to revisit Craig's Bond as the classic collection it could have been. Before watching this retrospective I almost forgot all about Spectre and Quantum of Solace. I legitimately asked myself who Madeleine was during No Time To Die which could be a sign of early onset dementia or the unwillingness of my brain to recognize Spectre's existence.
I read all the Bond books, and saw all the Bonds before Craig, and the thing I liked about Craig's Bond that the other films didn't do as well was the sense of tension and danger that the books had. Also, can anyone explain how that bionic eye was supposed to work to let Blofeld see what was happening? I didn't really understand that part.
Thank you for articulating what I have been feeling about the Craig Era since watching NTtD. I’ve been a long time 007 Fan, and the Spector really annoyed me with its sloppy retconning, however I was prepared to over look that as they had brought back Spector & Blofeld. When NTtD released I heard so much hype (“best Craig film ever”), but when I saw it I could only see the dumb knee-jerk decision by bond at the beginning, the sweeping of Spector under the rug to neatly tie up the arc, and the complete lack of motivate of the villain. And I’m sat there thinking they tried too hard to make it an homage to OHMSS, and that Skyfall was better 😬
Spectre makes Quantum Of Solace look like a masterpiece. My ranking of the Craig era: 1. Casino Royale 2. Skyfall 3. Quantum Of Solace 4. No Time To Die 5. Spectre Despite having too many cuts and a convoluted plot, I still think Quantum Of Solace is better than the last two movies because it accurately showed Bond's headspace after dealing with the death of Vesper and also showed him ultimately move on from her by not killing her ex-lover. It also allowed Skyfall to be separate from the first two movies and have its own place and not be overshadowed by Casino Royale. Unfortunately, Spectre ruined everything by interconnecting all the movies in a way to show that Blofeld was behind everything.
Totally agree with you on Quantum of Solace. Despite all it's flaws, it managed to continue the emotional thread from Casino Royale in a way that none of the other films did. What got me invested in this Bond was wanting to see his emotional journey continue. How does this guy get over Vesper's death? Does he learn to trust again? Will he resolve these inner conflicts? Will he find a reason to leave MI6 and get a happy ending, or is he doomed to the lonely life and death of a hired killer? Unfortunately the writers/directors/producers seemed to forget about/not give a crap about this after QoS. In Skyfall Bond has no meaningful character arc (it's all winking metacommentary, contrived themes, plot holes, and symbolism), and Spectre...I don't even know what happened there. Even though it failed, at least NTTD tried to pick up this emotional thread, deal with the theme of trust (however contrived and clumsily) and give Bond some kind of emotionally satisfying resolution.
@@katemara667, I still think Skyfall despite its flaws is a great movie. His getting shot, becoming physically weak and eventually, proving to MI6 and himself that he is capable of doing the job was a great character arc. I also think it handled the character of M pretty well.
Admirable ranking. Although personally I would swap Spectre with NTTD. Absolutely ridiculous and eye rolling Spectre maybe, but I never found it to be as slow and dull as NTTD. Also, great to see QoS get some credit.
The Blofeld reveal most reminds me of Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness. They tried so hard to surprise the audience with fanservice they destroyed their entire run of movies. Bond had to pray people forgot by the time they finally got around to a sequel, Star Trek caused the next film to tank and take any future Kelvin movies down with it.
Madeline honestly was the one thing that just outright made me annoyed with that chunk (at least once she becomes more friendly in that hotel scene with bond versus the prior action scene) of Spectre. THEY HAVE NO CHEMISTRY. AT ALL! Of course being a Daniel Craig fan I was quick to blame the actress playing Madeline. But no, she's not a bad actress. Some actor/actresses can't be convincing in a relationship, so they, ya know, cast the better choice? What was that casting call like? They seriously didn't see anyone who could sort of take on the "he can fall in love again" or "On her majesty's secret service" (literally something NTTD banks on a bit) thing? I actually think to Miranda Frost from Die Another Day, Rosamund Pike and wish she'd been the bond girl in this one, because I feel like her and Craig would've. That being carried over as anything but a death scene for Madeline was a huge mistake for NTTD. Truthfully it should've ended with Spectre-convulted as it was, it still felt very full-circle in many aspects and that was enough. And honestly, I'm probably already there-I only intend to watch NTTD one more time, and if I hate it 1/2 as much as I did the first time, it'll still kill a lot of brain cells for how awful it truly was, and just consider imperfect/messy Spectre as the ending for Craig Bond.
Excellent job, loved hearing your opinion! I have had a very up and down relationship with these movies too but I completely agree with your sentiment at the end, Craig gave it 100% no matter what.
I think HBomberGuy covered this brilliantly in his video Sherlock Is Garbage And Here's Why. Interestingly, Sherlock did the same 'surprise supervillain sibling who's secretly been behind everything all along muwhaha!' bullshit. And it went just as badly.
as much as I love the craig movies, i hate how each entry after casino royal tries way too hard to give bond another arc and tried to explore deeper aspects, skyfall is the only one where it sorta works
Yes! I think the producers listened to some of the negative feedback over Spectre and fixed some issues, namely the godawful piss-yellow filter all over it. Spectre looked so drab. One of the first things I noticed about NTTD is how pretty it is to look at. Probably the most visually beautiful Bond film ever made.
@@katemara667 Yeah exactly, it is such a breath of fresh air to see an action movie that actually puts effort into the visual aspects of it. So many action movies look so dull and ugly, it's a shame really. Marvel movies especially, it boggles my mind how movies with budgets of 200 million look so damn flat, like cinematography and camerawork are treated as an afterthought.
@@conradtrueit7882 I agree that the film does have some issues and needed more time in the oven, but the visual aspects of modern films seem to be so overlooked, especially by big-budget popcorn flicks (which seems to be the only big-budget movies we are getting). I think this movie deserves more credit for those parts.
I was a kid who grew up on the Moore films on tv and I hated the Dalton films in the theater, so this grounded dramatic bond is the opposite of what I want from them. They feel like knockoff mission impossible films to me. Brosnan is my favorite portrayal now, I feel he melded the best of other versions into a good medium that could be fun but also have drama.
@@fusionspace175 Lol it's everyone's favorite th-cam.com/video/ARPs1KhpMZA/w-d-xo.html These Craig kids are missing out by limiting themselves to Craig's brooding emo Bond. The old movies are gems.
Madeleine is too young for Bond. They have no real chemistry - which is ironic cos I think Craig and Bellucci have uber chemistry (despite the virtual SA). Most of your critiques I agree with. Interesting video.
Craig fits so well for an action oriented Bond especially in Casino Royale. I think the bond films should probably stay independent for the sake of potential better story (I would hope). Big action set pieces are cool but I much prefer the close quarter style fights between Bond and one or two bad guys much like the Casino Royale stairwell fight and Bond versus Dimitrios. The chase scene on the tarmac in the fuel truck is really cool for that big involved set piece but I would like to see those kept on the minimum each film so they seem more special. A small scale gritty fight scene I like to reference is in Safehouse between Ryan Reynolds and Joel Kinnaman. Just my opinion and I would like to hear what others want to see out of future Bond films.
Part 1 was a very reasonable analysis of the Craig legacy of the the Bond franchise--especially for uninitiated viewers. I really enjoyed it, and subscribed as a result. Just FYI, I am staying subscribed because I am sure I will enjoy your other videos. That having been said... Part 2 is mostly a rant about Specter. Part 1 talked a lot about how the Craig saga was connected--and not connected--to the original movies, whereas Part 2 is just a bitch session about how it connections--or rather does not connect--to the other Craig movies. Part 1 was a fucking great analysis. Part 2 is sounds more like one of those TH-cam rants about how the sequel trilogy murdered Star Wars. It's almost like Part 1 was a setup in order to justify/legitimize a rant about how the Craig films changed in the final two movies. Part 1: facts and observations and analysis Part 2: opinions and venting and hyperbole I honestly feel like each part is narrated by different people. "The Writing is on the Wall" could be hinting at the downfall of the quality of the Craig films. Another reading, and I don't know if the movie creators were this self-aware, but it could hint at the fact that Craig's Bond (the first serialized Bond) was going to die soon. I do really enjoy the content of the channel. I also really appreciate your take on Lynch's presence in the movie. I actually am beginning to wonder if you started out as someone who essentially hasn't seen a Bond movie ever, and then watched the Craig movies and discovered what many (moat?) fans also felt watching things unfold.
I appreciate Daniel Craig’s effort. I thought ‘Casino Royale’ was OK, but not amazing. I found little that the producers tried to do that felt fresh. It was always a mix of ‘The Dark Knight’ and the Bourne movies. After a while, the idea of, “How about we reboot the series, only the movies won’t have the same tone and the characters will all be the exact opposite of what they used to be?” to be a very tired, old, and boring form of storytelling. “How about we make a James Bond movie, but James Bond isn’t like James Bond?And M isn’t like M. And Q isn’t like Q. And Moneypenny isn’t like Moneypenny. And we’ll be all self-aware, and signal to the audience the entire movie just how clever and self-aware we are.” That’s the only thing Hollywood has been doing for twenty years.
Spot on. That's why they made him blond. They are just being different. All anybody wants in Bond is for him to successfully use terrible pick up lines on women with sexual puns for names and then a bunch of mindless shooting and driving.
@@Nick-ce6lt: People don't watch Bond movies because they want to feel old, useless, and depressed. There are a lot of movies you could watch to get that. I don't need endlessly preachy, depressing BS in my Bond movies.
I'm partial to Craig as he is the first and only Bond I have watched(so far) after randomly deciding to go see NTTD and then watch all the others of his. But wow, you are spot on. While this two-part essay doesn't make me like Craig's films any less, if I can both laugh and have one of my favorite "series" ripped to shreds, then that is two hours well spent.
Just if anyone isn't a fan of "writing on the wall" listen to the original song that was made for Spectre by Radiohead. Definitely one of the best bond songs and would of fit the intro so much more
Still waiting for Bond's half Japanese child to pop up... In all seriousness, I've come to accept all the internal incongruities in Bond. Bond is contemporary mythology, and each time the story is told around the campfire, the tale changes slightly.
I think the next time they redo this..if they are going to do the love thing they should leave it at one love of his life and have that be the reason he is a womanizer. They shouldn’t try to keep recreating it like they did in the Craig era. The love of his life thing should have stopped at vesper and the rest stand alone adventures with a kick ass Bond girl.
I was eager for this part 2! And I mostly agree with your analysis of all these films. However bad Spectre and QoS were, we gotta say that Casino Royale and Skyfall are probably the top 5 Bond films ever made. Especially Casino Royale. It is my favourite Bond film and Daniel Craig is my favourite Bond.
I think I may have an explanation to Why Spectre has such a mess of s script. I read somewhere that the movie's original script was just supposed to Have Frank Oberhouser as himself and it would have elaborated on Quantum as a main plot point. However It was during this time that the Spectre legal troubles were put to rest and the studio really wanted the script to be about Spectre so they hastily made a couple of changes and rewrote Oberhouser as Blofeld. New scenes were also obviously written and presumably replaced other scenes which would have developed key plot points. I have no idea if any of this is true but i wouldnt be surprised if it is.
"Writing on the Wall" IS terrible. When I think back on the earlier theme songs, "Goldfinger," "Thunderball," "Live and Let Die," to name a few, those songs had energy and gusto. "Writing on the Wall" is a wimpy, sappy song sung by someone who can't hit the notes. I have heard the song covered by a female singer, and it wasn't as bad as what's-his-name's rendition.
2:00 - Eeeeeeeeeh, this seems a really nitpicky criticism. Bond is a spy, and eavesdropping on conversations is something of an occupational requirement for him. It doesn't stretch my credulity to believe that he'd want to see what his target was plotting as well as ultimately killing him.
It makes more sense when you realize that the studio didn’t have the rights to use the SPECTRE IP until after Skyfall. “Quantum” was going to be a bigger deal moving forward, but upon acquiring the rights to SPECTRE, a name that has more MEMBERBERRIES… they dumped the Quantum organization wholesale to SPECTRE, but then had the issue that they had to retcon the other movies while still keeping them Canon. It’s honestly a lot like Rise Of Skywalker in that way.
I'm unpleasantly surprised how everyone praises Casino Royale failing to realize how that movie has one of the biggest plot holes, if not the biggest, in the Craig series. Why making such a convoluted ploy to capture the terrorist banker LeChiffre in the first place? I mean, both MI6 and CIA know the exact time and the place of his attempt to recover his bankroll, so why not just capture him and torture the ass out of him until he reveals everything he knows? The whole movie basically revolves around this unforgivable oversight.
The one thing that hammered the fact that Bond producers don't really know what the hell they are doing, was when Safin was introduced in the saga. His motivation from taking revenge on Spectre (which made sense) to world annihilation (a big WTF!) was super dogshit. Like even if you ignored all the inconsistencies with Bond's characterization throughout the saga owing to change in directors and whatnot, this was something that ruined No Time To Die for me permanently. Like, the 1st half of the movie had me hooked to what was going to come but when it came, I wish it hadn't
I didnt catch it the first time I watched it but I’m pretty sure project Heracles is designed to move through the entire population only affecting its intended target, like how it moved from Swann to Bond. Therefore if he left the island he would have to have completely isolated himself from everyone as any screw up would send it on its path after his family. Not an impossible task but quite difficult and the margin of error is absolute, I could understand why he just accepts the choice to not risk high certainty of their death just so he could spend some more time with them.
Casino royal good All other Craig bonds were average/middling to bad. Did you see all the classic bonds before skyfall or after? I’m not sure why general consensus is very positive. They are all super meh. At least they’re trying :p
To be honest, I'd rather watch Spectre than QOS. Despite it's problems, Spectre had funnier lines, better action sequences, more personality, style. I get something with Spectre (even if it doesn't entirely succeed and can fail big time). I get nothing out of QOS and when I do it's just nothing but bored bitterness thinking about it (which makes it the worst Bond flick to me personally).
Recently watched this bond series with my wife for the first time. We did ourselves a HUUUUGE disservice by reading about it beforehand - wifey was actually genuinely pumped to see the films. But already in Royale, we couldn't stop laughing at the weird dialogue, the inconsistent stances and god awful "romance" subplots. The look bond gives the first girl in the parking lot is the look of a maniac - and it's become a thing we do for fun now... We were so disappointed in the series as a whole. Skyfall is somewhat ok, but we were expecting better standards from such a franchise...
Straight up. This is easily one of my favorite movie analysis/essay channels. Your breakdowns and articulate deep dives with a dash of hilarious humor are truly remarkable. Been subbed for a while but recently I found myself falling down the macabre rabbit hole. Keep up the Fantastic work my man.
If I were making No Time to Die, here's how I would have killed Bond: At the beginning of the movie, Adam Sandler eats a banana and throws the peel out the window. Throughout the movie, we get the occasional random shot of the banana peel on the street, seemingly for no reason. At the end of the movie, Bond isn't infected with nanites and he escapes the island before the missile strike hits. Now, feeling victorious, he gets in his car and drives. While shouting, "James Bond Rules!" his car hits the banana peel and spins out of control, driving over a cliff. THE END
Why does he keep being confused about why Bond is sleeping with random women? That’s like being confused about his high functioning alcoholism, it’s what the character does. Uh great reviews otherwise, 10/10 besides that part.
What everyone seems to miss: Madeleine didn't pass the nanobots to Bond. Bond had the nanobots that kills all SPECTRE members in Cuba at the birthday party.
If Palpatine is that Pixar old man playing chess with himself in the park, Franny is a tinfoil conspiracy theorist's attempt to do the same while high on meth EDIT: It would've been insanely easy to rewrite that scene to make it both a tie-in and still keep the agency of the other villains in the series - just have Franny be the one to provide them information about MI6 Instead we just have Franny going "BUT IT WAS ME, DIO-I mean Franny" and later "BUT IT WAS ME, DIO-I mean Blowfield"
The same thing happened to BBC Sherlock: the final episode was so bafflingly terrible that many fans believed it was some kind of joke and that the 'real' episode was still coming. It was like some wild cargo cult of tumblr users. Interestingly, Sherlock also pulled the 'surprise supervillain sibling who's been behind everything all along' twist.
I don't think Spectre is really a Bond film Like, the plot conveniences and opening song and characterizations feel more like the film from someone who's never seen a Bond film, their third hand impressions of what a Bond film is supposed to have: --the theme song almost sounds like a Bond song but the lyrics seems completely alienated from the context of the film --007 is out of character at several times or is inconsistent (like, I know that's been an on-going problem with the saga...but not typically within one film) --pointless sex scene because that's what a Bond does right? Just f*ck every woman he comes within a few feet of? Plus, the subplot about an interservice rivalry between MIs and the villain who is (gasp!) Bond's brother and a postmortem mission from his deceased mentor all seem like plot threads from a more generic spy flick, lazily slapped into a JAMES BOND movie
It really sucks how far Daniel Craig's era sunk. As much as I don't care for the MCU, Marvel did the right thing by actually planning out that universe, what should come after the other, and try to stay consistent all around (yeah, there's the weird connections to the earlier Hulk movies, but compared to this, it's menial in the grand scheme of things). If they had actually planned out Craig's era before filming Casino Royale, this era might've been the most groundbreaking the franchise had to offer and I would've grown up with that. The series started out with a bang and didn't so much end with a whimper, but an ambivalent sigh. I enjoyed your thorough ripping of Spectre as the movie, to me, was the epitome of Whatthefuckery. That movie really had to shoot the era in the foot by connecting all of the movies together so hastily and making Bond a dangerous edgelord. Not only that, the inconsistencies gave me a huge headache and Blofeld & his grand scheme was PEAK Whatthefuckery. However, I always find that even the most shittiest piece of cinema or TV can have good ideas that get horrifically/incompetently executed. The return to his cold demeanor after losing M, his romance with Madeline and how it connects to his arc in Casino Royale, Spectre's connection to Quantum - they're all good ideas, but are so horribly and hastily executed that they stopped being good ideas. So yeah, trash garbage, right next to Die Another Day. And I completely agree with you on No Time to Die. While heavily flawed, it was a better watch for me and my mom (who is a big fan of Craig's Bond) than QoS and Spectre. Like, we left the theater (which we were lucky to be in, since everyone was well-behaved post-COVID-lockdown) and while my mom thought that was a good ending to the saga, I thought it was aight. There were some aspects of it I really enjoyed, most of which you pointed out. I also like how the gunbarrel sequence in the beginning doesn't draw blood like the rest normally do - instead, Bond fades away into the background and it carefully transitions to the snow during Madeline's flashback. Not only does this sequence show one of the cleanest transitions I've ever seen, it also foreshadows Bond's fate to come. After all, the blood that comes after his shot was absent. It's one of my favorite gunbarrel sequences, even if it doesn't hold a candle to Casino Royale's. However, its flaws can be connected to the shooting of the foot Spectre performed, some weird decisions otherwise, and the main villain not only being boring, but unclear on what he wanted to do. If he was fleshed out a little more, his motivation might've been more clearer (like if after the tragic loss of his family, people had treated him like dirt and further drove his already broken psyche into the dirt). Bond dying in the end doesn't bother me as much as others, but some more character exploring would've made his decision not only make more sense, but hit harder. But otherwise, it was an okay finale. That's better for me than a Spectre-level finale. Still though, what a waste of great potential. Again, if they planned out everything beforehand, this might've been a groundbreaking era of Bond. One thing's for certain though - Craig really did give it his all when he became James Bond. Though I wouldn't say that I'm a Bond aficionado, his Bond is up there with Dalton's and Connery's for me. He's proven himself to be a great actor and deserves his place as Bond with the rest of the previous ones. And with that, I'm cautiously anticipating who the next Bond will be. Not to sound like a bitch in the "durr, wokeness is ruining my media" crowd, but I sincerely hope the next Bond is chosen not to virtue-signal crowds that aren't even interested in the franchise to begin with, but because he (if we're going to keep James a man 'cause that's what I prefer) would perfectly encapsulate Bond and bring something refreshing or new to the character. Wouldn't matter to me if he's a redhead this time or a different race/ethnicity. But I'm cautious because Hollywood and those that think like them really love to draw money and clout from meaningless virtue-signalling. Jeez, writing a whole essay on TH-cam. What a way to start the new year...so happy 2022!
Just learned that they created the Quantum group because they didn’t have the rights to the Spectre storyline. That’s part of the reason why the films are so disjointed. They got the rights in 2013, between ‘Skyfall’ and ‘Spectre’ films.
I would be really bummed about the Craig era if he was my first Bond - to be teased with both a more grounded take and a more serialized approach only to have it be such a mess. Fortunately for me he was not my first Bond. When self contained adventures and cartoonish stories & action were the norm, having one, two or more lousy Bond movies makes it easy to just enjoy the stuff I like and ignore the stuff I don't. Like I simply have not rewatched Quantum of Solace or Spectre but I have rewatched Casino Royale and Skyfall, so in my head cannon presumably they're separated by more than a few years so it's easy to accept Bond being young in one but old in the other.
Also, the reason Bond stayed and died is because he would affect everyone he touched. If he shook a hand and that hand shook another, and one eventually would kill his family. Also, main villian man's evil plan was to kill millions of people and taking control of the world. By fear. Much like what happening now with COVID.
Craig started out so good with casino Royal. Then Wuantum if a solace was a big waste of time and but when Skyfall was so good I just went with it and considered it a hiccup. Boy I was wrong as Spectre was just as bad and the worst Bond relationship ever. Then they bring her back for no time to die which is exactly what time it is. I would give Craig’s time as Bond a C-.
I haven't seen the latest bond film but Daniel Craig is a damn good actor! Ive seen him in, The Jacket in a secondary role and Knives Out again in a secondary role that kinda tied the whole story together!!
The Craig movies have some good moments here and there but the bad outweighs the good. The plots are badly written and don't stand up to scruitiny. I know Bond films are not known for great plotting but at least the early ones made some kind of sense. And the end of NTTD just makes me feel like... th-cam.com/video/ajsNJtnUb7c/w-d-xo.html
It will never cease to baffle me that after the Bond series was assassinated by the Austin Powers movies, their response was to eventually straight up copy the Austin Powers movie taking the biggest piss out of them, without a hint of irony.
With the themes; Writing on the Wall should have been Radioheads Spectre, and Another Way to Die should have been Forever - I Am All Yours by Eva Almer.
If Andrew Scott had a nickel for every time he’s been in something so bad that the fans have to make an elaborate theory insisting that the events of it was all a dream and the last entry would fix it, he would have 2 nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s strange it’s happened twice.
They never intended it to have continuity. QoS was never supposed to be such a direct sequel but ended up so due to writers strike. So it was always a half hearted serialisation attempt. Plus writing always sucked except casino Royale which had the novel to base on.
For the longest time I thought Madeline was gonna be bonds daughter, just because it’s revealed how old and run down bond is in sky fall and how young Madeline is then after they killed drax and started banging I was like Damn there’s no chick bond won’t bang lol
I can live with Bond sleeping with every woman he comes across, but not this Bond since this Bond has all the charisma of a dirt clod. And Roger Moore at least realized Bond banging girls a fraction of his age was not a good look.
21:05 I think what Blofeld actually did was let Silva loose knowing he’s M’s son. I’m pretty sure Silva has no idea who Blofeld is. At least that’s how I interpreted it
Bond has nanobots in his blood but has a watch that disrupts/destroys electronics. If that watch couldn't destroy the nanobots then Q could have developed a medical device similar to it to destroy the nanobots... 🤔
i really like no time to die, but during the whole film i couldn't help but ask myself like m does know his secret nanobot plan is a fucking war crime right?? even if his a goodie two shoes holier than thou type guy with the best of intentions??
I was both shaken, and stirred by this brilliant two-part series. Bravo.
MACABRE STORYTELLING WILL RETURN
I see what you did there
I thought it was quite inconsistent - the main thesis was solid - but dwelled on inconsistencies in the films he didn’t like. It was sooooo nit picky for quantum of solace - while completely ignoring how stupid the 2nd act “let myself get captured” cliche of Skyfall was. Pitch meetings has done it wayyyy better - but seriously Javier Bardem’s plan to get captured, let Q plug his laptop into the mainframe at a convenient time and then wait for a tube train to fall on Bond is THE dumbest villain plot ever. Like how would that work?!!?? But no mention of this bs in 2 hours of video - but 15 minutes more detail on minor plot strangenesses in quantum? Almost like the preferences override the detail?
@@henry587 thank you
The Blofeld reveal has as much impact as the Khan reveal in Star Trek.
If you didn't know who the character was it meant nothing, and if you did know who the character was you'd be like, "Hell no you're not."
Both also signaled the beginning of the end. It took 5 years for them to make a follow up to Spectre.
Star Trek Into Darkness is the reason Beyond tanked and brought any future movies in that timeline down with it.
I love Macabre calling him "Franny" the whole time. I'm gonna call him that in my head forever from now on. #notMYBlofeld
I keep trying to overlook the constant blaming of the writers but, as an independent (i.e. no name) screenwriter myself who has suffered though meetings with producers and directors demanding change after change, I can tell you that the writers are NOT "in charge" of the story and plot. They are simply tasked with the hands-on work. But often the notes they're given even cause THEM to shake their heads and say, "This is awful." Yes, they could quit. So could the cinematographer if he doesn't like the director's taste in framing a shot. But it's your JOB. You do it to the best of your ability. If you DO leave, you get replaced yet often STILL get writer credit. Sometimes you even get SOLE writer credit for a script that is only half yours (if that).
If there's a totem pole, imagine the director and producers at the top of it and the writers below them. Dario Argento says everyone on a film, including the writer, should be there to serve the director's vision. Not the other way around. Of course, in a franchise like 007, the producers are the ultimate "show runners." Still, writers do NOT always get their way. So if you hate an idea or whatever, please don't just assume it came from a writer.
Thank you. And goodnight.
Good points. The more I learn about how these blockbuster movies are made, the more I realise how little respect there is for writers and their work.
It must be infuriating and demoralizing, after years spent honing your craft, and months of hard work to write a decent script, to have it utterly butchered by untalented, uncreative higher ups with no idea what makes a good story.
This explains how, while the bar to entry is so high, the end results are often so poor when it comes to screenwriting.
A good example of this is the ridiculous 'Brofeld' twist in Spectre. Making Bond and Blofeld stepbrothers was producer Michael G. Wilson's brainwave, not the writers'.
Speaking for myself, when I hear something like "wtf were the writers thinking?" I don't equate "writers" with the folks whose job title is "writer" but rather with the *literal* writers -- whether that "writer" was the director, the producer, or some meddling executive.
I don't work in the film industry but in software engineering where things are somewhat similar -- the programmers who write the code often get blamed for bad decisions (like in video games -- "what were the devs thinking?") when in reality majority of those decisions are made by the executives/directors/people who have no idea how to actually write code.
Either way -- in both industries you would hope the director, whose job it is to maintain the creative vision, would stick to that job and let the professional writers put his creative vision into actual words, but that is so rarely the case especially when dealing with the kind of egos that exist in those types. So that's where you get directors doing more writing than actual writers because they think it's so easy.
Anyway, I sympathize.
These are very good points. I really enjoyed reading this part of the comments. I know it had nothing to do with the video I just really enjoy learning movie making lol 😆
One note about the NTTD opening. It’s the fact that Madeleine specifically tells Bond to go to Vesper’s grave and then that it exploded that set him off.
Still feels like a lazy move from the writers since considering the events of Spectre that were brought up, there's no way a woman who's tied to a building that'll blow up would be working with a villain. And if she's was, well then what if Bond didn't fall for the trap? Then Blofeld just made one of the dumbest gambles ever.
@@osmanyousif7849 Yeah it's like it feels so over-the-top obvious that if I were Bond I'd be questioning how simple it seemed. Like "if she was really evil, she wouldn't be THAT dumb and lazy about it, right?" But also, when I first watched the movie I was like "Dude, why the hell would you seriously visit her grave?" Like, regardless of whether or not someone TOLD Bond to do that, if I was a villain trying to kill James Bond, and I had no idea where in the world he was hiding, but I DID know that he had an ex-girlfriend whose death he'd been openly sad about for years now, my FIRST instinct would be "Why don't I plant a bomb in her grave and leave a camera watching, just on the off chance he decides to visit someday?" How the hell did he not see that shit coming?
Great stuff, Mr Macabre. That ending left me unexpectedly emotional: Craig's Bond was my Bond too. I love what he brought to the character and I still love Casino Royale. It breaks my heart that all that potential was squandered by such a lack of vision and poor quality control from those running the show: so many bad story choices, so many missed opportunities, and so much sloppy and lazy writing. Craig and his wonderfully human Bond deserved better, and reading some of his interviews, I get the impression he had a better understanding of the character and the direction the saga should have taken than the people in charge.
Also, I was wondering if you'd consider doing a rewrite for the Craig Bond films in the same style as your GOT videos? I'm attempting something similar myself, but I'd be so fascinated to hear your thoughts on how it could have been improved.
Anyway. Top stuff. Time well spent.
Yup. Casino Royale has stuck with me far more than I had expected even though I've only seen it once at release when I was young. Daniel Craig and Eva Green sold that movie so fucking well.
It's sad the series suffered from a disjointed vision and fell flat when the prospect of a continuous Bond series with a fantastic opening opened up so many possibilities.
It was Daniel Craig's idea to kill off Bond, so I'm not very kind to Craig at all. I solely put how Craig was great in CR to director Martin Campbell and writer Paul Haggis.
@@EthanKnight97 I was fine with Craig's Bond dying (I always thought this version existed in an alternate universe and has no effect on the earlier Bonds), but I thought it was done poorly due to bad writing, both in NTTD itself and the problems left over from Spectre. This Bond deserved a better ending.
Campbell and Haggis totally made Casino great. Apparently Paul Haggis also wrote a script for NTTD but it was rejected. I'd kill to get a copy of it.
@@katemara667 I wonder if that could still be done? Putting up rejected screenplays?
@@Thomasmemoryscentral It would be great to read rejected screenplays (both from Bond and various other films). It's aIways interesting to imagine what could have been. I guess it all depends on who owns the rights to the scripts and if they'd be willing to share them.
Apparently Haggis's last Bond script had the working title 'Shatterhand', so that might help with searching if it's ever made available online.
Having refused to seen No Day to Die out of disgust after Spectre, I can't help but feel like your synopsis of the former makes it sound like a MGS movie
Like, nanomachines made to specifically assassinate a specific strain of DNA? That's literally just FOXDie lmao
At least they allowed bond to die heroically in that movie. I watched it and it was fine, definitely better than spectre. They could’ve used to nano shit as a mcguffin, and just had a cure, but it’s a decent ending
Dude don't forget about the fact that he sneaks onto a shady island wearing a black sneaking suit and kills himself at the end. I feel like someone MUST have known.
@@TheWizardGamez The way he goes across the supervillain's fortress, shooting down extras like a T-800 on steroids keeps the ending from being decent.
I seriously thought the same thing when I was watching it lol
@@chalibard3826 At the very least that could be potential for the next 'Goldeneye' style game
For me the meaning of "the writing on the wall" is the looming threat of spectre as the big bad behind all the previous film's bad guys. This however would only work if the previous films had actually set up such a looming threat instead of retroactively shoehorning it into this one
I think it can have double meaning. We see a memorial wall in the final scene so that could be a reference.
I'm pretty sure the deal with Bond killing himself was that earlier in the movie M explained that project Heracles spreads rapidly from person to person by human - only killing those with the DNA it is programmed to kill. In that way it's the most effective method of assassination for an intelligence agency as one doesn't even have to come within contact with the target, eventually, it'll just make its way around. This is shown earlier in the film when Blofeld dies - it spreads to Bond by simply touching Madeleine but only kills Blofeld. Hence, the argument that Bond could just be in isolation while they research a cure really isn't feasible when you realise he wouldn't be able to touch a single person throughout all that time, for fear of it eventually spreading to Madeleine and Mathilde.
Exactly. I like the Heracles McGuffin, and funnily enough Bond sacrificing himself is almost a cowardly act. I would have ended the film with Bond getting off the island. Time passes and he is in bed with a woman who resembles Vesper. He leaves her early next morning to go and see Madaleine and Mathilde from afar, the little girl sees her father and they both smile at each other. When Mathilde get her mother’s attention and she points to where Bond is, Madaleine doesn’t see anyone. However she knows Bond was there and smiles to herself. Bond drives back to his apartment, as he enters the main entrance that last verse of Eillish’s song is heard and as Bond enters the building the screen fades to black and the song ends.
@@spaceodds1985 post-credits scene: Madeline's doorbell rings and it's the woman Bond was sleeping with who has come to answer a job advert for a nanny. She puts out her hand for Madeline to shake and as Madeline reaches out the screen fades to black for a final time...
@@spaceodds1985 that’s stupid but whatever
If bond doesn't die from the nanobots why would his kid die.
@@orestipavlou9059 Because the Nanobots are programmed to attack Madeline's DNA. Which Bond doesn't have but Madeline and the kid both do.
To the credit of the scene with Maddy's daughter reveal, I felt like the way she said 'she's not your daughter' had the subtext of 'she may biologically be your daughter, but you left, so you don't get to just walk in and be her dad now'. Or at least I remember thinking that at the time, but then later on the movie does treat it as a reveal, so I guess that's just more evidence that the acting is better than the writing in most of these movies.
Very true. Funny enough “No Time To Die” was the first Bond film I watched and it got me to see the others lol 😆
"He may have been your father, but he wasn't your da-"
No, sorry, I ain't making that joke.
I can't believe I'm saying this after Casino Royale and Skyfall but I'm ready to cleanse my palate of Craig and his gritty weeping. Also it'll be nice if we could actually get some SUPPORTING characters again. In the Craig films there seems to be this pressing need to turn every member of the MI6 team into badass field agents. I want to go back to the days of seeing M, Moneypenny, and Q at the beginning and end of the film and that's it. I don't need them out in the field doing things Bond should be doing. And, please, no more "Bond goes rogue" plotlines. Craig has done that to death. It used to be a super rare occurrence for Bond to go rogue but Craig does it in every freaking movie.
Amen. I'm just sick of his era completely. Whenever I do a Bond marathon again I'm going to dread getting to his movies.
I just want Bond movies to be fun again. No Time to Die was shaping up to be that, then the second half ruined that.
@@TequilaToothpick What you want Bond to be just a cardboard cutout again, like Pierce Brosnan's for example???
Or Bond being too old for the Job...Twice, after getting his double 0 Status only two movies before that.
@@colinluckens9591 I'll take Brosnan's Bond over Craig's.
I agree 100 %. Going rogue, somehow breaching the HQ or everyone can shoot a gun - tire of it!!
No time to Die was a flop!
I’m glad you gave Daniel Craig his due credit, he is a great actor who sold the movies for me.
Agreed. I want him to play “The Gentleman” in a Spider-Man movie. I always was interested in the character ever since The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Daniel Craig’s acting is awesome
Not all characters are necessarily made better with character arcs, and the problem with a character like Bond is that while you can explore the character, his charcter arc is not why one generally goes to see a Bond film. I think the Mission Impossible franchise handled and is handling the development of a character over a series of films much better within the same genre.
Still when you look back over the entire franchise, one has to wonder if the team at EON actually understand the Bond character at all. In the beginning when they had Flemming's source material, there was some consistency, but without that they seemed to be constantly struggling to find ways to keep Bond relevant, and ended up making the franchise derivative of whatever trends were happening at the time.
Last I really appreciate the Days of Our Lives quip, because I'm glad somebody remembers some of the crazy situations that show had back in the day with characters returning from the dead, changing their appearance, and getting possessed by demons, and ALL of that made more sense than Spectre.
Bond shouldn't have an arc like that. He changes the world around him, the world doesn't change him .
Exactly. Bond is a paragon. He's not an everyman character.
The story of an everyman is the story about how the events of the story change them.
The story of a paragon is how he (or she) changes the world due to the events of the story.
@@freman007 Trouble is... Casino Royale was an origin story. So he did change. Unfortunately that's where it should have ended.
@@Roper122 Exactly, Bond like Sherlock Holmes is a steadfast character. These characters are already fully formed and have already done their "heroes journey".
Amen. He's an action hero. He drinks, drives fast, beds endless women, survives unbelievable danger. He kicks ass. He's not meant to have his kicked emotionally for five damn films. It's too much
Masterful analysis, thank you. With scripts this bad, it speaks to Daniel Craig's immense acting talent that we weren't laughing where we weren't meant to while in the theater.
True. But I do have a soft spot for No Time To Die since it was the first Bond film I’ve ever seen 😅😂
You're right. The reveal of his name 'Blofeld' was just like the reveal of the name 'Khan' in Star Trek into Darkness: meaningless to the central characters in both cases, and meaningless to the audience unless they've seen the relevant, classic-era earlier film(s).
Either way, completely undeserving of the THIS-IS-SIGNIFICANT emphasis.
Yes it's the writers breaking the fourth wall for a cheap wink to fans. It's kinda like in The Force Awakens when Han Solo and Finn capture Phasma and Solo says something like "is there a trash compactor around here?". To the fans who have seen the original Star Wars in which Solo gets trapped in the trash compactor in the Death Star this is a throwaway gag, but it wouldn't have made any sense to Finn - from his point of view, Han Solo would have seemed like a sadistic psychopath who wanted to kill Phasma in the most gruesome way possible for no particular reason.
The fact that the MI6 building is just sitting there with no guards is amazing. In the real world it would have been overrun with homeless people, bored teenagers and criminals in seconds if it was just abandoned. Which also would never happen because it's a huge building in the middle of London. Such a stupid setting for the entire finale of a film.
Besides, London had been done to death by that point. I hope we see alot less of it going forward in the next era.
So cool that you're putting a part 2 out there. Really loved the part 1
Originally Radiohead were supposed to do the theme but it got rejected for being too dark, so my guess is they rushed it and got Sam Smith.
Radiohead released Spectre and it's far far superior and I think it's the best bond theme ever made, your getting Radiohead plus Paul Thomas Anderson's composer (Jonny Greenwood, who's in Radiohead). The strings in it are amazing and the lyrics make more sense.
That’s pretty interesting!
I’m learning this now and I’m checking it out.
It makes me even more pissed now, considering how it seems like the studio just didn’t care all that much about what the movie’s title song was suppose to be talking about.
I think you should’ve given a mention to the theme song Radiohead made for Spectre, which ended up not being used for being too dark (which is fucking weird imo). I think that so much better encapsulates the themes of the film and even fits the opening credits better. The only reason I’d say it shouldn’t be used is because it’s too good for the film it’s in lol
What a Master Craig. He really put all the passion a professionalism an actor can give to a role.
My all-time most hated trope: the absolute embodiment of death, our protagonist, deciding "killing bad" at the penultimate moment.
Yep! But according to lazy journalists and the fans that parrot them, Daniel Craig is the "ruthless killing machine Bond". Whatever.
It’s fine in other stories, especially ones for kids, but in a Bond movie, it’s just bad writing
Agreed.
As much as the Yakuza games, Kiryu frustrates me with his "no killing" code, even when the villains scream they're going to murder his friends and family.
In a lot of ways, the Craig era Bond series never really recovered from the 07/08 writers' strike.
Agreed. After QoS was poorly received, I think the producers got scared and veered hard in the wrong direction. Instead of learning the one lesson they should have learned (get a good script written and hire a director who understands Bond movies), they just kept making one mistake after the other.
For those who have not already, the original (later scrapped) lead soundtrack for spectre is worth checking out.
It was written and performed by Radiohead
Wait.. was this released somewhere?
@@jmgonzalez4 yes th-cam.com/video/o4mIWoLg69Y/w-d-xo.html
Ironic, considering how tortured bond was in this era, that certain music was too dark lol. Couldn't have made these films any more drab mood-wise
@@jmgonzalez4It's called "Spectre" and somebody on TH-cam lined it up with the opening credits of the movie if you want to watch it 50 years after leaving your comment lol.
Goldeneye Pen Grenade Scene.
Q: “Don’t say it!”
Bond: “….the writings on the wall?”
Q: [while giggling] “Along with that rest of him!” *snorting laugh*
Just gotta say preemtively that it's kinda funny that what started as a promisingly fresh and modern take on Bond turned out to be the most consistently underwhelming and mediocre Bond eras to date.
i think thats a little hyperbolus
I think that's a little hyperbola
I think that's a little hyperbonkers
And a waste of award winning actors, playing what could’ve been great villains but turned into just mediocrities (except for Le Chiffe and somewhat Silva).
Not the fault of Mr Craig though.....
Jesus... After watching this breakdown, Spectre was even more convoluted tgan i thought! Also, doesnt Bond escape the villains base waaaay to easily? He shoots a pipe and the whole place goes up! Something like that. I swear, the villains base in the first Oncredibles was more interesting.
Oh...you covered the base thing. Cool!
I am LIVING for your absolute evisceration of Spectre! I'll be sipping a vodka martini while I take notes.
Oh man I haven't seen anything from macabre since last year.
get out
I've been in awe of Craig's abilities as an actor after watching "Our Friends In The North". His character goes from teenager to middle-aged man in the series and he portrays each stage brilliantly.
Spectre: That time when Mission Impossible did the same movie better in every way in the same year. Insane.
Craig's one of my favorite Bonds in the franchise and it's because of his stunning performance. He's such a great actor and my favorite film he's starred in was Defiance. It's a shame that he got the short end of the stick in terms of story writing.
Honestly I think the Craig era is home to 3 of the very best Bond films ever.
Casino Royale, Skyfall and No Time To Die.
No joke, your versatility in content and arguments are top of your game. I wonder why you aren't more known bruv.
My video on Kevin McCallister doing 9/11 they want to keep hidden...
@@MacabreStorytelling goddamn 9/11, the second worst thing that happened that year.
I wouldn't be surprised if the "Writing on the Wall" just refers to the name 'James Bond' being written on the memorial wall of the old MI6 HQ...the writers of the song probably just saw that screen shot and went with it...I can't really come up with any other metaphorical meaning atm
Having Sam Smith sing 'The Paperweight's On The Desk' would be only slightly less thematically coherent.
He might not have had a lot to work with. Billie Eilish dropped No Time to Die almost two years before the actual film came out, and during that time there were rumors they rewrote most of the plot. Writing on the Wall probably made sense with an earlier version of the script, but they didn't have time to go back and change the song they finished months ago.
@@mariokarter13 nah, it was the opposite. Radiohead was originally commissioned to write the theme, but their song was rejected by the studio (they subsequently released it as a free download). Smith was brought on to write a new theme last minute, which he has subsequently admitted was a rush job (saying it took about 20 minutes to write) and released it only a month before the film came out.
The Radiohead version works pretty well with the opening sequence and ulimately I think works better as a theme (especially given they had more time to write it), although it's characteristically Radiohead so recognise not for everyone: th-cam.com/video/COP0XlYHvto/w-d-xo.html
Damn, Daniel Craig is such a class act. His and Dench's performances especially elevated Bond into something that might still be relevant after all. While I grew up with Pierce Brosnan who had more solid movies in his run in my opinion it was refreshing to see that a Bond can be more than an action flick while still keeping in spirit with the original character.
It's a shame that I'll never be motivated to revisit Craig's Bond as the classic collection it could have been. Before watching this retrospective I almost forgot all about Spectre and Quantum of Solace. I legitimately asked myself who Madeleine was during No Time To Die which could be a sign of early onset dementia or the unwillingness of my brain to recognize Spectre's existence.
I read all the Bond books, and saw all the Bonds before Craig, and the thing I liked about Craig's Bond that the other films didn't do as well was the sense of tension and danger that the books had. Also, can anyone explain how that bionic eye was supposed to work to let Blofeld see what was happening? I didn't really understand that part.
Thank you for articulating what I have been feeling about the Craig Era since watching NTtD.
I’ve been a long time 007 Fan, and the Spector really annoyed me with its sloppy retconning, however I was prepared to over look that as they had brought back Spector & Blofeld.
When NTtD released I heard so much hype (“best Craig film ever”), but when I saw it I could only see the dumb knee-jerk decision by bond at the beginning, the sweeping of Spector under the rug to neatly tie up the arc, and the complete lack of motivate of the villain. And I’m sat there thinking they tried too hard to make it an homage to OHMSS, and that Skyfall was better 😬
Spectre makes Quantum Of Solace look like a masterpiece.
My ranking of the Craig era:
1. Casino Royale
2. Skyfall
3. Quantum Of Solace
4. No Time To Die
5. Spectre
Despite having too many cuts and a convoluted plot, I still think Quantum Of Solace is better than the last two movies because it accurately showed Bond's headspace after dealing with the death of Vesper and also showed him ultimately move on from her by not killing her ex-lover. It also allowed Skyfall to be separate from the first two movies and have its own place and not be overshadowed by Casino Royale. Unfortunately, Spectre ruined everything by interconnecting all the movies in a way to show that Blofeld was behind everything.
Totally agree with you on Quantum of Solace. Despite all it's flaws, it managed to continue the emotional thread from Casino Royale in a way that none of the other films did. What got me invested in this Bond was wanting to see his emotional journey continue. How does this guy get over Vesper's death? Does he learn to trust again? Will he resolve these inner conflicts? Will he find a reason to leave MI6 and get a happy ending, or is he doomed to the lonely life and death of a hired killer? Unfortunately the writers/directors/producers seemed to forget about/not give a crap about this after QoS.
In Skyfall Bond has no meaningful character arc (it's all winking metacommentary, contrived themes, plot holes, and symbolism), and Spectre...I don't even know what happened there. Even though it failed, at least NTTD tried to pick up this emotional thread, deal with the theme of trust (however contrived and clumsily) and give Bond some kind of emotionally satisfying resolution.
@@katemara667, I still think Skyfall despite its flaws is a great movie. His getting shot, becoming physically weak and eventually, proving to MI6 and himself that he is capable of doing the job was a great character arc. I also think it handled the character of M pretty well.
Same ranking for me, though I will give spectre one thing. Bond LIVES lol
Admirable ranking. Although personally I would swap Spectre with NTTD. Absolutely ridiculous and eye rolling Spectre maybe, but I never found it to be as slow and dull as NTTD. Also, great to see QoS get some credit.
The Blofeld reveal most reminds me of Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness. They tried so hard to surprise the audience with fanservice they destroyed their entire run of movies. Bond had to pray people forgot by the time they finally got around to a sequel, Star Trek caused the next film to tank and take any future Kelvin movies down with it.
After all of the very legitimate criticisms you gave here, I gotta say that was a really touching tribute to Craig there at the end. Good stuff.
Madeline honestly was the one thing that just outright made me annoyed with that chunk (at least once she becomes more friendly in that hotel scene with bond versus the prior action scene) of Spectre. THEY HAVE NO CHEMISTRY. AT ALL! Of course being a Daniel Craig fan I was quick to blame the actress playing Madeline. But no, she's not a bad actress. Some actor/actresses can't be convincing in a relationship, so they, ya know, cast the better choice? What was that casting call like? They seriously didn't see anyone who could sort of take on the "he can fall in love again" or "On her majesty's secret service" (literally something NTTD banks on a bit) thing? I actually think to Miranda Frost from Die Another Day, Rosamund Pike and wish she'd been the bond girl in this one, because I feel like her and Craig would've. That being carried over as anything but a death scene for Madeline was a huge mistake for NTTD. Truthfully it should've ended with Spectre-convulted as it was, it still felt very full-circle in many aspects and that was enough. And honestly, I'm probably already there-I only intend to watch NTTD one more time, and if I hate it 1/2 as much as I did the first time, it'll still kill a lot of brain cells for how awful it truly was, and just consider imperfect/messy Spectre as the ending for Craig Bond.
Excellent job, loved hearing your opinion! I have had a very up and down relationship with these movies too but I completely agree with your sentiment at the end, Craig gave it 100% no matter what.
Please do Sherlock next sir, I feel like a lot of the issues with them tryna make bond a coherent saga is the same as that horrible show
I think HBomberGuy covered this brilliantly in his video Sherlock Is Garbage And Here's Why.
Interestingly, Sherlock did the same 'surprise supervillain sibling who's secretly been behind everything all along muwhaha!' bullshit. And it went just as badly.
@@katemara667 it was a ride to say the least ;p
You can leave after The Abominable Bride where you know that whole DYMM? thing was bullshit
And save yourself from S04.
as much as I love the craig movies, i hate how each entry after casino royal tries way too hard to give bond another arc and tried to explore deeper aspects, skyfall is the only one where it sorta works
I always think of Spectre as if it never happened.
Same.
While it does have several flaws, No Time To Die is a gorgeous-looking film that is shot wonderfully. Don't feel like people give that enough credit.
Yes! I think the producers listened to some of the negative feedback over Spectre and fixed some issues, namely the godawful piss-yellow filter all over it. Spectre looked so drab. One of the first things I noticed about NTTD is how pretty it is to look at. Probably the most visually beautiful Bond film ever made.
@@katemara667 Yeah exactly, it is such a breath of fresh air to see an action movie that actually puts effort into the visual aspects of it. So many action movies look so dull and ugly, it's a shame really. Marvel movies especially, it boggles my mind how movies with budgets of 200 million look so damn flat, like cinematography and camerawork are treated as an afterthought.
It looked slick. No doubt. But, and I’d ask DUNE this same question, what did all those gorgeous shots amount to in the end?
@@conradtrueit7882 I agree that the film does have some issues and needed more time in the oven, but the visual aspects of modern films seem to be so overlooked, especially by big-budget popcorn flicks (which seems to be the only big-budget movies we are getting). I think this movie deserves more credit for those parts.
Really? I feel like that's the one aspect of the film that lovers and haters agree on.
I was a kid who grew up on the Moore films on tv and I hated the Dalton films in the theater, so this grounded dramatic bond is the opposite of what I want from them. They feel like knockoff mission impossible films to me. Brosnan is my favorite portrayal now, I feel he melded the best of other versions into a good medium that could be fun but also have drama.
I grew up on Brosnan but there were Moore classics. (also Craig sucks)
@@Nick-ce6lt it's ridiculous, but Moonraker is my favorite of that era. It has such a great opening with jaws and the parachutes
@@fusionspace175 Lol it's everyone's favorite th-cam.com/video/ARPs1KhpMZA/w-d-xo.html
These Craig kids are missing out by limiting themselves to Craig's brooding emo Bond. The old movies are gems.
Because god forbid a franchise evolving
Madeleine is too young for Bond. They have no real chemistry - which is ironic cos I think Craig and Bellucci have uber chemistry (despite the virtual SA). Most of your critiques I agree with. Interesting video.
Craig fits so well for an action oriented Bond especially in Casino Royale. I think the bond films should probably stay independent for the sake of potential better story (I would hope). Big action set pieces are cool but I much prefer the close quarter style fights between Bond and one or two bad guys much like the Casino Royale stairwell fight and Bond versus Dimitrios. The chase scene on the tarmac in the fuel truck is really cool for that big involved set piece but I would like to see those kept on the minimum each film so they seem more special. A small scale gritty fight scene I like to reference is in Safehouse between Ryan Reynolds and Joel Kinnaman. Just my opinion and I would like to hear what others want to see out of future Bond films.
Part 1 was a very reasonable analysis of the Craig legacy of the the Bond franchise--especially for uninitiated viewers. I really enjoyed it, and subscribed as a result. Just FYI, I am staying subscribed because I am sure I will enjoy your other videos. That having been said...
Part 2 is mostly a rant about Specter.
Part 1 talked a lot about how the Craig saga was connected--and not connected--to the original movies, whereas Part 2 is just a bitch session about how it connections--or rather does not connect--to the other Craig movies.
Part 1 was a fucking great analysis.
Part 2 is sounds more like one of those TH-cam rants about how the sequel trilogy murdered Star Wars.
It's almost like Part 1 was a setup in order to justify/legitimize a rant about how the Craig films changed in the final two movies.
Part 1: facts and observations and analysis
Part 2: opinions and venting and hyperbole
I honestly feel like each part is narrated by different people.
"The Writing is on the Wall" could be hinting at the downfall of the quality of the Craig films. Another reading, and I don't know if the movie creators were this self-aware, but it could hint at the fact that Craig's Bond (the first serialized Bond) was going to die soon.
I do really enjoy the content of the channel. I also really appreciate your take on Lynch's presence in the movie.
I actually am beginning to wonder if you started out as someone who essentially hasn't seen a Bond movie ever, and then watched the Craig movies and discovered what many (moat?) fans also felt watching things unfold.
Another excellent video as per usual, thanks for starting off the new year with some quality content. Looking forward to whatever you do next.
💕
Spectre is really one of those movies where it would´ve benefitted from cutting things out.
I appreciate Daniel Craig’s effort. I thought ‘Casino Royale’ was OK, but not amazing.
I found little that the producers tried to do that felt fresh. It was always a mix of ‘The Dark Knight’ and the Bourne movies. After a while, the idea of, “How about we reboot the series, only the movies won’t have the same tone and the characters will all be the exact opposite of what they used to be?” to be a very tired, old, and boring form of storytelling.
“How about we make a James Bond movie, but James Bond isn’t like James Bond?And M isn’t like M. And Q isn’t like Q. And Moneypenny isn’t like Moneypenny. And we’ll be all self-aware, and signal to the audience the entire movie just how clever and self-aware we are.”
That’s the only thing Hollywood has been doing for twenty years.
Spot on. That's why they made him blond. They are just being different. All anybody wants in Bond is for him to successfully use terrible pick up lines on women with sexual puns for names and then a bunch of mindless shooting and driving.
@@Nick-ce6lt: People don't watch Bond movies because they want to feel old, useless, and depressed.
There are a lot of movies you could watch to get that. I don't need endlessly preachy, depressing BS in my Bond movies.
I'm partial to Craig as he is the first and only Bond I have watched(so far) after randomly deciding to go see NTTD and then watch all the others of his. But wow, you are spot on. While this two-part essay doesn't make me like Craig's films any less, if I can both laugh and have one of my favorite "series" ripped to shreds, then that is two hours well spent.
Just if anyone isn't a fan of "writing on the wall" listen to the original song that was made for Spectre by Radiohead. Definitely one of the best bond songs and would of fit the intro so much more
Still waiting for Bond's half Japanese child to pop up... In all seriousness, I've come to accept all the internal incongruities in Bond. Bond is contemporary mythology, and each time the story is told around the campfire, the tale changes slightly.
I think the next time they redo this..if they are going to do the love thing they should leave it at one love of his life and have that be the reason he is a womanizer. They shouldn’t try to keep recreating it like they did in the Craig era. The love of his life thing should have stopped at vesper and the rest stand alone adventures with a kick ass Bond girl.
Thanks for tearing Spectre a new asshole. I absolutely hate this movie.
Same. I liked Blofeld is better in No Time To Die
You should bring up the fact that Radioheads spectre was a superior choice for an opening song and its themes more accurate to the movie
Absolutely true about Daniel Craig, he's our Bond. The man's got what it takes.
I was eager for this part 2! And I mostly agree with your analysis of all these films. However bad Spectre and QoS were, we gotta say that Casino Royale and Skyfall are probably the top 5 Bond films ever made. Especially Casino Royale. It is my favourite Bond film and Daniel Craig is my favourite Bond.
Spectre is like if someone tried recreating Oldboy but they were absolutely wasted when they saw it.
Hell yeah
So Spike Lee's Oldboy?
I think I may have an explanation to Why Spectre has such a mess of s script. I read somewhere that the movie's original script was just supposed to Have Frank Oberhouser as himself and it would have elaborated on Quantum as a main plot point. However It was during this time that the Spectre legal troubles were put to rest and the studio really wanted the script to be about Spectre so they hastily made a couple of changes and rewrote Oberhouser as Blofeld. New scenes were also obviously written and presumably replaced other scenes which would have developed key plot points. I have no idea if any of this is true but i wouldnt be surprised if it is.
"Writing on the Wall" IS terrible. When I think back on the earlier theme songs, "Goldfinger," "Thunderball," "Live and Let Die," to name a few, those songs had energy and gusto. "Writing on the Wall" is a wimpy, sappy song sung by someone who can't hit the notes. I have heard the song covered by a female singer, and it wasn't as bad as what's-his-name's rendition.
Woke culture isn’t just ruining movies, it’s ruining everything. Or at least it’s trying to.
2:00 - Eeeeeeeeeh, this seems a really nitpicky criticism. Bond is a spy, and eavesdropping on conversations is something of an occupational requirement for him. It doesn't stretch my credulity to believe that he'd want to see what his target was plotting as well as ultimately killing him.
It makes more sense when you realize that the studio didn’t have the rights to use the SPECTRE IP until after Skyfall. “Quantum” was going to be a bigger deal moving forward, but upon acquiring the rights to SPECTRE, a name that has more MEMBERBERRIES… they dumped the Quantum organization wholesale to SPECTRE, but then had the issue that they had to retcon the other movies while still keeping them Canon. It’s honestly a lot like Rise Of Skywalker in that way.
"You can still chill with them on zoom in the meantime"
cracked me up. Great videos
The fact that they didn't use Radioheads Spectre theme is this movies biggest flaw.
I'm unpleasantly surprised how everyone praises Casino Royale failing to realize how that movie has one of the biggest plot holes, if not the biggest, in the Craig series. Why making such a convoluted ploy to capture the terrorist banker LeChiffre in the first place? I mean, both MI6 and CIA know the exact time and the place of his attempt to recover his bankroll, so why not just capture him and torture the ass out of him until he reveals everything he knows? The whole movie basically revolves around this unforgivable oversight.
I really think the book did this way better.
Ooooh, can you do a Bond rewrite like you did GoT?
The one thing that hammered the fact that Bond producers don't really know what the hell they are doing, was when Safin was introduced in the saga. His motivation from taking revenge on Spectre (which made sense) to world annihilation (a big WTF!) was super dogshit. Like even if you ignored all the inconsistencies with Bond's characterization throughout the saga owing to change in directors and whatnot, this was something that ruined No Time To Die for me permanently. Like, the 1st half of the movie had me hooked to what was going to come but when it came, I wish it hadn't
I didnt catch it the first time I watched it but I’m pretty sure project Heracles is designed to move through the entire population only affecting its intended target, like how it moved from Swann to Bond. Therefore if he left the island he would have to have completely isolated himself from everyone as any screw up would send it on its path after his family. Not an impossible task but quite difficult and the margin of error is absolute, I could understand why he just accepts the choice to not risk high certainty of their death just so he could spend some more time with them.
Yeah. That’s what I thought from the start
Casino royal good
All other Craig bonds were average/middling to bad.
Did you see all the classic bonds before skyfall or after? I’m not sure why general consensus is very positive. They are all super meh. At least they’re trying :p
To be honest, I'd rather watch Spectre than QOS. Despite it's problems, Spectre had funnier lines, better action sequences, more personality, style.
I get something with Spectre (even if it doesn't entirely succeed and can fail big time). I get nothing out of QOS and when I do it's just nothing but bored bitterness thinking about it (which makes it the worst Bond flick to me personally).
Recently watched this bond series with my wife for the first time. We did ourselves a HUUUUGE disservice by reading about it beforehand - wifey was actually genuinely pumped to see the films.
But already in Royale, we couldn't stop laughing at the weird dialogue, the inconsistent stances and god awful "romance" subplots. The look bond gives the first girl in the parking lot is the look of a maniac - and it's become a thing we do for fun now...
We were so disappointed in the series as a whole. Skyfall is somewhat ok, but we were expecting better standards from such a franchise...
Amazing. I actually cracked up several times and I rarely laugh at anything.
Straight up. This is easily one of my favorite movie analysis/essay channels. Your breakdowns and articulate deep dives with a dash of hilarious humor are truly remarkable. Been subbed for a while but recently I found myself falling down the macabre rabbit hole. Keep up the Fantastic work my man.
❤️
Casino Royale set the bar too high for Hollywood.
If I were making No Time to Die, here's how I would have killed Bond:
At the beginning of the movie, Adam Sandler eats a banana and throws the peel out the window.
Throughout the movie, we get the occasional random shot of the banana peel on the street, seemingly for no reason.
At the end of the movie, Bond isn't infected with nanites and he escapes the island before the missile strike hits. Now, feeling victorious, he gets in his car and drives. While shouting, "James Bond Rules!" his car hits the banana peel and spins out of control, driving over a cliff.
THE END
Chekhov's banana.
Barbara broccoli and michael g wilson : "Bond fans, I've got a feeling your whole day's getting ruined, but for now i gotta study."
Why does he keep being confused about why Bond is sleeping with random women? That’s like being confused about his high functioning alcoholism, it’s what the character does. Uh great reviews otherwise, 10/10 besides that part.
What everyone seems to miss:
Madeleine didn't pass the nanobots to Bond.
Bond had the nanobots that kills all SPECTRE members in Cuba at the birthday party.
If Palpatine is that Pixar old man playing chess with himself in the park, Franny is a tinfoil conspiracy theorist's attempt to do the same while high on meth
EDIT: It would've been insanely easy to rewrite that scene to make it both a tie-in and still keep the agency of the other villains in the series - just have Franny be the one to provide them information about MI6
Instead we just have Franny going "BUT IT WAS ME, DIO-I mean Franny" and later "BUT IT WAS ME, DIO-I mean Blowfield"
If the final act of your film is so bad it leads to fan theories of it not being real, you know you fucked up BAD.
The same thing happened to BBC Sherlock: the final episode was so bafflingly terrible that many fans believed it was some kind of joke and that the 'real' episode was still coming. It was like some wild cargo cult of tumblr users.
Interestingly, Sherlock also pulled the 'surprise supervillain sibling who's been behind everything all along' twist.
I don't think Spectre is really a Bond film
Like, the plot conveniences and opening song and characterizations feel more like the film from someone who's never seen a Bond film, their third hand impressions of what a Bond film is supposed to have:
--the theme song almost sounds like a Bond song but the lyrics seems completely alienated from the context of the film
--007 is out of character at several times or is inconsistent (like, I know that's been an on-going problem with the saga...but not typically within one film)
--pointless sex scene because that's what a Bond does right? Just f*ck every woman he comes within a few feet of?
Plus, the subplot about an interservice rivalry between MIs and the villain who is (gasp!) Bond's brother and a postmortem mission from his deceased mentor all seem like plot threads from a more generic spy flick, lazily slapped into a JAMES BOND movie
It really sucks how far Daniel Craig's era sunk. As much as I don't care for the MCU, Marvel did the right thing by actually planning out that universe, what should come after the other, and try to stay consistent all around (yeah, there's the weird connections to the earlier Hulk movies, but compared to this, it's menial in the grand scheme of things).
If they had actually planned out Craig's era before filming Casino Royale, this era might've been the most groundbreaking the franchise had to offer and I would've grown up with that. The series started out with a bang and didn't so much end with a whimper, but an ambivalent sigh.
I enjoyed your thorough ripping of Spectre as the movie, to me, was the epitome of Whatthefuckery. That movie really had to shoot the era in the foot by connecting all of the movies together so hastily and making Bond a dangerous edgelord. Not only that, the inconsistencies gave me a huge headache and Blofeld & his grand scheme was PEAK Whatthefuckery. However, I always find that even the most shittiest piece of cinema or TV can have good ideas that get horrifically/incompetently executed. The return to his cold demeanor after losing M, his romance with Madeline and how it connects to his arc in Casino Royale, Spectre's connection to Quantum - they're all good ideas, but are so horribly and hastily executed that they stopped being good ideas. So yeah, trash garbage, right next to Die Another Day.
And I completely agree with you on No Time to Die. While heavily flawed, it was a better watch for me and my mom (who is a big fan of Craig's Bond) than QoS and Spectre. Like, we left the theater (which we were lucky to be in, since everyone was well-behaved post-COVID-lockdown) and while my mom thought that was a good ending to the saga, I thought it was aight. There were some aspects of it I really enjoyed, most of which you pointed out. I also like how the gunbarrel sequence in the beginning doesn't draw blood like the rest normally do - instead, Bond fades away into the background and it carefully transitions to the snow during Madeline's flashback. Not only does this sequence show one of the cleanest transitions I've ever seen, it also foreshadows Bond's fate to come. After all, the blood that comes after his shot was absent. It's one of my favorite gunbarrel sequences, even if it doesn't hold a candle to Casino Royale's.
However, its flaws can be connected to the shooting of the foot Spectre performed, some weird decisions otherwise, and the main villain not only being boring, but unclear on what he wanted to do. If he was fleshed out a little more, his motivation might've been more clearer (like if after the tragic loss of his family, people had treated him like dirt and further drove his already broken psyche into the dirt). Bond dying in the end doesn't bother me as much as others, but some more character exploring would've made his decision not only make more sense, but hit harder. But otherwise, it was an okay finale. That's better for me than a Spectre-level finale.
Still though, what a waste of great potential. Again, if they planned out everything beforehand, this might've been a groundbreaking era of Bond. One thing's for certain though - Craig really did give it his all when he became James Bond. Though I wouldn't say that I'm a Bond aficionado, his Bond is up there with Dalton's and Connery's for me. He's proven himself to be a great actor and deserves his place as Bond with the rest of the previous ones.
And with that, I'm cautiously anticipating who the next Bond will be. Not to sound like a bitch in the "durr, wokeness is ruining my media" crowd, but I sincerely hope the next Bond is chosen not to virtue-signal crowds that aren't even interested in the franchise to begin with, but because he (if we're going to keep James a man 'cause that's what I prefer) would perfectly encapsulate Bond and bring something refreshing or new to the character. Wouldn't matter to me if he's a redhead this time or a different race/ethnicity. But I'm cautious because Hollywood and those that think like them really love to draw money and clout from meaningless virtue-signalling.
Jeez, writing a whole essay on TH-cam. What a way to start the new year...so happy 2022!
This was a fun essay to read!
Just learned that they created the Quantum group because they didn’t have the rights to the Spectre storyline. That’s part of the reason why the films are so disjointed. They got the rights in 2013, between ‘Skyfall’ and ‘Spectre’ films.
I would be really bummed about the Craig era if he was my first Bond - to be teased with both a more grounded take and a more serialized approach only to have it be such a mess. Fortunately for me he was not my first Bond. When self contained adventures and cartoonish stories & action were the norm, having one, two or more lousy Bond movies makes it easy to just enjoy the stuff I like and ignore the stuff I don't. Like I simply have not rewatched Quantum of Solace or Spectre but I have rewatched Casino Royale and Skyfall, so in my head cannon presumably they're separated by more than a few years so it's easy to accept Bond being young in one but old in the other.
Also, the reason Bond stayed and died is because he would affect everyone he touched. If he shook a hand and that hand shook another, and one eventually would kill his family. Also, main villian man's evil plan was to kill millions of people and taking control of the world. By fear. Much like what happening now with COVID.
Craig started out so good with casino Royal. Then Wuantum if a solace was a big waste of time and but when Skyfall was so good I just went with it and considered it a hiccup. Boy I was wrong as Spectre was just as bad and the worst Bond relationship ever. Then they bring her back for no time to die which is exactly what time it is. I would give Craig’s time as Bond a C-.
Wait….we are supposed to believe that Vesper is only 23 years old?! 🤦♂️ They couldn’t have at least made her age to be late 20’s(if not early 30’s)??
I haven't seen the latest bond film but Daniel Craig is a damn good actor! Ive seen him in, The Jacket in a secondary role and Knives Out again in a secondary role that kinda tied the whole story together!!
The Craig movies have some good moments here and there but the bad outweighs the good. The plots are badly written and don't stand up to scruitiny. I know Bond films are not known for great plotting but at least the early ones made some kind of sense.
And the end of NTTD just makes me feel like...
th-cam.com/video/ajsNJtnUb7c/w-d-xo.html
It will never cease to baffle me that after the Bond series was assassinated by the Austin Powers movies, their response was to eventually straight up copy the Austin Powers movie taking the biggest piss out of them, without a hint of irony.
With the themes; Writing on the Wall should have been Radioheads Spectre, and Another Way to Die should have been Forever - I Am All Yours by Eva Almer.
If Andrew Scott had a nickel for every time he’s been in something so bad that the fans have to make an elaborate theory insisting that the events of it was all a dream and the last entry would fix it, he would have 2 nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s strange it’s happened twice.
They never intended it to have continuity. QoS was never supposed to be such a direct sequel but ended up so due to writers strike. So it was always a half hearted serialisation attempt. Plus writing always sucked except casino Royale which had the novel to base on.
For the longest time I thought Madeline was gonna be bonds daughter, just because it’s revealed how old and run down bond is in sky fall and how young Madeline is then after they killed drax and started banging I was like Damn there’s no chick bond won’t bang lol
I can live with Bond sleeping with every woman he comes across, but not this Bond since this Bond has all the charisma of a dirt clod. And Roger Moore at least realized Bond banging girls a fraction of his age was not a good look.
21:05 I think what Blofeld actually did was let Silva loose knowing he’s M’s son. I’m pretty sure Silva has no idea who Blofeld is. At least that’s how I interpreted it
Bond has nanobots in his blood but has a watch that disrupts/destroys electronics. If that watch couldn't destroy the nanobots then Q could have developed a medical device similar to it to destroy the nanobots... 🤔
i really like no time to die, but during the whole film i couldn't help but ask myself like
m does know his secret nanobot plan is a fucking war crime right?? even if his a goodie two shoes holier than thou type guy with the best of intentions??