No Time to Die | James Bond 25 | April 8, 2020

[Blzer]

Re: No Time to Die | James Bond 25 | April 8, 2020

Plus, Hans Zimmer was brought on this thing late. I hope he can continue iron out scoring it for several more months as a result of this. Hopefully they don’t keep the film in the canister for those months meanwhile.

[Smallville102001]

Re: No Time to Die | James Bond 25 | April 8, 2020

Plus, Hans Zimmer was brought on this thing late. I hope he can continue iron out scoring it for several more months as a result of this. Hopefully they don’t keep the film in the canister for those months meanwhile.

Wait what Zimmer is doing the music? I have not heard that great if he is love his stuff.

[Blzer]

Re: No Time to Die | James Bond 25 | April 8, 2020

Wait what Zimmer is doing the music? I have not heard that great if he is love his stuff.

He was brought on about six or seven weeks ago. That’s my point though, it’s been barely any time at all.

[Jr.]

Re: No Time to Die | James Bond 25 | April 8, 2020

No...

You don't think it's in poor taste to describe a movie being pushed back as a "victim of coronavirus" when there have actually been real victims of this disease?

EDIT: In other words, paragraph one and two were two separate thoughts (If I'm understanding you).

Oh I see what you mean. I do agree

Sent from my SM-G970U using Operation Sports mobile app

[LambertandHam]

Re: No Time to Die | James Bond 25 | April 8, 2020

Reminds me of Quantum of Solace getting delayed due to the writers strike. Although I think all the filming is done.

[moe416]

Re: No Time to Die | James Bond 25 | April 8, 2020

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vw2FOYjCz38" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

https://youtu.be/vw2FOYjCz38

[Blzer]

No Time to Die | James Bond 25 | April 8, 2020

I saw it last night. I posted spoiler-free impressions here.

There was plenty that I liked about this movie, but my head keeps wrapping around some of the things that I didn't like. Not that I hated, but I think that even editing over these past couple of years of this sitting on the shelf really could have ironed out.

Spoiler

For me, a lot of it comes down to a bunch of "false" items: false stakes, false build-ups, false connections, etc. As an audience member, I was confused as to how clear I was supposed to be made about certain things throughout the film.

To begin with, I still have no idea why Bond was immediately jumping to thinking of Madeleine as a traitor and not giving her a slight benefit of the doubt. It was weird. For the longest time throughout the film, I couldn't tell if he put her on the train for her safety or for his (like if he decided to trust her but sort things out meanwhile). I thought this was a weird plot point, and for Spectre to not have a fantastic lead-in with this relationship I figured this movie would do well at making us love that they love each other, which started off well for about ten minutes and then broke us apart from that connection. This was a jarring effect.

It didn't then help that Madeleine kept teasing at some secret. From the opening and with her return, I was wondering about it. Is the secret that she is a part of Spectre? What is this all leading up to that will rock Bond's world and our viewing experience, so much so that even Blofeld needs to bring it up (more on that later)? Is it t... oh, that she has a kid? That it's his kid as well? Why was she biting her tongue about this when he was questioning her allegiance? She looked suspicious as hell that she was just sitting there not saying anything. I get some reasons for hiding back the child as she doesn't want it to be raised by a father with killing tendencies as Madeleine was, but this all happened after Bond retired and he forgave Vesper. Despite the fact they were in the heat of it, this just didn't hit right. I don't have a problem with her having a child or anything like that (I actually love this part of the movie), but I couldn't tell how this was going to shatter anyone's perspective with the information and I couldn't tell if that was the actual revelation either. She even then proceeded to show Bond a secret room after, and I just couldn't tell when this moment was going to come. It wasn't until basically after the film that I realized this was the big secret. I just didn't get it.

Then Blofeld. Sigh. I've come to realize he has been the worst villain of the Bond tenure. Not Greene, not Safin... but Blofeld. All talk, no show. Christoph Waltz had nothing to do for two films. They slowly lure him out in a scene that could have been some epic turn of events in some sort of way, and all that happened was exactly what we expected when Bond touched Madeleine's wrist. There weren't even repercussions for that moment. I'm sure Madeleine doesn't want to kill anybody but her departure from the room was a little iffy as well if Bond was just going to kill him after touching him. I was wondering if Nomi (007) was going to have something happen simultaneously when she was alerted to leave the room, but nope. Big tension building led to absolutely nothing, and connecting this movie so much to the lackluster Spectre made this movie have lackluster moments as a result. It's bad enough that Spectre made him connect with Bond's entire past, and it didn't help that he didn't improve in this movie one bit to back that even a little bit.

I'm going to have to rewatch the movie to understand Safin's motives alone. I didn't understand anything about what he wanted. He wanted revenge against anyone responsible for the death of his family, I get that. Then I think he wanted to... kill anyone within any degrees of separation of Spectre, provided that they made physical contact with one another? Maybe do the Thanos-like thing of making the world a better place by doing so, and then he'll live life in his garden? And then I don't know what Safin wanted with Madeleine. I guess he loves her in some way, but then just drops Mathilde at some point like "Nvm." That was a pretty awkward moment that I couldn't really grasp. I just didn't get his entire plan or what he wanted to accomplish with Madeleine and Mathilde.

DieHardYankeesFan also mentioned this, but one unforgiving sin with this film is that enemies couldn't hit anything worth a lick. It was laughably bad, probably worse than Star Wars. What's bad is that Bond was acting like he knew he had plot armor around him as well. He would stand in open area and walk to cover as machine gun bullets would be firing in his direction. I understand an agent like him needing to maintain composure and understand his surroundings, but his movements (or lack thereof) didn't really feel like a strategical advantage when I was watching it. It made me feel less impact in the moments. This movie has lots of gunfire, and I mean lots of it. Eventually I became desensitized to it all, especially when Bond was involved. The one scene that saved this was when he was ascending the staircase in the one take (it took me a while to realize they were doing that as it was happening, like in Atomic Blonde), but I would've preferred different action overall with this in mind and the ending really drags because of this. I felt the tension when the daughter was involved like in the car, but his vehicle had no trouble taking on a world of enemies there as well like it was nothing. Like, even that motorcyclist in the forest clotheslines himself right into that cable. It wasn't that foggy, dude (it was also funny that he could hear Bond whistle on that loud bike and with his helmet on haha). These were the gooniest of goons, and it didn't even always lead to stellar action after more time went by.

Then comes two really weird moments in the end. The first one is when Safin refers to Mathilde as Bond's daughter. This was before any of us had confirmation that she was, and keep in mind the end has a more impacting reveal that she actually is. I suppose you could see this more as an assumption on the end of Safin or a generalization (like when somebody calls another character their 'girlfriend' when they aren't really, even if they're crushing on each other), and Bond acts like that as well since he shrugs off the moment. You could also say that Bond also really knows at this point, but Madeleine convinces Bond and the audience otherwise earlier on to an extent that the later revelation is supposed to be there. Why is this line in the movie? Why was this not edited out? I do not understand this. It is such a simple thing to address. They probably had something else in mind in the script at the time and in editing this was maybe all they had to work with, I'm not sure. This ticked me off though, because as much as the ending reveal was still awesome, it would have been much more awesome if this line wasn't ever in there.

The second one was Bond's infection in conjunction with his death. Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with him dying. I'm even fine with the way that he died. What I don't get is it seemed like Safin all but mortally wounded Bond, at least to the point that he wouldn't have had enough time to get off the island after being shot. I was sitting there, going: "If he's going to die anyway, then who cares if he was infected? I know it's devastating and all, but he can't make it out even if he wanted to." I think it would have made more sense if Safin didn't bring him to limping status but still infected him, even so much so that we as audience members understand that he had a very real chance of getting off the island still. Or maybe the infection was so bad that anyone he touches would kill them. Then the writers could decide whether they'd kill Bond, make it ambiguous, or have him live in isolation forever again or what have you. Again, it's fine if he chooses to die in that scenario, but why infect him if he can't get off the island anyway? Just a confusing moment overall.

One more small thing: this movie definitely embellishes more futuristic gadgetry, and there are two things in particular I could've done without. The rest were fine I guess, or the movie itself couldn't have done without for the plot's sake.

Okay, I'll go back and just highlight some things that I really liked:

Spoiler

Ana de Armas. Her character was amazing, even for the short amount of time we had her. Enough said. In fact, everything in Cuba was pretty awesome overall.

This movie showed no mercy to innocent civilians, and they got away with a lot in a PG-13 film when showing this. It's pretty disturbing to watch somebody see her mother clipped by an Uzi when laying down, or see a whole office mercilessly slain while surrendering unarmed and screaming meanwhile. This was badass, and honestly really gripping.

Felix's death had weight (until Bond drove off later with the main theme playing moments after), Bond's death had weight (again, with the revelation of his daughter), the pre-credits scenes were phenomenally weighty (with little punch and payoff to Madeleine's "secrets" build-up though), and even though Safin wasn't in the movie much I think Malik did a tremendous job. I'm not going into a Bond movie wondering about "the villain," and he wasn't weak per se.

There were some genuinely funny moments. Not the punny gags or the callbacks to previous Bond films, but just in other conversations. I think I was laughing more than my audience was, though. I don't think they got a lot of the small humor bits, heh. I was not a fan of Obruchev, though. He and his comedy were in the wrong movie. Logan Ash felt out of place as well (or at least was an unnecessary add).

Overall production was fantastic, especially stunt work and everything audio-related. This was an eargasm of an action film, and I can't wait to hear it in my home theater as well.

Anyway, film rankings:

1) Casino Royale
2) Skyfall
3) No Time to Die
4) Spectre
5) Quantum of Solace

CR is a landslide victory, Skyfall is also assured greatness in this franchise and is mesmerizingly beautiful, NTTD frustrates me but worked and is good closure, Spectre is a drag but now has its place leading into NTTD and has that train scene, and QoS at least concludes the CR storyline and is fast enough to warrant easy rewatches (but is an editing nightmare).

I don't loathe any of the films, but Spectre and QoS are comparatively bad to the other three, and NTTD simply does not eclipse the highs that CR and Skyfall have to offer except in emotion, and they could have brought so much more emotion in it as well (that's what frustrates me the most).

EDIT: Lol and apparently I left my wallet in the theater. Off to go get it now. I’ve heard of theaters taking my money but this is ridiculous!

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: No Time to Die | James Bond 25 | April 8, 2020

I think this movie was great in the theater, but yeah the more I think about it I'm sure I won't love it as much on blu-ray for a few reasons.

Spoiler

The runtime didn't bother me in the theater, but I obviously don't live in an IMAX theater and this being my first time in a theater since I think Rise of Skywalker, rewatches won't get that boost.

Bond not trusting Madeleine didn't bother me much because the only woman Bond trusted was M. Him having a hair trigger to toss someone aside feels in character to me, reminded him too much of Vesper probably. I kinda agree with you on the secret, in the theater I thought it was about Safin, but then realized it was the kid later and it just doesn't make any sense for her to withhold that information given everything that was happening.

Safin is what really is going to drag down this movie to me in future watches because it seems like it isn't that hard to make him a decent villain. Like you said, just make him Thanos. They already aped the **** out of Endgame, with Bond having a daughter and dying, I'm surprised she didn't say "I love you 3000" in French. Side note, does Bond not speak French? I definitely feel like someone in his position should have some languages under his belt but that's a minor gripe. Safin dropping the daughter was insane to me. He just goes, "oh you don't want to be with me" and lets her go like what was even the point? The opening scene was a really cool setup, and like you said, it went nowhere. First, why did he put so many bullets in Madeleine's mom? I literally threw my hands up in the theater like was that necessary? She's barely even awake lol. Then when he's chasing her I was just like why not just shoot her? Then he saves her because...I don't know why. Then his motive was to kill people more efficiently than Bond, he acts like he's the hero of his own movie, which I understand villains do and that's fine, but it fell flat. Hell, if he was just a racist/genocidal maniac making threats like the scientist it would've made more sense.

The henchmen were laughably bad which is odd because there was the main dude who it seemed like they wanted us to believe was very good at his job. I first noticed it in the bridge scene. If I'm remember right, he was literally just standing in the middle of a bridge when a car drives up and tries to shoot him and they don't hit anything. It was ridiculous.

I knew it was Bond's daughter as soon as I saw those eyes. Rewatching these movies, very few things stand out like Daniel Craig's eyes lol, they are to blue what the cleanest ocean water is to clear. In that context, it bothered me more that Madeleine wouldn't just admit it was his kid and tried to hide it in the beginning, made no sense to me.

As far as the infection, it didn't bother me because Bond fans were legit in denial. I'm reading posts everywhere that they would've preferred a Dark Knight Rises ending (absolute trash) where Bond is just posted up at the villa when Madeleine drives their kid at the end and I would've hated that. They had to get across that not only was he going to die, but that he had a reason to accept his death instead of fight it. Now they didn't do great with that IMO because I just don't understand why the nanobots were impossible to get rid of. This is James Bond, swallow an EMP pill and be done with it lol, but I do think that was their reasoning. What bothered me about that scene was Safin shooting him. He's the most competent shooter out of all of his henchmen?! Bond gets shot down by this clown? Disgusting. In 25 films, I think Bond has been shot 3 times, twice in the Craig movies, with the other one being in Skyfall when Moneypenny hits him. We're adding Safin to that list?!? All the, as Nigel Powers would say "anonymous henchmen" this guy has gone up to fight against and Elliot from Mr. Robot takes him out? Back to Safin, he was miscast IMO. Not even that Malek did a bad job, but he's a grown man when he kills Madeleine's mom in the beginning, they say Brofeld put the hit on his family, but how far apart in age are Bond and Brofeld? On the 007 wiki, it says they gave Brofeld's DOB as 1946, Bond in 1968. So when Bond was adopted by Hannes in 1983, he was a teenager and Brofeld was 37?! This man was 37 years old worried about a 15 year old? WHAT? They should've either left Brofeld alone or made him the big bad in this one. They tried to bite off a lot and I'm not 100% sure why.

Quantum of Solace, IMO, is a bad movie but it doesn't make Casino Royale worse. I still wish they would've just ended CR with Le Chiffre and pushed the entire last section to the intro to Quantum but it is what it is. SPECTRE on the other hand makes every movie before it (and now after it) worse. I could be convinced it's the worst movie in the new series just for that reason. Even more annoying, is it just reminds me of the real world foolery we have to deal with because the only reason Quantum had to get folded into Spectre is because they didn't have the rights to it and Blofeld and tried to shoehorn it in later. Quantum could've just been the new Spectre. Like you said, the highs of NTTD push it way above both of those movies but it really could've been up there if they had just taken some time to make it make more sense. Skyfall's plot doesn't make any sense, but it doesn't bother me because they still get to where they needed to with the emotional beats, not like Bond plots are the height of screenwriting to begin with (plus there's no torture). I worry that in the future it'll look like the Sequel Trilogy with how poorly planned it looks from a wide view, but it wasn't really planned at all. And it didn't need to be, until they forced themselves in that direction with Spectre.

I just hope the next Bond can set some trends again instead of copying the hottest movies out at the time. They've absolutely always been products of their time, but never taking so much from movies in their time as these ones. Craig is going to be a tough act to follow though.

[AUChase]

Re: No Time to Die | James Bond 25 | April 8, 2020

Some good impressions here after watching it. My wife and I watched last night and while I think it was a good movie that was really entertaining and made the runtime pass by fast (mostly for the typical bond landscape, pacing, action, etc.) there's some of the story that just left me feeling dissatisfied when I left the theater. I wasn't mad or anything like that just extremely indifferent about it. I don't have the energy for listing everything right now though. One thing that's not too deep into the woods on the story that I found kind of disappointing

Spoiler

Ana De Armas' character Paloma didn't play a bigger role in the movie. Her character was just kind of there and then gone with the wind. I understand she was working with the CIA and Bond went back to MI6 but I thought for sure she was going to come back into play at some point.

I really need to go back and watch Spectre before this movie releases digital and I see it again at home. I probably should just do the entire series again. One thing I will say though is that despite what most people think of classic Bond movies, in my lifetime (1989 to now) Daniel Craig is what I envision when someone says James Bond.. perfect for the role.

[Armor and Sword]

Re: No Time to Die | James Bond 25 | April 8, 2020

Some good impressions here after watching it. My wife and I watched last night and while I think it was a good movie that was really entertaining and made the runtime pass by fast (mostly for the typical bond landscape, pacing, action, etc.) there's some of the story that just left me feeling dissatisfied when I left the theater. I wasn't mad or anything like that just extremely indifferent about it. I don't have the energy for listing everything right now though. One thing that's not too deep into the woods on the story that I found kind of disappointing

Spoiler

Ana De Armas' character Paloma didn't play a bigger role in the movie. Her character was just kind of there and then gone with the wind. I understand she was working with the CIA and Bond went back to MI6 but I thought for sure she was going to come back into play at some point.

I really need to go back and watch Spectre before this movie releases digital and I see it again at home. I probably should just do the entire series again. One thing I will say though is that despite what most people think of classic Bond movies, in my lifetime (1989 to now) Daniel Craig is what I envision when someone says James Bond.. perfect for the role.

I grew up first watching Connery as my mom exposed his movies to me right around the time Roger Moores The Spy Who Loved Me released in 1977.

Craig is my second favorite Bond right behind Sir Sean Connery. The original movies had a huge impression on me (Dr No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger and Thunderball in particular).

Loved Moores films as a kid but they did not age that well. They are more guilty pleasures now more than anything.

Daniel Craig absolutely knocked it outta the park when he took over 007. Casino Royale is a tremendous Bond film as well as Skyfall. I have yet to see No Time To Die....and probably won’t until I purchase the 4K HD BD. I own every single Bond film so this is an obvious purchase for my collection.

I thought Spectre was ok. Not great. It had too many lulls. And we do not have to discuss Quantum of Solace which was entirely forgettable. Craig though really embodied 007 as good as anyone before him.

[Smallville102001]

Re: No Time to Die | James Bond 25 | April 8, 2020

I grew up first watching Connery as my mom exposed his movies to me right around the time Roger Moores The Spy Who Loved Me released in 1977.

Craig is my second favorite Bond right behind Sir Sean Connery. The original movies had a huge impression on me (Dr No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger and Thunderball in particular).

Loved Moores films as a kid but they did not age that well. They are more guilty pleasures now more than anything.

Daniel Craig absolutely knocked it outta the park when he took over 007. Casino Royale is a tremendous Bond film as well as Skyfall. I have yet to see No Time To Die....and probably won’t until I purchase the 4K HD BD. I own every single Bond film so this is an obvious purchase for my collection.

I thought Spectre was ok. Not great. It had too many lulls. And we do not have to discuss Quantum of Solace which was entirely forgettable. Craig though really embodied 007 as good as anyone before him.

I rewatched casino Royale a few days ago forgot a lot of it was almost like watching a movie for the first time had been a while good movie. Spectre only saw once remember it not being that good. Loved sky fall. Don't really remember Quantum of solace other than not liking it going to rewatch it soon to give it a second chance. No time to die was great need to watch it and sky fall again to say like how they compare. I have not seen ever bond movie I would guess I have seen like 16 of the 25.

[Blzer]

Re: No Time to Die | James Bond 25 | April 8, 2020

I just watched a Quantum of Solace video that did a weird thing to my feelings about the movie: it made me appreciate the good things that the story tried to offer within the movie, and it frustrates me significantly more how better writing, directing, and editing would have made this movie half-deserving of its attempts.

Regardless, I may be turning a leaf on Quantum over Spectre. Just as DHY said, Spectre's worst crime is worsening the films before it. There is also less substance overall, there are unforgiving lulls, and man did Hoyte van Hoytema make an ugly film. I just might have to put QoS at #4 over Spectre, messy as it is. I still don't know, both are just so low compared to Casino Royale, Skyfall, and No Time to Die.

EDIT: You know, it would have made a lot more sense if I posted the stinkin' video here...


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