No Time to Die **Spoilers from post #1449 onward**

Fred Astaire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117961426#Comment_117961426

You'll need to have seen Spectre.

Sexual Chocolate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117961426#Comment_117961426

Nah. You should certainly give Skyfall and Spectre a watch. These films all sort of link in unlike any of the others in the franchise.

the whole year inn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117960772#Comment_117960772

I didn't love it but didn't hate it , it looked great but overall I meh .

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117961210#Comment_117961210

Another post here I’ve had to edit as can’t delete with new Boards 🙄

MrStuffins

Went to see this last night and a couple of things first.

I was delighted that they managed to nail Lashana Lynch's character. The whole "007" thing was actually done very well and made complete sense in the context of the movie. That SHOULD put paid to the usual frail-ego'd creeps giving out that this, like everything else according to them, is "woke". She was great in the movie, the character was great and it didn't feel out of place at all.

Ana de Armas was spectacular. She really stole the show and it's only a matter of time before she's at Margot Robbie-like heights of stardom in my opinion. She obviously looks great but she has so much charisma and, as the movie proves, she can really carry an action scene. She's ready for her own vehicle in my opinion.

However, outside of this my overall feeling of the movie was "meh". It wasn't great. I thought some of the humour that they had Waller-Bridge implant landed but a lot of it just didn't and felt clunky.

The main issue is that the movie is not engaging.

I found it hard to care for Bond's relationship with Madeleine, I found it hard to care about the villain. The MacGuffin was weak. When Rami Malik's character was apparently placing people in danger..... I never felt they were in danger. It was like Malik was only in the movie because they needed a weird Bond villain. He was barely in it and the scnees he was in failed to cement anything. I found it hard to care about anything in the movie really.

The movie was so-so, but it's a good thing that it's failings are nothing to do with this supposed "wokeness", it's failings are much more fundamental than that.

Craig has been a great Bond but I think they've come to the end of their rope with this particular series and it's the right time for a reboot. Maybe the next guy will have a tuxedo tattoo'd to his body just in case the usual suspects complain that, God forbid, he ever dresses as someone other than the fictional character he sometimes plays in movies.

Homelander

Maybe give the "woke" stuff a rest. Over the past few pages everyone reviewing the movie hasn't once mentioned anything whatsoever to do with casting, narrative choices or anything connected to "wokeness".

So you basically started inventing arguments that no-one made in the first place, like the casting and role of Lashana Lynch. Time and a place, seriously.

I will say this was not a movie for me. Daniel Craig I cannot accept to James Bond - for me Bond has a class, a sofistication. But Craig just seems like a thug - maybe another agent, but not Bond. Glad it is the last. The visual was great like always, Puglia was amazing, I say Italy always delivers in these thing.

MrStuffins

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117962667#Comment_117962667

This is a movie that has been in production since 2016.

Originally supposed to be released two years ago.

In that time, an absolute heap has been written with regard to "woke" Bond, with regard to Lashana Lynch's role in the movie and anything and everything else these lads could squeeze into their criticism.

Forgive me if I went to see the movie last night with more than just the last two pages of the movie thread on Boards in mind 🙈

But yes, I agree with your sentiment. It's time to put the "woke" stuff to rest. I think the movie itself does a great job of that and there should be no need to use the term "woke" in reference to this movie after you have seen it.

Homelander

The problem these days is that people often conflate logical preference and opinion with hostile opposition and sexism/racism or whatever - not saying you're doing that, but just in general.

James Bond is a tradition since the early 1960's, and while his image has softened slightly over the decades, at the core he's still an old school operative, consistently portrayed as somewhat of a relic of an different era. It is one of the primary themes of Spectre/NTTD.

Replacing the titular bond role outright in a future film with a young woman erases all that tradition immediately and reboots it from essentially a blank canvas. It changes everything that has previously defined both the lead character and the general franchise. Most other 'gender swaps' in film roles don't have the same implication.

So, for most people opposed to a female bond, that's the reason. It's not that women can't be good agents, great action heroes, or whatever and never was for the overwhelming vast majority of people.

Despite having that preference I'm sure lots of people would be very interested in seeing what they make of it all the same, but it doesn't mean people aren't entitled to prefer if the tradition continued with James Bond as we've known it.

No doubt a tiny, tiny minority of people said actually inherently sexist stuff like 007 shouldn't be a woman because women are crap action stars or that he shouldn't be black because "he's always been white", but realistically I personally only ever saw the sort of logical reasoning as expressed above, that to my mind is perfectly reasonable.

MrStuffins

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117962862#Comment_117962862

You're being loose with your claims of "most people" and "tiny, tiny minority" but as I said, the movie puts all this to bed. And i'm glad it does. If you've seen the movie, there's no other choice. And that was the point I was making. The movie itself shuts these people up.

Let's take your own advice and give it a rest shall we?

FunLover18

https://youtu.be/OuHUdyCydaE

Not related to NTTD but more Bond generally; script editor Andrew Ellard has finally got around to doing his video notes defence of QoS. I've always enjoyed his tweetnotes in films and Doctor Who especially.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117962979#Comment_117962979

I'd said earlier that this movie has "aged" better than many initially gave it credit for.

I watched it recently again and liked it.

The Quantum group was a more interesting adversary than the silly Raoul Silva (and whole Skyfall script in general for me) or worse Blofeld.

I put it second personally after CR (a bit back from that) in the Craig set of films (yet to see NTTD but it's unlikely to get into the top 2)

FunLover18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117963163#Comment_117963163

What's interesting about the video is that it points out something I had been unable to put my finger on exactly. CR and QOS go out of there way to set up Bond as emotionless or at least on control of his emotions whereas SF and Spectre do pretty much a complete uturn on that.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117963199#Comment_117963199

Yeah the whole tear-jerker M palabra in Skyfall I found very jarring and unconvincing at the time.

I thought that the anger from Bond at the death of VL in CR did show emotion and he was in anger-mode so wouldn't fully agree with you there that he was in control

Indeed I though that that was quite effectively shown.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117963262#Comment_117963262

There have been average or silly aspects to Bond over the years but I think the whole "fighting for mammy's attention" conflict in Skyfall is possibly the worst plot in any Bond

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117963313#Comment_117963313

It still puzzles me how it was rated so highly for a couple of "directorial flourishes"

Abysmal script imo.

Anyways.

FunLover18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117963262#Comment_117963262

I think we see a flash of anger at the end of CR with the line "the bitch is dead" but QoS isn't the revenge rampage people seem to think it is, anyone he kills he kills because he has to and the guy he throws off the building doesn't even die from the fall, from the outside to people like M it looks like he's driven by anger but we never actually see him angry and even when he does get his "revenge" at the end it's not through violence.

MisterAnarchy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117963199#Comment_117963199

Perhaps here is your answer

https://twitter.com/BritishGQ/status/1443591737436479489

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117963671#Comment_117963671

yes, was just talking about the end of CR there where he wasn't in control.

certainly wasn't in brainless mode in QoS and found the M reaction too melodramatic at the time myself.

mailforkev

Hopefully this is decent and worthy of the hype.

Casino Royale was good but the other Craig movies haven't been anything to write home about at all, ranging from alright (Skyfall) to rubbish (QoS and Spectre).

I do like a good Bond so I live in hope.

FunLover18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117963690#Comment_117963690

My bad, I misunderstood.

MOR316

Didn't find it to be a James Bond movie in the traditional sense. Overall I found it to be OK.

Couldn't get on board with his relationship, I thought the dynamic with Nomi wasn't up to much and was shoehorned in. I just didn't care or become invested

Also, I said it when I saw Bohemian Rhapsody (utter ****) and said it when he won his Oscar that it wouldn't age well and I'm saying it again, Rami Malik is an awful actor!!

MOR316

Man, this website is absolutely ****.

Can't find anything anymore.

The amount of time and effort they spent on it and it's 100% worse :D

techdiver

Echo a lot of sentiments here. Really enjoyed it and I think it is an excellent movie but... as a lifelong bond fanatic, to me, it's not a Bond movie.

I've enjoyed the Craig stint for what it was but I'd like the next reboot to be a somewhat back to basics approach.

lawred2

Finding myself a bit annoyed at that ending.

lawred2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117965903#Comment_117965903

A reboot that goes back to basics?

Is that possible now?

techdiver

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117965921#Comment_117965921

I fear not but live in hope.

OU812

Saw it Friday night, firstly, was a dreadful experience in the Odeon when the projectors failed but the audio continued & it took up to an hour to get back to things.

But the movie... Loved it. Couldn't care if they never made another. It was absolutely perfect for Craig's tenure. I watched the other moves over the last couple of weeks to lead up to it & I think they're the perfect arc of both character & story.

razorblunt

Really enjoyed it. Perfect close out for Craig and I loved the nods along the way (though the minor, minor villain felt out of place entirely). I never got into the whole relationship with Lea Seydoux, even in Skyfall so that dragged me out of the experience entirely.

as an aside, I’m 100% going to Matera.

razorblunt

a question about something that usually happens.

never mind the spoiler tags have changed