MovieChat Forums > Spectre (2015) Discussion > Well, I finally watched this today

Well, I finally watched this today


I wanted to keep my criticism of the Daniel Craig Bond movies consistent and authoritative, so I broke down and watched it after putting it off for two years. This actually may be the least awful of the Daniel Craig movies. To recap: Casino Royale bored the hell out of me. Quantum of Solace put me to sleep both times I tried to watch it. Skyfall was the absolute worst. A horrible attempt to make a Nolan-esque Bond movie. No thanks. Spectre just went back to being boring. I could see glimpses of hope, but the whole thing, like all the Craig movies, was dour and, ultimately, no fun. People have argued with me that these movies are closer to the books. Big deal. I've grown up for several decades now expecting Bond movies to be cheesy and fun. I don't care what the books are like, that's not what we're talking about here. The last fun James Bond movie was the one with Halle Berry in it. The Craig movies, I suppose, reflect the times we live in. Nobody has a sense of humor. Sex has become a dirty word. And the notion that we might just go to a movie to have a good time is out of the question. I can't wait for this dark age to be over. There's always fun on the other side of an empire's collapse...

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This isn't just the worst Craig-era Bond movie, this is the worst Bond movie PERIOD. Skyfall was infinitely better. Casino Royale was boring and way overrated, QoS was kinda a return to form but still sucked and the editing was awful.

And these movies aren't closer to the books, that's just something that Eon and Craig fans say in order to present Craig as "definitive" and "gritty" which he isn't.

But I agree that it's time to fire Purvis and Wade, Craig, the whole lot and return to making JAMES BOND films. The SJW set are trying hard to collapse the series even further.

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There needs to be a new name for the "SJW set," because they have no idea what justice actually means. And yes, they are destroying the series. If they decide to make Bond a transgender, as a recent article suggested, that will bury the series for good. The object is not to "create new opportunities for previously marginalized voices" (or however the hell they'd state it), rather, it's to collapse the "dominant culture" so that everyone lives in misery. It's a bleak, bleak society we're headed toward. The social science fiction of the 20th century tried to nail down the level of misery the future held. They didn't come close...

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I was out of the U.S. for 20 years and it's shocking to see what's happens. However, I don't know if anyone will agree with me but I see about 90% Beta Males throughout the population. I guess they've been beat down and are no longer "real" men. This is a disaster for any society.

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"Casino Royale bored the hell out of me."

Stopped reading right there.

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Well good for you, Sparky!

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Agreed. Casino Royale was a masterpiece. For those who found it "boring"......there's always Fast & Furious 12.

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This one gets it.

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I was immediately a very big Daniel Craig fan when Casino Royale hit theatres in 2006. I can remember watching Die Another Day in the theatre when I was about 13 and thinking that James Bond movies were really starting to get ridiculous, so I was optimistic about the future with Craig. I only vaguely remember QoS the first I saw it because I was now a college student and had lost interest in things like Bond, but when I saw Skyfall I just couldn't believe how terrible it was. I thought it was going to be awesome because it had such great reviews just like CR did. And then Somehow SPECTRE was even worse than that. SPECTRE is easily the single worst Bond film ever made. Bond and Blofeld are brothers. What more do I need to say? Daniel Craig is the worst actor to ever portray Bond, and the decade of 2010-2019 is the worst decade for the Bond franchise ever. And yet Craig and Eon are still continuing down this episodic soap opera path with the latest film they are making.

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I guess it just comes down to which kind of Bond films you like most....the silly/fun kind, or the kind more geared toward plot/espionage. The Daniel Craig Bond films follow the Jason Bourne approach. Darker, more serious....and the plots follow an arc, from film to film. I love most every Bond film for different reasons. And even though I think Connery is the best Bond, ironically....it's a couple of his films as Bond that I like least. Those ones in the mid-70's where he was just phoning it in (and the plots were bad)....like Diamonds are Forever, and You Only Live Twice.

I thought Roger Moore's films were tremendously fun. And even Pierce Brosnan had a couple decent turns as Bond. However, by the time Die Another Day came around, it was quite clear they needed to reboot the franchise. Where do you go after invisible cars? The villain had diamonds in his face...and then, completely changed ethnicities? And I won't even start in on Bond....windsurfing on a tsunami with a parachute and a car door. The films just got way too....dumb, goofy and ridiculous. So when they rebooted and did Casino Royale, I thought it was brilliant--and one of the best of all the Bond films. And Craig was perfect.

He looked like a man who could kill someone with his bare hands. And he did. When he choked out that assassin in the stairwell in CR, that was brutally cool. Then, he goes up to his room, washes the blood off his face....slugs down a double Scotch, puts on a new shirt...and returns to the poker game. Just....cool. That is Flemming's Bond. How about in Q of S, when he fights hand to hand, close quarters...in that apartment. He stabs the guy in the neck with his own knife....then gets him a submission hold and calmly waits while the guy bleeds out. You never saw that kind of brutal efficiency with guys like Brosnan....prancing around in his tuxedos, worrying about how his martinis were prepared.

When Craig is asked in CS hiow he'd like his martini, he says: "Do I look like I give a damn?" Perfect line. Daniel Craig is definitely the best (most talented) actor to play Bond. And his portrayal (IMO) is awesome. Only Connery is better...and it's close. Moore is great for different reasons. Oh....and the fight scene in Spectre...on the train against Bautista? That alone was worth the price of admission. One of the best fight scenes ever put to film. (The opening scene during Day of the Dead was pretty damn good as well)

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"The Daniel Craig Bond films follow the Jason Bourne approach"

Which is a mistake. Bond is Bond.

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Mostly correct although Dalton is the best Bond.

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The Craig movies’ “plot/espionage” stuff are f-cking terrible. Aside from Casinoy Royale — which had the fortune of Fleming’s book to give it good plotting — Craig’s movies are all stupidly written and have as many ridiculous moments as the Roger Moore or Brosnan years. I seem to recall the events of Skyfall were full of dumb writing. Don’t even get me started on Spectre.

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