“What took you so long?”

July 25, 2015 7:34 AM

SPECTRE [YouTube] [Trailer]
posted by Fizz (84 comments total)

This looks fun but I'm still waiting for my Idris Elba Bond?!?!
posted by Fizz at 7:40 AM on July 25, 2015 [19 favorites]

Christolph Waltz seemed to be pretty much fated to play a Bond Villain. It looks like a lot of fun.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 7:47 AM on July 25, 2015 [4 favorites]

Idris Elba Bond

I don't think the screen could contain that much sexy badassery.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:50 AM on July 25, 2015 [6 favorites]

Sad that Roger Deakins isn't photographing this one. Whatever misgivings you might have had with Skyfall, there's no denying that it was one of the most beautiful Bond films to look at.
posted by octothorpe at 7:55 AM on July 25, 2015 [11 favorites]

Skyfall gets my respect for a final action sequence that was so unlike all other Bond finales that came before, but was nonetheless riveting.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 8:02 AM on July 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

Looks ...good?
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:16 AM on July 25, 2015

If you go frame by frame, you can see lots of hints and intimations of the forthcoming James Bond cinematic universe:

-2017: Blofeld (This time he's a good guy - with bad methods!)
-2018: Q
-2019: M
-2020: James Bond XXV
-Q1 2021: M 2
-Q3 2021: Q 2
-2022: Felix Leiter, CIA
-2023: Blofeld 2: Bad 2 the Bonde
-2024: James Bond XXVI, Part One
-2025: Q 3: XXX
-2026: M 3: Spy Curious
-2047: Moneypenny
posted by Iridic at 8:30 AM on July 25, 2015 [14 favorites]

Skyfall was, indeed, pretty to look at. It was also just kind of bad in almost every other respect. Nothing about that final action sequence, well-shot as it may have been, made a lick of sense. All I could really think while watching it was "why is this happening?"

I dunno. Maybe this one will be ok.
posted by brennen at 8:34 AM on July 25, 2015 [7 favorites]

I like this a lot. Does it look good, necessarily? I don't know. But I like this a lot. Shit I like ratio: high.
posted by easter queen at 8:37 AM on July 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

Oh and Idris Elba Bond comeeee to meeeee
posted by easter queen at 8:37 AM on July 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

The part of the trailer that keeps hooking me in is the use of the On Her Majesty's Secret Service theme throughout.
posted by Badgermann at 8:46 AM on July 25, 2015 [3 favorites]

I have heard a very spirited defence of Skyfall, which linked it thematically to the end of the English Empire; that the movie was an attempt to depict that the UK was no longer one of the great players. This doesn't excuse the muddled shittyness of the movie, that look the 'reboot' Bond and squandered it away on... meh?

Film Crit Hulk's vast overview of Bond movies might be worth a read here; it's long (novella length?) but something that it keeps coming back to is the way that long-running series keep on being made, and what makes them a success. This has every indication of mid-period Bond, in that they are trying new stuff (Bond has a past!) which fits in with current trends in media and film, but it's hampered by the development team's concept of what a Bond movie is (Cars! Suits! Explosions!) so that we actually end up with some pretty non-descript middle ground (Bond has a car with a past, that can cause explosions!).
posted by The River Ivel at 8:49 AM on July 25, 2015 [7 favorites]

Trailerfilter
posted by bicyclefish at 8:53 AM on July 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

SPECTRE looks good, but I had been looking up to them remaking You Only Live Twice (with ninjas and secret volcano lair outfitted with a piranha pool) so I'll have to get my retro sixties jollies from The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
posted by sukeban at 8:54 AM on July 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'll watch both, anyways.
posted by sukeban at 8:55 AM on July 25, 2015

Flame throwing Aston Martin, big bad henchman, Blofeld, OHMSS theme.... good to see them going a bit old school.
posted by schoolgirl report at 9:03 AM on July 25, 2015

-2047: Moneypenny

Hard to believe we could be getting a film in the Bond universe starring a woman so soon.
posted by straight at 9:08 AM on July 25, 2015 [10 favorites]

Hard to believe we could be getting a film in the Bond universe starring a woman so soon.

Roger Moore films notwithstanding.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:12 AM on July 25, 2015 [3 favorites]

Why was Skyfall bad? I loved it.
posted by Avenger at 9:12 AM on July 25, 2015 [6 favorites]

Despite its problems at least Skyfall was a step up from Quantum of Solace... which was terrible, with one of the worse Bond villains ever
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:24 AM on July 25, 2015 [3 favorites]

I also appreciated the inclusion of On Her Majesty's Secret Service theme, hope it makes it into the final film.

A question I've always had about Skyfall: Why did the bad guy allow himself to get captured? No it's not to get at M, because his escape route taking him there uses public transportation. Was it just to avoid paying the fare?
posted by justkevin at 9:25 AM on July 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

I'm sorry, the only thing I remember from QoS is the hotel in the middle of the desert apparently made of gasoline-soaked cardboard.
posted by sukeban at 9:26 AM on July 25, 2015 [13 favorites]

I'm in, but I'm a sucker for Bond movies. I was intrigued and grabbed but I knew my chain was being yanked. Still waiting for my retro Bond--though I will also take Idris Elba in the meantime.
posted by immlass at 9:30 AM on July 25, 2015

Sky fall makes no sense unless the primary purpose of breaking into parliament is to allow Ralph Fiennes to get shot in public and thereby become the new "M", i.e. He's a member of Spectre.
posted by idb at 9:34 AM on July 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

Of course we need Idris Elba to finally take the lead, as the first movie of every new Bond is always* the best of his run.

(* Rule may not apply to Sean Connery, and most definitely doesn't apply to Roger Moore, but makes total sense with the rest of them.)
posted by bigendian at 10:02 AM on July 25, 2015

These are really, really long, but worth the read in my opinion (and you have to be able to deal with the All Caps). Really good discussion of each Bond film and the general direction of the franchise.

Film Critic Hulk Vs. James Bond: Staring into the Id of a Boner Incarnate. Part I Part II Part III Part IV

Also, over on Fanfare, there is a Bond Film Club, currently up to #9 in the series.
posted by nubs at 10:08 AM on July 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

Why did the bad guy allow himself to get captured?

Bad writing
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 10:21 AM on July 25, 2015

Why did the bad guy allow himself to get captured?

Skyfall functions much better as a film if you view it as a romance between 007 and Raoul Silva.
posted by Fizz at 10:25 AM on July 25, 2015 [5 favorites]

Every Big Movie Keeps Showing Us This Same Scene Over And Over Again
posted by octothorpe at 10:26 AM on July 25, 2015 [5 favorites]

Also, the last bit of Skyfall is essentially Home Alone, but with shotguns.
posted by Happy Dave at 10:47 AM on July 25, 2015 [12 favorites]

Every Big Movie Keeps Showing Us This Same Scene Over And Over Again

In the case of The Avengers it's somewhat mitigated in that Fury announces outright that he more than suspects that being captured is part of Loki's plan: "Then why do I feel like he's the only person on this boat that wants to be here?" But what is he going to do, not capture him? Also Black Widow more or less digs Loki's plan out of him before it goes off. Unfortunately it more or less works anyway.
posted by George_Spiggott at 10:48 AM on July 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

Because I've been podcasting about the Mission Impossible movies recently, which where a direct response to Bond in the 60s and then revived because of the success of Goldeneyer, it's interesting how much moat the Marvel house style has had on action movies, Skyfall has all these comic book touches that are great but really highlight how ubiquitous superhero stories have become.

Also Waltz needs to be a red herring and Blofield is actually a lady Bond has been working with so the next movie is him having to kill the supervilluan he fell in love with first ( What's Jenny Aguitter doing these days? )
posted by The Whelk at 10:53 AM on July 25, 2015 [3 favorites]

Why did the bad guy allow himself to get captured?

Everything Wrong with Skyfall makes the same point (2:30), ranking it the 3rd stupidest "Get Yourself Captured" plan ever.
posted by axiom at 10:57 AM on July 25, 2015

(Skyfall's real problem is how they send Judi Dench off, which feels super lazy and oddly dismissive for such a iconic, long lasting character/actress in the series)
posted by The Whelk at 10:59 AM on July 25, 2015 [10 favorites]

What's Jenny Aguitter doing these days?

I would check that Tumblr feed on an hourly basis.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 11:10 AM on July 25, 2015 [5 favorites]

By getting captured, MI6 stops looking for him while his crew sets up everything else they need to put in place for the attempt on M's life. And/or, maybe he just wants to come and talk to M to get her measure and see how she has changed since he last saw her (Bond does this sort of thing often though usually at a casino) and he still wants to take another stab at turning Bond. Bond does basically the same thing when he goes to the boat to get taken to Silva's island.

So there are a couple of guesses that make a little bit of sense.
posted by VTX at 11:12 AM on July 25, 2015 [3 favorites]

Is Roger Moore a woman?
posted by Brocktoon at 11:31 AM on July 25, 2015

never mind
posted by bird internet at 12:08 PM on July 25, 2015

Okay, I'll say it. This reminds me of the Connery Bond films. Fire away.
posted by Splunge at 12:16 PM on July 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

I have been reading the Film Crit Hulk Bond piece(s) bit-by-bit and finding them a mixed bag: while he has a lot of interesting things to say about how slight and interchangeable the Bond Girl roles are, and how their seductions by Bond are sometimes disturbingly rapey, he also has a really annoying habit of punctuating himself with "phwoah, eh" observations about how attractive he finds them.

This, though, on Thunderball, made me laugh BECAUSE IT'S TRUE:

THERE'S EVEN A CORRUPTED “SPINAL TRACTION MACHINE” WHICH IS TOTALLY FILMED LIKE JAMES BOND IS FUCKING SOMETHING TO DEATH.

(Also, I'm finding Hulk's wall-of-capitals style is a lot more readable in the Birth Movies Death redesign.)
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 12:27 PM on July 25, 2015

Also, over on Fanfare, there is a Bond Film Club, currently up to #9 in the series.

Loving the discussions but the recaps are all wrong. They should all be "Insane genius wants to destroy or take over the world and only James Bond can stop him."
posted by kirkaracha at 1:37 PM on July 25, 2015

Is it just me, or is that Bond guy, like, unusually successful with the ladies?
posted by Chitownfats at 1:46 PM on July 25, 2015

So, the more I watch the trailer... the Aston Martin DB10 is the star, right?
posted by Splunge at 1:49 PM on July 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

This one ends with Bond and Q holding hands on a boat, right?
posted by sparkletone at 1:53 PM on July 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

Ben Wishaw's Q is an actual 21st century superspy. I don't know what these films think they're on about hanging onto Bond. If I want a nostalgic period piece I'll watch a Jane Austen film.
posted by George_Spiggott at 1:53 PM on July 25, 2015

In defense of Quantum of Solace, it had one scene that I think really got Bond right. He's at an airport, in a hurry to escape, and walks right past a bunch of fast, modern planes (including a cirrus iirc), any of which would have been smarter choices, but he's James bloody Bond, so he takes the most ridiculous, gorgeous, antique aircraft in the place. They escape in a DC3. Amazing.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 2:14 PM on July 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

Quantum was a victim of the writer's strike that left them making up a lot of stuff as they went along.
posted by octothorpe at 2:23 PM on July 25, 2015

the first movie of every new Bond is always* the best of his run

The Brosnan era was awful, but the "catching a plane" scene that concludes the Goldeneye teaser is the only time I can ever recall a cinema audience applauding a stunt.
posted by George_Spiggott at 2:25 PM on July 25, 2015 [3 favorites]

Quantum was a victim of the writer's strike that left them making up a lot of stuff as they went along.

And I'm glad they came right out and said it in no uncertain terms once they'd gotten enough distance from the promo cycle for Quantum. It's a shame too because there's some not terrible ideas in there. It just... It turns out it's really hard to write a movie when you've got an outline and can't legally employ a writer, just let the lead actor and the director sketch out scenes together.
posted by sparkletone at 2:26 PM on July 25, 2015

If y'all aren't listening to the James Bonding podcast you're missing out. That new Aston Martin is so ugly it almost ruined the trailer for me, but that black suit Bond is wearing at MI6 is incredible.
posted by wintermind at 2:28 PM on July 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

If the Brosnan era was "awful", then I'm not sure you're a Bond fan. They're all awful. But still tons of fun. Goldeneye had some of the most ridiculous over the top effects and miniatures. Bond is fast cars, explosions, gadgets, and goofy one liners. The Craig films are pretty much just cars and angst.
posted by Brocktoon at 2:59 PM on July 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

Skyfall was fucking delightful with respect to M -- there were a lot of things that didn't make sense, but when the hell has any Bond movie ever made much sense from a plot or logic standpoint?

But I'll forgive pretty much everything for a Bond movie that gave as much weight and importance to lady characters as Skyfall did. If you're going to send off an iconic character played by an iconic actress, M's arc in the last act of the movie is the fucking way to do it. And I'm delighted to see that Moneypenny is back for Spectre. And oh man, I loved what we saw of Severine in the small bit of screentime that we saw.

(To be honest, I have no beef whatsoever of any significance with any of the Craig Bond movies, at least not in comparison with the racist/misogynist/homophobic/genuinely poorly made bullshit that got passed off as Bond movies for long, long stretches, and I'm someone who has seen every single other Bond movie. At sixteen, I could have given you a spirited defense of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" as the best Bond movie.

So yeah, anybody who thinks that QoS was the worst Bond movie should revisit/get a big long faceful of Moonraker? Octopussy? LIVE AND LET DIE?)
posted by joyceanmachine at 3:04 PM on July 25, 2015 [7 favorites]

Bond's entire objective for the last third of Skyfall is to prevent the villain from killing M, and he fails. I'm not saying you can't make a good Bond film where the villain wins, but Skyfall didn't really make anything of it. It sure didn't end with any feeling that this is the film where Bond is defeated.
posted by straight at 3:25 PM on July 25, 2015

It felt like he won (villain is gone) at a terrible personal cost (dead mom figure). I can't decide whether I want Spectre to really try to deal with that or to move on quickly.
posted by sparkletone at 4:01 PM on July 25, 2015

I'm not saying you can't make a good Bond film where the villain wins, but Skyfall didn't really make anything of it. It sure didn't end with any feeling that this is the film where Bond is defeated.

Because he wasn't. There's a reason why the denouement of the story has Bond upon the roof, standing like a superhero and overlooking that iconic, iconic spread of London, as the frame, followed by the reveal of Harris's character being Moneypenny, followed by the movie actually closing with him going into the new M's office, which was the traditional AND NOW THE MISSION BEGINS in the old classics. I mean, yes you're right that the in-the-movie plot objective for Bond in the last third of Skyfall was trying to keep M alive, which is why, I think, the rooftop scene starts out melancholy and sad with Bond looking out on what used to be the center of the empire on which the sun never set. But that isn't the larger point of what the last movie is trying to do, so if you rewatch the rooftop scene, you'll see an pivot when the mood changes to reframe the last third of the movie. IIRC, it's the reveal about M having left Bond her ridiculous bulldog figurine.

In a very meta sense, I think that last bit closing out the movie is meant to signal a reboot of the Bond franchise, closing out the darker, more serious, how-Bond-can't-save-women-he-cares-about storyline* from the first three Bond movies and set the stage for the more fun, more gadgety, more classic Bond stuff that we're seeing in the Spectre. So no, it isn't melancholy, and no, it isn't sad.

Because characters die. Actors come and go. Empires rise and fall. But stories like James Bond go on, and that's why we love them.

* Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale, M in Skyfall. Bookended by them is Camille in QoS, who not only makes it out, but actually achieves her revenge. Ebert lost his shit, IIRC, about how Bond didn't sleep with her, but that's because he mistook her as a Bond girl, rather than as a baby James Bond.
posted by joyceanmachine at 4:04 PM on July 25, 2015 [5 favorites]

It's much better if you pronounce it "kwanTOOM of solAHché".
posted by George_Spiggott at 4:09 PM on July 25, 2015 [3 favorites]

Skyfall is not the best Bond film I can recall (though to be honest I'm not sure what I'd say the best one was), but it's probably the most fun to discuss because of the whole "MI6/British sunset into irrelevance" angle and also the part where all the women seem to be either killed or demoted by the end of the movie (although maybe joyceanmachine is right in that every Bond film before has been even worse). So on the one hand, I love Skyfall for daring to question the legitimacy of the entire spy enterprise, and even in a sense arguing that MI6 (and especially Bond) is an unsalvageable relic. On the other hand, the whole thing ends with MI6 and Bond essentially doubling down, with a triumphant return to the stuffy old English office with the manly spy boss and the fetching, flirtatious secretary.

I mean, this isn't as bad as when I was desperately hoping the last quarter of Casino Royale was actually an elaborate fake-out on Bond's part and not actually him doing the stupidest goddamned thing ever because Heyyyyyyyy Sexy Lady, but yeah, mixed feelings about Skyfall.
posted by chrominance at 4:12 PM on July 25, 2015

I'm pretty much going to enjoy the moment when Christolph Waltz rips off his mask and it's Dame Judi Dench all along.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 4:42 PM on July 25, 2015 [4 favorites]

I'd watch it anyway, but with Andrew Scott? I'm in.
posted by Short Attention Sp at 5:23 PM on July 25, 2015

Sure it's traditional for other characters to die in the course of Bond thwarting the villain's plan and saving the world. But in this case, the villain's evil plan is to kill M, and Bond fails to thwart it. It's as if the villain's plan was to blow up a city and Bond managed to kill the bad guy but too late to prevent the death laser from vaporizing London. Maybe that would make an interestingly dark Bond film, but it's a pretty odd choice as the setup for a return to classic fun Bond spy games.
posted by straight at 5:25 PM on July 25, 2015

Skyfall makes perfect sense when you realise it's set in the Harry Potter universe. You know, gas leak explosions in offices with no gas, wizards hacking computers from inside glas boxes, Voldemorts muggle brother being the new M, the new Q disrespecting the wizardry of his predecessors...

So yes, Skyfall is just a story told from the muggle side. Bond is an agent for the muggle agency of muggle-wizards relations, he was put there because he has no magic potential and even though his mother is obviously a witch (because who lives in scotland, close to hogwarts, is named Bellatrix and is not a witch) the ministry of magic wants nothing to to with him. M, who knows everything, has to adopt Bond and make something out of him, probably after a heavy dose of wizard brainwashing.

This explains why bond is such a moron and also gives an explanation to why Voldemort hates muggles so much. His own brother is one of them!
posted by uandt at 5:33 PM on July 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

Skyfall was, indeed, pretty to look at. It was also just kind of bad in almost every other respect.

Walther PPKs at dawn, sir or madam.

Skyfall was second only to Casino Royale in its brilliance. (The new one). And lest I be brushed off as some James come lately, I have literally been watching Bond films since I was about 8. The early best (Connery) were lovely as a camp kinda thing.

The new ones, with Craig? Transcend the Bond genre (which includes e.g. the Bourne movies and November Man). They turn Bond into someone who can actually lose something and have it remain permanent. They're the first movies that show a continuity. (We're going to ignore the wretched shitstain that was Quantum of Solace).

Skyfall was beautiful because it showed Bond being fallible for a change.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 6:45 PM on July 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

Also to bang the drum again: Idris Elba would make a great Bond, yes. I want to see a woman as Bond. Still named James. Ideally this criminally underrated actor.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 6:55 PM on July 25, 2015

When I'm more sober I'll need to see if I can dig up the link to the idea in a previous Bond thread where it's revealed that "James Bond" is an identity taken on by various agents just like the title "007" and now, all the previous Bonds (Connery, Moore, Brosnan, Craig, all of them) have to team up, avengers style.
posted by VTX at 7:15 PM on July 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm curious what Quantum of Solace could have been, but for me the movie is worth it just for the most cold-blooded killing of the bad guy by Bond ever. "I bet you make it 20 miles before you consider drinking that."
posted by azpenguin at 7:39 PM on July 25, 2015 [4 favorites]

all the previous Bonds (Connery, Moore, Brosnan, Craig, all of them) have to team up, avengers style.

This is neat on paper, but I really don't want to watch The Expenda-Bonds. There are too many Expendables movies as it is.
posted by sparkletone at 8:28 PM on July 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

Here is a link for the previously-mentioned James Bonding podcast, featuring Matt Gourley, Matt Mira, and guests. It's very good.
posted by rifflesby at 9:06 PM on July 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

all the previous Bonds...have to team up, avengers style.

I'll sign off if they go up against a troika consisting of David Niven, Peter Sellers, and Orson Welles. Hell, I'll finance it.
posted by Iridic at 9:36 PM on July 25, 2015

that's a lot of money what with the resurrecting and all
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 9:38 PM on July 25, 2015 [4 favorites]

all the previous Bonds (Connery, Moore, Brosnan, Craig, all of them) have to team up, avengers style.

Even better: Voltron style.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:44 PM on July 25, 2015 [3 favorites]

Skyfall has the single most WTF plot point of any Bond film. Where on earth did the DB5 come from? It can't have come from the Connery films because they don't exist in that universe. Craig is explicitly identified as the only Bond, because the ancestral home of Skyfall is his and M recruited him. The car itself is 3 years older than Daniel Craig. It's this kind of nonsensical fan service that ruined the fim for me.
posted by shimmerbug at 11:14 PM on July 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

In-universe, I assumed it was the Aston Martin from Casino Royale, hence the "not a company car" line. As for the gadgets, Bond had it kitted out at some point between the two movies. I didn't really care about the details there.

Outside of that, it's a number of things. Skyfall came as part of a celebration of 50(!) years of Bond movies. The callback serves as a fun wink at the audience, provides a brief moment of levity in what is otherwise a pretty dark movie. Then after that we have it serve as an icon of ~the past~ in the final assault on the manor against the modernity that Javier Bardem's character represents. They even go so far as to have the future blowing the shit out of the past after it messes them up. At the time I took it as an extra underlining of "we want to keep moving Bond forward and not look to the past quite so much."

And so in Spectre, Craig is finally getting his own iconic car much like previous Bond's have. It's an Aston Martin, yes, but it's the crazy modern DB10. Built on the past but looking forward.

Yeah, it doesn't entirely make sense in-context, but I was happy to go with it both in the moment and after as I thought about it (and even more since there's not going to be yet another db5 in Spectre AFAIK).

That and... Well. I have trouble faulting ridiculousness in a film series that features shit like Oddjob and Jaws and so, so, so many other things.
posted by sparkletone at 11:47 PM on July 25, 2015

trouble faulting ridiculousness in a film series

Series period, not just film. Like smoking 80 cigarettes a day but being in peak fighting trim as needed.
posted by thelonius at 1:21 AM on July 26, 2015

I used the two words together because while I've only read a few, the Ian Flemming novels are a totally different strain of ridiculous than the movies. Only Dr. No maps up THAT well from what I recall, but I'm not remembering well.

I remember the books as having many of the movies' over the top qualities, but Bond wasn't invincible, and was always more scarred emotionally, so they were SLIGHTLY more grounded.
posted by sparkletone at 3:45 AM on July 26, 2015 [2 favorites]

feckless fecal fear mongering: "that's a lot of money what with the resurrecting and all"

Maybe not so expensive, what with CGI and all. Heck, wouldn't need any actors at all.
posted by Splunge at 4:15 AM on July 26, 2015

Still waiting to for the discussion of cstross's Laundry series to film.
posted by a person of few words at 10:35 AM on July 26, 2015

"Ah-ha Mr Bond, you have followed me after my escape to this area underground where I knew you would catch up to me *at this exact moment* and aim your ridiculous little handgun at me from a long distance away and I knew that it would happen at this exact moment, just as the 11.15 from *insert station name* arrives."

/presses button, explosives go off and train falls through newly made hole.

Seriously. There is no defending Skyfall with stupid scenes like this one.
posted by longbaugh at 3:10 AM on July 27, 2015

Seriously. There is no defending Skyfall with stupid scenes like this one.

Man, it is A-OK to not like Skyfall. But that doesn't mean the rest of us didn't like it. A demonstrably large number of people worldwide did so.

In terms of defending the movie beyond that, I'll note that a) it was a Bond movie so no one should expect continuity or logic from it and b) Judi Motherfucking Dench. The banter between Dench and Craig was about five times more interesting than the plot holes in my book.

Admittedly, that does mean that this next movie is likely to be a bit of a letdown (no Dench combined with a very clear pivot back towards classic Bond style) but whatever. Even a bad Bond movie is fun to watch.
posted by librarylis at 6:30 PM on July 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

This thread almost has me considering a Skyfall rewatch.
posted by brennen at 11:26 PM on July 27, 2015

I'm still not going to pretend I think it made any goddamn sense.
posted by brennen at 11:27 PM on July 27, 2015

I can't remember ever sitting down to watch a Bond film and thinking that I hoped it made sense but YMMV.
posted by octothorpe at 6:20 AM on July 28, 2015

I remember the books as having many of the movies' over the top qualities

I've heard it said that a lot of the stuff that happens in his books are based off of toned-down versions of stuff he did during WWII.

"Ah-ha Mr Bond, you have followed me after my escape to this area underground where I knew you would catch up to me *at this exact moment* and aim your ridiculous little handgun at me from a long distance away and I knew that it would happen at this exact moment, just as the 11.15 from *insert station name* arrives."

Well, he knew when the train would arrive and the plan probably didn't account for anyone having followed him that far through all the chaos that he left behind. Silva just got lucky that Bond happened to catch up to him just before the train/explosion was set to happen.

Movies are a lot more fun when you think up reasons why things like this DO make sense rather than reasons that they don't. I mean, I'm sure there have been plenty of villains that Bond has chased, caught up to, and then the bad guy wasn't able to deal with it because the train was late or the explosives mis-fired or something and Bond caught or killed the guy, they just don't really ever tell the "Bond completes another routine mission successfully" story.
posted by VTX at 8:57 AM on July 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

OK, now I want Greg Egan to write the story about the quantum entertainment system that scours all possible alternate universes for the most entertaining events that, no matter how unlikely, happened in some version of reality.

Actually, I think it might already exist, and it's called YouTube.
posted by straight at 9:27 AM on July 28, 2015

Well, he knew when the train would arrive

Seriously, he knew when a London underground train was going to arrive? Don't you think that's stretching credibility a bit far?

But in this case, the villain's evil plan is to kill M, and Bond fails to thwart it.

Isn't his initial goal in the movie to get their spy database back? Does he manage to do that either? Is Voldemort going to be taking over an agency that has had all of its global operatives killed?
posted by biffa at 11:04 AM on July 30, 2015 [1 favorite]