Spectre (James Bond)

[Hisako]

Yeah even like, the car battle on the ice was fucking awesome and that was basically practical effects (the flipping of the car even, lol)

[ForceStealer]

I freakin love that car chase/battle.

In fact, if you go through Die Another Day's action scenes, skipping everything else, you could be forgiven for thinking it's a good movie

[The Man]

Die Another Day's action scenes were indeed pretty awesome

[X-SOLDIER]

YouTube Video

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[Minato]

(SPOILER) Just got back from seeing it. Very enjoyable but I can't say it beats Casino Royale and Skyfall.

[Lex]

Hey guys, just saw this. It's been out for a whole week but I've been busy.

I've got to say, I really enjoyed it. (SPOILER) It didn't blow me away like Skyfall but I felt myself getting into it more and more as the movie progressed. Much like Skyfall, it's quite a long movie but I didn't feel that it dragged on particularly long.

I also particularly loved that (SPOILER) JudiDench!M left him a "dying wish", which is something that went unspoiled for me. Considering the villain turns out to be someone you're not really expecting coupled with it being tied to Bond's past is also something I enjoyed.

Also fuck me are there (SPOILER) previous Bond references GALORE. GALORE. I was like "k then". Pretty well done too, particularly with who is that says them.

And can I just say (SPOILER) I loved the involvement of Q, Moneypenny and M in this one. They get a nice amount of screen time.

Also on the ending: (SPOILER) pleased with that tbh, it's been a while since they've had a Bond end like that and it didn't feel forced.

[Cthulhu]

Spectre and MI: Rogue Nation are the same movie

[ForceStealer]

Lex wrote:

Hey guys, just saw this. It's been out for a whole week but I've been busy.

I've got to say, I really enjoyed it. (SPOILER) It didn't blow me away like Skyfall but I felt myself getting into it more and more as the movie progressed. Much like Skyfall, it's quite a long movie but I didn't feel that it dragged on particularly long.

I also particularly loved that (SPOILER) JudiDench!M left him a "dying wish", which is something that went unspoiled for me. Considering the villain turns out to be someone you're not really expecting coupled with it being tied to Bond's past is also something I enjoyed.

Also fuck me are there (SPOILER) previous Bond references GALORE. GALORE. I was like "k then". Pretty well done too, particularly with who is that says them.

And can I just say (SPOILER) I loved the involvement of Q, Moneypenny and M in this one. They get a nice amount of screen time.

Also on the ending: (SPOILER) pleased with that tbh, it's been a while since they've had a Bond end like that and it didn't feel forced.

Finally saw this the other day. I enjoyed it, Lex summed up my feelings pretty well. No, not as good as Skyfall, but Skyfall was unusually good, so that's not completely unexpected.

I'm also happy that they're slowly (very slowly) starting to integrate the actual Bond theme back into the movies again. Although I could still do with more.

Definitely with you on the involvement of other characters and the ending as well.

[Hisako]

I watched it on a whim a few weeks ago and I came away from it mostly lukewarm. To me it felt like a perfectly average, functional Bond movie but not much else.

First of all, the opening song did not warm me up to the film as much as any previous Craig-era Bond film and it might just be my least favorite out of them. Say whatever you will about Quantum of Solace's bad pacing but it had an incredible cracker of an opening and a really fun song to go with.
The action of the opening scene in Spectre was great, but it takes a really, really well-nuanced voice and some good mixing for me to enjoy a falsetto and Sam Smith's one really takes me out of the mood when it goes solo for the majority of the chorus, multiple times. It's a shame because I think the melody is a killer and the atmosphere of the orchestra is amazing, and the visual stuff is still pretty good, on par with Skyfall. I think Adele did a much better job reconciling the classic Bond vocal theme with modern sensibilities.

I like all the cameos and appreciate the attempts to connect everything in the Craig era to a single villain (a particularly well-done one, too) but it all smacks of something that was devised for the moment rather than something written in. Quantum was supposed to be the arc, and that was quickly scuttled when people didn't like it.

There are times where I wonder whether or not the film is trying to take the piss out of itself. Madeleine Swann seemed like a pretty interesting Bond Girl when she insists that she wouldn't be another conquest, but then, you know. I know it's a classic trope, but a post-fight smash cut to them tearing at each others clothes had me seriously rolling my eyes.

Speaking of, I felt Bautista and Bellucci were wasted somewhat. Bautista chews up the scene every time he's in it, and he inhabits the character as if he's having the time of his life. It's great and I wish he maintained persistence of the previous henchmen that he evoked so well. Bellucci's role feels so pithy that it's painfully obvious that she was cast as the secondary Bond Girl.

I was hoping the pencil pushing, sallow-faced smarmy bureaucrat guy (C, I think it was?) wasn't going to be who I thought he was from the very start of the film, but I guess it wouldn't have been on-the-nose enough for the story's themes.

Overall for me it was really the really great performances of the actors that kept it afloat, because the film itself felt so tropey and formulaic compared to the previous ones. I still had a lot of fun watching it, but overall on the scale of QoS to Casino Royale and on the back of Skyfall, of all movies, I wouldn't grade it particularly high.

[Ghost X]

Radiohead's song initially intended for Spectre (scroll down for song), if anyone is interested .

[Super Mario]

Now I feel cheated.

[Hisako]

Well it's... good, I guess. The mixing feels off though, I can't make out half of those lyrics.

At least it doesn't entirely end like a wet fart