Daniel Craig, a Bond you can really believe in (at last) he looks like he could handle himself. Not like previous Bond who where all to slick to get involved in a real punch up, and their clothes always had that just pressed look. All hail new Bond a Bond for the 2000 generation.
The art direct and photography of the film is really a homage to the 60s it has the old visual clues remixed for a new younger palette, and it really works well. The scene where Bond emerges from the sea is a refreshing role reversal from the sixties sexism of Dr No. The way the images are cropped for the big screen just screams epic, and reminds me of old John Ford westerns in a funny way. The action scenes are great (apparently Craig trained really hard for them and it shows), I also think these owe some gratitude to the Bourne films (another one of my recent favourites). What I like about new Bond is you get the feeling he’s muddling through, making it all up as he goes a long and pulling it all off by the skin off his teeth. Also he doesn’t have any stupid gadgets he can pull out of his bum at the last mo (or jam trousers as Eddie Izzard would say, he does a great comedy sketch on this by the way. Look it up if you have time).
The story is loosely based on the book but I think they’ve done a great job of adapting it and bringing it up to date. Could of done without the bleeding eye and the building sinking into Venice, (but then you can’t have everything can you?). My only other Gripe is the female lead Eva Green, not the worlds best actress by any standards, I thought her performance was: flat, boring, monotonal and the worst female lead I’ve seen in a long time, in fact she’s the only reason not to see this otherwise superb film.
Little know facts. The scene where the Austin Martin rolls over seven (count them again. seven) times is a world record. They had to put an air cannon in the car to fire at the ground to get it to roll that many times. Also the original idea to remake a modern Bond originally came from Quentin Tarantino.
Finally. Buy it, rent it and watch it several times, it just gets better and better.
I love the film as a technical feat and emotional journey. What I don’t love, although the jury remains partly open, is Bourne style storytelling under a James Bond banner. I suppose it was a natural decision to reboot the franchise, the postmodernist parody of Brosnan was looking tired. They tried to add grit in Die Another Day, it didnt work so well against the invisible car. It’s just that I’m a purist, somewhere between Doctor No and Octopussy, they got the formula right. I daren’t say, in thirty years, the film will have gone full circle back to its origins.
Good blog, sir!