I would agree that some of the silliness of the older films went too far, but (without having seen Spectre yet) I don't know that I love the baroque, faux Shakesperian weightiness that the series has seemingly embraced. That was one of my main issues with Skyfall. There's this aura of depth and importance that is neither earned nor followed through on. Despite the window dressing, these are still essentially big, loud superhero movies. The same accusation could be directed towards Nolan's Batman films (especially the 2nd and 3rd), but I get the impression that Nolan was at least wrestling with some real ideas in those films.

Brooding is one thing. I can see where that may be overkill. But I also want Eon take the character seriously. Which this franchise hasn't done much with a lot. He became an action figure that we liked but not a character worth a damn a lot of the time w/ some of the films.

I liked Spectre. It's not as good as Skyfall though.

And I'm calling it right now

This movie is getting ripped apart on IMDB. I'll still go see it because I've enjoyed every Bond film on some level. (Diamonds are Forever is my least favorite though). If Spectre is a total bomb then I'm ready to officially call 2015 as one of the worst years in film. The summer was garbage and really nothing before that besides Kingsman. Even the Marvel flicks fell a bit flat for me.

It's IMDB, they bitch about everything, it doesn't matter how good a movie actually is. Flick still has a 7.5.

I've enjoyed this year, but then I'm on the Mad Max: FR band wagon after a couple rewatches and actually really enjoyed Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Still, I enjoyed it overall, although it felt like the parts didn't quite equal a satisfying whole. And it wouldn't hurt them to shave a half hour or so off these things.

....And the trend of helicopters crashing to the ground without exploding continues....

A very weak conclusion, but I still didn't mind this. It's got some nods to some of my most favorite previous Bond movies:
Q out in the field with 007 (License to Kill)
Scrap-aboard-train (From Russia With Love,Spy Who Loved Me)


Didn't even know the leading lady was from Blue/Warmest Color. And man, sure was a lot of hype for Bellucci...Who only appears in two small scenes.

Saw this earlier today. I liked it a good bit.

Swan was kind of pointless in there. She was an interesting prop/motivation but pointless really. Wasn't written all that well. Waltz's intro was very nice. He's not in it enough and doesn't really present a threat aside from damn near edging the cliche Bond villain. Nice makeup on him. His motivation wasn't interesting to me either.

I actually liked Bellucci a lot. An actual woman instead of the "girls" that Bond gets. She is still sexy as hell. And her and Craig rocked the sexuality they had to get. That's always bothered me a lot in most of the Bond films. Their aren't enough "women" for Bond. Too many young females they love to cast, that's more an industry issue too.

Bautista was awesome. I kind of wished he spoke more. His one line wasn't all that great.

This one brought a bit more of the cheeky nature of the franchise and it didn't gel well with the tone for me.

The torture bit didn't make sense.

I did like that it had a lot of searching for Bond.

I feel like Mendes tried too blend to much for what he brought and what Bond was for the franchise.

That Spectre meeting was all kinds of awesome. Probably the best part aside from the intro. That thing was awesome.

I liked title credits they had for this one. Listening to the theme made me think that the music itself fit Bond but Sam Smith's voice didn't match right with the music.

I kind of got tired of that sand yellow color they went with on this one a good bit. Worked at times but when it didn't... it just didn't.

Loved that too. The silence. The shadows. The slam. The scream. Perfect stuff.

Lou Lumenick nails it with his one-and-a-half star review in the New York Post:
http://nypost.com/2015/11/05/spectre...-you-to-death/

Some excerpts:

Second best Craig era film in my opinion, with Casino Royale #1.


Also, with each passing film it becomes more in more clear that James Bond is NOT a code name assumed by multiple agents that replace eachother, and is only one person haha I wish people would stop with that ridiculous theory.

Saw it. A bit long, but overall I liked it. Definitely more of an homage movie than anything else. Will probably say more later, but for now, here are my rankings of the reboot Bonds:

1)Casino Royale
2) Skyfall
3) Spectre
4)Quantum of Solace

Let me say that I liked all of the above and still don't get the hate for QoS. In fact, if you put all four of them together they make for one hell of a Bond story. Only real issue:

I thought it was okay, slower than expected, longer than needed.

I give it 2.5 stars, or a grade of C+.

Also, not that I am taking any cues from the credits sequence, but they should seriously consider Christoph Waltz for Doc Ock in the rebooted Spider-Man franchise.

Saw it tonight in a packed showing (7:15pm). I liked it, but didn't love it. For me the Craig films go:

Skyfall - A
Casino Royale - A-
Spectre - B+
Quantum of Solace - C

The only thing that bugged me was Andrew Scott being cast as "C"...

Still a good Bond flick, the first 30 minutes were great! The rest seemed like a rehash of the previous three films.

I saw it tonight and liked it for the most part. I feel like this one might get better with repeat viewings. My main issue with it was that it felt a bit on the long side and it could have lost a bit to make it a more solid film. Waltz and Bautista were both great. I agree that this film felt more like an homage to classic Bond yet it still wasn't as over the top as some of the Bond films.

As for my rankings of the Craig Bond films I'd probably say:

Casino Royale
Skyfall
Spectre
Quantum of Solace

I think his run as Bond has been overall solid and don't really dislike any of his films though.

You mean Skyfall didn't cement that for you enough?

---------

Yeah. Andrew Scott had no subltety to his character. You knew immediately his was going to be the c unt that was going to be a pain the ass. I found that whole character pointless. It could have been just MI6 (or just Bond) vs. Spectre. That would have been much more interesting.

That meeting though. That thing was masterful. Just the location, the variety of people in there. Etc. Just amazing world building there. It was like that Opera scene in QoS where so much is adding up w/ the world and it's right there.

Spectre had a a lot of highs. But it's lows are side plots and some character scripting.

That torture bit was just irrelevant really. It did nothing. Aside from being slightly disturbing. It would have been better to have him tied to a chair and gotten the crap beaten out of him. A more human and realistic type of torture. Cut the fancy torture. Just have him get the crap beaten out of him by someone. CR does this so well cuz it literally strips EVERYTHING about Movie Bond away when it comes to the "torture moment" that it actually has a depth to it. This film has a lot of promise but it is veering too much to the Movie Bond gimmicky nature almost for me. I think that's the issue really. Whether that's what Mendes wanted or not, that's how it veers for me. Villain inviting Bond to his location, gimmicky torture, bland Bond girl devising, humor is a bit too self aware at times, etc. It's a bunch of little things that don't kill it for me but it does impact it considering the tone he's rolling out but then he's doing this or that too where it doesn't gel enough to be fitting of that world.

To me it's a B+, it has a lot going for it but the script needed to be washed over again and realized what fit in the world tone and what doesn't.

Craig is a great Bond. I like this Bond. He actually has a soul to him whereas so much of Movie Bond was just a walking and talking action figure doing stuff that was cool. I like Bond, the character. But I also want to give a damn about his mindset. Craig Bond does that very well.

My main issue with this film is that it never seemed like anything was at risk. Blofeld already had the capability to look into MI6's cameras, so I didn't feel like the world was at risk. And we know Bond never dies, so that's out. The only time I felt there was danger was Q's scene at the ski resort. Everything else had a kind of Avengers 2 tone where you knew nothing bad was going to happen and no main character was going to die and it would be OK in the end.

Still a lot of really cool sequences. My third favorite of the Craig films.

Oh I knew long before that haha. Obviously a bunch of other people still don't grasp it, though.

I just don't think people understand a sliding/floating timeline/continuity. Which is kind of sad if not awkward.

Movie Bond was the same motherfucker throughout all the canon ones. He goes w/ the times and specifics of the era get left behind but the actions remain true. Then we got the reboot. And here we are now.

That theory stuff is just a sad c unt's way to get shit making sense for them to make them happy. Whatever.

I still wish we could get a properly adapted Bond film based on the source. Bond w/ his era mindset and nature. Things put into period and culture context. Those books were pretty cool. I'd kill to have Bond set in his proper period w/ Fassbender as Bond w/ a budget of at most $20 million for each film based in Fleming's source text. Those books were pretty dang cool.

Still love Casino Royale the most. That book made me understand a card game better than the Craig film. Jesus, that thing made no sense to me w/ how the film shows it. Also.. the book had a great ending line to it.

I was entertained. Too long, and the plot was a little too convoluted (it doesn't help that Casino Royale is the only Craig film I've seen more than once), but I liked seeing the M-Q-MP team in action, Christoph Waltz is awesome in pretty much anything, and Lea Seydoux is beautiful. I agree that introducing Waltz was great, though it reminded me a bit too much of Eyes Wide Shut. When Swan left on her own, I thought there'd be more too it, like she'd come back as a badass, not just get abducted.

3.5 stars feels about right.

The theory that Bond is just a code name actually makes a lot of sense to me and was one thing that irritated me with Skyfall. The guy doesn't age and changes appearance throughout the course of fifty years and is a spy. It seems logical to me that MI6 would just use the Bond and 007 monikers as code names for agents throughout time. That way whoever was Bond at the time keeps a somewhat low profile because people don't know who he really is.

It was a sliding timeline, man. Get over it already.

lol serIously. It's not that hard a concept.

And several films reference his childhood (parents dying in a climbing accident and becoming an orphan) as well as reference events from other films.

I don't take huge issue with it but logically it does make a lot more sense in my mind. Plus I don't see why it's a weird idea to grasp when clearly MI6 uses other code names for certain people within the organization and that's been acknowledged in some of the films (the Q and M characters have been acknowledged directly by Bond as being the new so and so character before). I still enjoy the films regardless.