On a cold Tuesday in October, we ventured out with a 45min drive to the wonderful 1920s, Art Deco style, Brynamman Public Hall Cinema. ‘The journey had better be worth it’ I kept thinking. The last few outings to see a 007 film have been somewhat disappointing. No criticism to our current James Bond (Daniel Craig), whom, I have never seen turn in a bad performance in any thing he’s been in (Even Knives Out (2019) I thought was decent). I’ve heard good things and I’ve heard bad things. So how did it go?
There is a lot of background to this film, not only it’s constant delay due to Mr.Covid but firstly, Daniel Craig has always been a controversial choice, ‘he’s too blonde, he’s too wooden’ etc… but I’ve always reserved judgment until I’ve seen the performances. Imagine if Keaton hadn’t been cast as Batman or Willis as John McClane? They were very controversial at the time.
Since his first performance as Bond in Casino Royale (2006) I’ve thought he did a great job. That said, I’m in a very small niche whose favourite Bond is Timothy Dalton… I know right, I even liked Pierce Brosnan! So, to some, my judgement isn’t quite one to follow.
Secondly, the production issues. Production started in 2017 a whole 2 years after the release of Spectre (2015). Danny Boyle was in and then out as director, John Hodge was in and then out as writer, then finally settling on Cary Joji Fukunaga as director in 2018. Neal Purvis and Robert Wade were then brought back. What is also interesting is that the fantastic Phoebe Waller-Bridge was hired (at the request of Craig himself) to oversee the script and ensure it was tonally right. With all this chopping-and-changing, could a core ‘Bond film’ survive? In a word, yes. For me, it stood up as one of the classics. The plot wasn’t too convoluted and was easy to follow (unlike previous excursions in the Bond world) and the characters we developed juuusssstt enough that you could understand their motivations.
Now retired from service, Bond has a missus, Madeline (Léa Seydoux) and they’re happy. Yes, wait for it, this equilibrium is about to be upset. BOOM! Anyway, Bond and Maddy go their separate ways and Bond is back looking to hunt down the mischievous, mollusc loving, Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion or SPECTRE, because they’ve tried to blow him up. Well, he’s going to have to talk to Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) if M (Ralph Fiennes) will let him. Eventually Bond is pulled back into service, but wait, there’s a new 007 (Lashana Lynch). He’s back in the mix as a ‘Double 0’ but his number, for the moment, is never really established.
Rite, so that’s quite easy to follow. Next we have Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek) who, when Maddy was a young girl, killed her Mum in revenge for her Father killing his whole family, at the behest of Blofeld. He had to opportunity to kill Maddy but chose not to… Why?
Lytsider Safin……. Just call him Lucifer Satan and be done with it! I feel Waller-Bridge had something to do with this. It is, however, a nice call back to the double-entendres of the older films.
With help from, usual suspects, Q (Ben Wishaw), Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), Tanner (Rory Kinnear) and Felix (Jeffrey Wright), Bond finds out that Safin has control over a virus which can be altered to kill people based on their DNA, not just that individual person but anyone who shares the same DNA, when they come in to contact with the contagion. So, it’s time to go to his secret island (which resembles the Thunderbird’s Tracy Island) and stop him.
A few nice touches throughout worth mentioning, the island itself has huge sliding doors that open above it which can be opened and closed when needed but will act as blast doors in the event of an attack. Very much old Bond and Austin Powers feel. If I saw Dr. Evil in his shiny jump-suit walking the corridors of this ‘Evil Lair’, he wouldn’t have looked out of place.
There is also a scene where a scientist meets their demise by what looked like, ‘ill-tempered, mutated, seabass’ or even ‘sharks with laser beams attached to their heads’.
Also there is a delightful appearance in the first section of the film from an absolute darling of British Comedy (no not Rory Kinnear, I told you already he’s in it) but some other legend. I won’t lie, my face lit-up when I saw them.
Also worth mentioning was a single shot scene where Bond is making his way up a staircase, taking on bad guy after bad guy. He has gun fights, fist fights and takes a few falls all in a long single-shot. I really did appreciate the work that must have gone into that.
I wanted car chases, I got them, I wanted awesome gun fights, I got them, I wanted cheesy lines and gadgets and they were aplenty. Job done as far as I’m concerned. The nearly 3 hours flew by. The film didn’t, stutter or stumble for me. It was fluid and really did keep my attention for the duration. It’s definitely one to see on the big screen for full immersion and appreciation of Daniel Craig’s final outing as Bond.
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