Warbler said:
Yay!!! I think it was a valid complaint. The gun barrel opening was a tradition that went back to From Russia With Love, and is inspired by the opening credits from Dr. No. I always felt it set the perfect mood for a Bond movie. It never felt right that it wasn’t there in Casino Royal, Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall. There was no reason to get rid of it.
Yeah I was glad to see it back as well. I have a feeling this will be Crieg’s last movie(I have no behind the scenes info on this so if I have missed something sorry)as it just feels like the end of the road for his version of Bond and there isn’t anywhere they could go in a sequel that I feel the general public would like. I mean that either have to kill off the girl from this movie(I am sorry I don’t remember her name but I have only seen the movie once) and have him go on a revenge mission and that is something that seems to happen to every action hero these days, or they have to show Bond settled down and then have him come back for some reason and they either have to have him not bed woman in that movie or have him cheat on the wife or girlfriend that he left MI6 for in the first place and I don’t think either of those moves would be popular with the general public or work for the character.
That said I really liked this movie. Like Skyfall before it the direction of the action struck just the right balance between the artistic and the modern and exciting, and I was always able to tell what was happening in the scenes. Every scene in this movie looks so polish and has a very classic film feel to it while not feeling like a time capsule. It’s hard to explain but I love the look of this and Skyfall because they look modern and yet classic at the same time and the two styles never seem to clash, they are just two of the best looking action movies I have ever seen.
The acting was strong and while the story was a little weak it was also fun when it had to be but didn’t forget to treat Bond as a character and not just an icon and it had just enough of the gadgets to feel like a Bond movie without going too far like something like Die another Day or some of the other films.
It wasn’t perfect but it did feel like the perfect goodbye to this version of Bond and I hope that is what it turns out to be.
I say this as someone who’s favorite film is OHMSS, who’s favorite Bond is Dalton, and who’s fifth favorite Bond movie is Moonraker, this was a really good Bond movie and it just worked for me. I will be getting it on Bluray as soon as it comes out.
8.5/10.