007 Journals: Spectre

Well here it is. For years we've seen James Bond tangle with the sinister organization known as Spectre, but now we see it retold in the new rebooted Daniel Craig Bond universe. And that's exactly what this is, a connected universe. I alluded to it in my Skyfall review but Marvel has become so successful with it's cinematic universe that now every franchise has to do the same thing. Quantum of Solace was the first time we ever saw a direct sequel to a James Bond film and since Casino Royale was a reboot we've managed to see Daniel Craig take us through Bond's entire career up until this point. Now for years the Spectre rights were held up in a lawsuit that was finally settled so we never saw Daniel Craig battle the famed secret organization from the books but instead got a stand in with Quantum. Now that the rights are free it's all come full circle and finally it's time to introduce Bond to his greatest 

rival of all time for the first time in the modern era. Now for the whole year before Spectre released I went back and watch and reviewed all of the Bond movies in a row so this was the first time that I was following the hype for the new movie and having only recently taken in all of Bond lore in one huge chunk, this movie had a lot to live up to in my eyes. What was delivered was an enjoyable Bond that was missing only a few elements to make it amazing.

So the first three Craig films an all be lumped together as one big origin for Bond. It took three films to get the character to a place that he needed to be, and introduce his team players. In a way it was the perfect way to approach the franchise, with a fresh perspective, and bring us to the point that Bond fans had been waiting for. But not quite. This is the first time a Craig film has followed the more traditional Bond formula but it's not quite going off the exact blueprint of the old films. The old formula was simple, a cold open, leading to Bond getting a mission and dossier, Bond then gets his gadgets from Q, leading to Bond on his mission where he beds women and takes down a super villain. Well we get all of this for the most part with some twists. We get our action packed cold open but right away Bond is taken off of active duty by M. This naturally leads Bond to going rogue (again) meaning that in every Daniel Craig Bond film he has gone solo to some degree. However with this one it's not as dramatic as the past. So what I was looking for out of this plot was some great secret organization action and there is a good amount of that. The highlight being the secret meeting room that Bond sneaks into. I love the table with everyone watching and Waltz being draped in shadow. There's actually a lot of people being obscured by shadow in this movie and it totally works for me because that's what I expect from something like Spectre.

The only other thing I expect from a secret organization is a lot of string pulling and there's a little bit of that but mostly it's just hinted at. We are told that the villains from the three previous Bond films (Le Chiffre, Greene, and Silva) were all arranged by Waltz's character which is all well and good. It honestly helped make him seem like he carries some power and really is kind of spooky, but there's little of that kind of action actually happening in this movie and that's really my biggest problem with it. We finally get the big baddie in Spectre and they don't do a whole lot with it which is mind blowing considering this is the longest Bond film so where does that run time go? Quantum of Solace (which in this film we learn Quantum is a subdivision of Spectre) actually does a better job of making a secret organization feel like they are everywhere controlling everything. While the Spectre stuff they have in this movie is good, I just wanted more. There's also this side plot with Mi6 and Mi5 being merged with a new security force called the Nine Eyes which is obvious from the beginning that it will be a Spectre scheme and really they don't do anything with this side plot. It's amazing how long the movie is and how little the story gets fleshed out. It really just feels like all Bond all the time and the B story is there for necessity of run time. 

I've heard some people complain about the action in this film being kind of mediocre but I have to disagree. For one there was more action than I thought there would be. The cold open for instance has some great stunts and whether it was done on green screen or they really had people hanging off of the helicopter and looked great and was a fun action set piece. I even really enjoyed the chase in the snow with the twist being Bond was in a plane chasing some trucks. It was a fun scene and pretty creative. I think the one action scene that will stand in people's minds though is the giant explosion at the end which set a Guinness World Record. A second time for a Daniel Craig Bond movie. While that's all great I have to point out the fight on the train as being my favorite action moment. For one Mr. Hinx is a pretty good henchmen. Dave Bautista plays a silent but imposing henchman that gives Bond a hell of a fight and it feels like a call back to the great train fight in From Russia With Love. However the same characters have  a car chase that is fine but feels a little lacking. There's just some fast driving and no real stunts to the scene. Entertaining but bland. The best part about the chase is how he calls Moneypenny and we get the casual phone call talk while he's having a high speed chase. Her checking the fridge is a funny moment.

One thing Skyfall did was set up Bond's supporting players and they all return here and they are all still great in their roles. Ben Whishaw had a great debut as Q in Skyfall but I feel like he is even better this time around. Moneypenny is left with less to do but Naomi Harris still fills the role splendidly. All of the cast is really at the top of their game but I have to say this about Craig. Before the movie was coming out he was very vocal about wanting to be done with Bond and there is definitely some fatigue in his performance but he still puts in a better job than most. I wouldn't see he was at Connery levels of bland but you could sense that he was ready to move on and I know he was originally contracted for one more film but honestly I could see this being his last film and if they decide to just have the four Craig films as one arc Spectre has a fitting ending, even if it's not 100% satisfying. The one actor that gets the short end of the stick is Christoph Waltz. He puts in an amazing performance but he has less screen time than Javier Bardem did as Silva. Monica Bellucci is another big name actress they bring in for what seems like less than five minutes of screen time. The new Bond girl played by Lea Seydoux is a pretty good character but we don't get a lot of time with her which just seems to be the theme of this movie. No wonder Craig was fatigued, he's on screen like 99% of the time. I like the character of Madeleine Swann and they certainly do the best they can with trying to make us see how she and Bond could fall in love but I feel like the romance is just rushed. After Vesper Lynd it's hard to imagine Bond falling for a girl that way again in such a short time. I think it's believable enough that it doesn't seem completely unreal but I was left just wishing to see more of them together. 

So I need to get something out of the way. While Christoph Waltz is billed as Franz Oberhauser it's very obvious that he's Blofeld. You can't have a movie called Spectre and not expect everyone to know immediately that the villain is Blofeld. Star Trek Into Darkness tried to pull the same trick with Kahn but I feel like Bond suffered for it less. Even though I had that gut feeling he was Blofeld I still hoped he wouldn't be but I have to say I did like the reveal when the cat jumps on Bond's lap. It was played serious enough that it was still an "oh shit" moment because it does come out of nowhere and ends up being a very satisfying reveal. Especially since it comes during an intense torture scene and I wasn't expecting it at that moment. And since I'm here I might as well talk about the torture scene. A lot of people seem to be down on it but I liked it. It was creative and ridiculous the way you expect a James Bond torture scene to be and it actually made me cringe. To me that was an effective scene but I can see where people would have problems with it.

Sam Mendez has said that Spectre would be his last Bond film and I do think it's time to move on. Skyfall and Spectre are both spectacularly directed but I can't imagine what Mendez would do with three in a row. While the single camera tracking shot may be something that's getting outplayed I have to say that I immediately fell in love with the first five minutes of this film. Everything about the opening scene of the film is just masterfully cut together. Everything from the long camera pan through the crowd up to the rooftops, down to the music, all the way to the Day of the Dead costumes and festival it was all just magically executed. While Skyfall was a beautiful looking film, Spectre may give it a run for it's money. There's a lot of great camera work and production design, not to mention some beautiful locations, that Spectre is just as much a feast for the eyes as Skyfall was. One thing to note is the return of the Bond humor. There are multiple scenes where with some pretty straight up obvious jokes where in the previous Bond films there were only the driest hints at humor. The score however, while I feel is good and has some great moments, is slightly less memorable than the previous films. While I can listen to the score for Casino Royale and Skyfall I would find myself only hitting certain tracks on the Spectre soundtrack. One of them would probably not be the Sam Smith song, The Writings on the Wall. Now I think Sam Smith is an incredible singer and the song isn't terrible it just doesn't do much for me. I didn't like it until about four listens and I doubt I will ever love it. It just falls somewhere in the middle for me. The opening title sequence wasn't one of the best either but there was a lot of great and creepy octopus motifs. 

So where does Spectre fall in my ranking? Honestly I think it's really good and only slightly disappointing. A top ten Bond film for sure. Now the thing about the movie having the longest run time doesn't bother me because the movie is paced pretty well and never felt long. What bugs me is that they don't utilize the run time. I feel like Spectre needed to be two movies just to fit everything in. Waltz needed more to do and we needed more interaction between Bond and Swann to make the love story more believable. Now the film ends a little open ended, Bond is leaving with Swann, Blofeld is left alive and arrested (maybe the first Bond villain to survive?) so he could come back. I just hope Craig comes back for his last film and we get another run in with Blofeld before he wraps up his tenure as Bond. I just feel like the way the ending kind of drags out that they may have wanted to have a cliffhanger ending and drag out the plot in a second movie (which for me would have been great) but I feel Craig possibly not returning could have been a worry. You also have to wonder if modern movie goers would have had the patience for a two movie plot. While Spectre is great it's just not amazing but I feel is worth a four out of five.

007 Journals: Skyfall

Well this is it. While not my last Bond review it is the last in the line of official EON Bond film reviews. It's been quite a journey through the films and I've received a lot of praise, criticism, agreement, and debate and I've enjoyed every minute of it and I'm actually sad that this is my last (official) Bond review until Spectre later this year. After Skyfall I plan on doing the 1969 Casino Royale but that's more of a bonus. So for now let'a take a look at the most recent Bond film, Skyfall. So by the time this film finally released it had been four years since Quantum of Solace, which didn't live up to Casino Royale but was still a solid film. However Skyfall had a lot riding on it's shoulders. It was their chance to redeem the franchise after the lukewarm response to Quantum, and this was also the first Bond film after MGM's troubles had been sorted out. Luckily things worked out. Skyfall received generally universal praise and made over a billion dollars at the box office, becoming the most successful film in the franchise. Now when this film released all I heard from friends was that it was the best Bond, way better than Casino Royale, and I'm sorry but it's not. Don't get me wrong when I say that. Skyfall is amazing. Casino Royale is just a smidgen better.

So throughout my reviews of the Daniel Craig films I've praised the relationship building between M and Bond, and the theme of trust. Well Skyfall brings that to it's ultimate conclusion and makes it the main focus of this film. The entire plot is put into motion because M doesn't trust Bond to get the job done and ends up almost getting him killed as an assassin is getting away with a hard drive of information that isn't even supposed to exist. This causes Bond to doubt M's judgment and, when Bond finally returns from the dead, everyone questions whether Bond is still suited for the job. It's kind of amazing how much older Craig looks in just the four years between Quantum and Skyfall and I wonder if that is just natural aging or a directorial choice due to the nature of the script and where the Bond franchise was at this time, which is the 50th anniversary. Let me just say, this anniversary film is leaps and bounds better than the last. So Bond takes a little vacation after getting shot and returns when he finds out that Mi6 was attacked and M is the target. Something that has always been well crafted within the Craig films is Bond's sense of duty. Brosnan had that as well but Craig amplifies it and makes it completely believable that everything he does is for King and country. One thing about Bond is that we learn a lot more about his past in this film, which fans of the series are no strangers to. We learn more about him being an orphan, we see the grave stone of his parents, and we actually visit his childhood home Skyfall which is obviously in reference to the title of the movie. By turning the Craig films into character pieces we have built a three film character arc (that looks like it will be continued in Spectre) and honestly with Craig only assigned to the next two films you could see them doing another reboot and having a complete story told within this one actors time in the role. I would be completely fine with this and it would leave us with a solid and complete story line, depending on how well the next two films go.

The thing about Skyfall is that it completes the origin of Bond. We saw his first two missions in the last films and by the end of Skyfall we have Bond going into M's office and receiving a dossier and preparing for a mission. We also are introduced to two characters that are staples of the franchise. Q and Moneypenny. I love these new versions of the characters. Now everyone at this point knows I'm not a huge fan of the gadgetry in a Bond film so you can imagine how much I appreciate the Q scenes in this film. The gun and locator are very believable devices and I love the jokes they make about the exploding pen and how Bond jokes to Sivia about his fancy new gadget, a radio. Silva even returns the quip later in the train tunnel. None of this humor was lost on me. This is also the first film to give us more Moneypenny than ever before, showing us her in the field for the first time and how she finally decides to take a desk job. They establish her relationship very well and make the future flirting seem easy to believe. I always appreciate when they make Moneypenny a capable woman as well, able to stand her ground and defend herself. She's more than just a secretary.Can I also say that I love Ralph Fiennes as the new M. The death of Judi Dench came as a shock to me but they do a good job of seeding Fiennes throughout the film as the heir to the M role. He starts off as kind of a questionable character but becomes well suited to the job and we see the connection he immediately has with Bond. A welcome addition to the role and a fine actor and I can't wait to see how he does in the next film. So somehow the producers manage to slyly stretch out the origin story of Bond through three films and it's a brilliant move and a risk that I wish more of these superhero blockbusters would take. This is a good example of that kind of film making paying off.

Okay so let's talk about the villain. He's the Joker. Everything about his plan and his character just reminds me of Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. especially in the way his plan completely relies on luck and perfect timing, which is something that kind of bugged me the first time I watched it but was able to accept more this time around. It's less luck based than the Joker was and really could be attributed to years of perfect planning and timing. I think the biggest thing to pick at in his plan is the train crashing through the wall but honestly it's not hard to know a train schedule. It's worth noting that Sam Mendez himself has said he's inspired by Christopher Nolan and loves The Dark Knight so it's easy to see the comparisons. Both villains even have some sort of facial deformation. This one is just a lot creepier. I have to give Silva credit in being the first Bond film to completely succeed in his plan. Now it doesn't exactly go according to his schedule but his overall plan is to kill M and at the end of the movie M is dead. He's even one step ahead of Bond and Mi6 through the whole film until the end. He's the most competent villain and Javier Bardem plays the character so well. Again like Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight he plays a wonderfully insane villain with only murder on the brain and is the stand out performance of the movie. This is also the second time that we have had Bond facing off against another former Mi6 agent. The last time was Goldeneye and honestly Silva does a much better job than Alec did. He comes off as evil as possible just in the one scene where he kills the beautiful Severine, who is actually one of my favorite Bond girls even with her small role. Her subtle performance is so memorable and she has very little screen time yet is one of the Bond girls I remember the most. It helps that Berenice Lim Marlohe is stunning but with what little screen time she has she gives it her all. The same could be said for Bardem who doesn't even appear in the movie until the hour and ten minute mark but he's one of the best Bond villains.

Let's talk about the production for a minute. The cinematography gets a lot of praise and it deserves it all. This movie is shot so beautifully, especially during the scenes in China. The camera work is incredible and they found some of the best shooting locations. The score is maybe the first that I have loved in a Bond film and is the only one I own. The action set pieces are all great, especially the opening scene on the train. My favorite stunt in the movie is easily when Bond grabs onto the elevator and I love it every time I see it. One thing I noticed about this film is how quiet it is. Especially after Quantum which was a series of action scenes strung together with more action, Skyfall is more subtle in it's approach to the action. There's definitely action in this movie, and it's all great, but this time it feels more like a spy film than an action blockbuster. The most explosive action comes from the villain causing terrorist attacks or when they are isolated at the end and it just feels more contained and realistic compared to the many vehicle chases in the Quantum that all ended with lots of destruction and explosions.

Is this movie perfect? Of course not. There is plenty to nitpick but none of that stuff hurts the film in any serious way. The plot relies a little on convenience, the killing of Silva off screen with a knife throw always bugs me (he could have at least just walked up and stabbed him), there's the question of how Bond survives after being under frozen water for so long (but it doesn't seem too cold since the ice is about to break anyway), and the Aston Martin is a little confusing to me. I know he won it in Casino Royale but why does it have machine guns and an ejector seat? Are we to believe that this is the same car from Goldfinger? Did this movie take place after Goldfinger or is this a new continuity as we've been led to believe? I choose to just ignore as "hey it's an anniversary film and maybe he had that stuff installed for fun". Personally my biggest issue with the movie is how it drops the Quantum story but I have hope that Spectre will address this in some way. So I think without question Skyfall is a five out of five. It's just a slightly lower five than Casino Royale.

So that's it, the end of my official 007 Journals. Next I'm going to do the 60's Casino Royale but for all intents and purposes I have now watched and reviewed every James Bond film. Now I wonder what else is next. I had a blast working my way through a franchise and It's something I'd like to do again. There are a few other major film series I've never seen (The Godfather, Rocky, Rambo and more) that I've thought about doing but I'm not sure where to go from here. I've thought about looking back to the Austin Powers films and Johnny English as fun little companion reviews to the 007 franchise and I know there's been requests for Kingsman which I will do as soon as I can see it. If any of these sound appealing to you just sound off and I will be happy to pursue them, in the meantime keep your eyes open for the Casino Royale review and know that it's been a blast reviewing these movies for you. Until next time.

007 Journals: Quantum of Solace

Okay so it's 2008, two years after one of the best Bond movie releases, Casino Royale. However this film is being written before the writer's strike. In fact the shooting draft was finished the night the strike started. The direct effect of this? It's the shortest Bond film and the story feels the most rushed. Now Quantum catches a lot of flak and honestly I think it's biggest problem is the fact that it comes after Casino Royale which is a far superior film but Quantum is in no way a bad movie. I have some advice to give about this movie. One, if you watch it directly after Casino Royale (either the same day or day after) it becomes much more enjoyable. This is something I hinted at in my last review and is the way I experienced both films and it caused me to love Quantum the first time I watched it. So did my love for the film carry over on a re-watch? Well I have some more thoughts this time around.

First off I love the idea of a shadow organization secretly ruling the world, having the power to influence nations, and just being all around creepy. Quantum delivers a lot of this, just not enough of it. First off the film is jumping locations quite a bit. It seems every ten minutes Bond needs to fly to another part of the world and it just feels like they were trying to extend their short script. It seems to be the biggest problem with having a writers strike and not being able to have the writer on set. I guess the director and Daniel Craig did most of the rewriting on set and unfortunately it shows. They are lucky that the move came out as well as it did. I just feel like this follow up should have had a much deeper story relating to the Quantum organization and quickly just becomes the pursuit for the one member Dominic Greene. Which honestly is fine. Every Bond film needs it's villain and Dominic Green is a creepy guy. He looks like a rat come to life and just has this evil tone in his speech. However he is a coward in a real confrontation and can't fight to save his life which is something that we haven't seen much of out of a main villain. He uses his connections to Quantum to his own benefit which is exactly what you expect out of  this kind of character. He helps a General stage a coupe and take over his country in exchange for some land which just happens to hold the countries water supply that Quantum will control and thus control the General and his country. It's a decent plot and actually fits perfectly into the way a shadow organization would conduct business. I just feel like they should have leaned more on Quantum as a whole and less on Greene.

So this movie has a look that's very different than any other Bond film. First off this is the first film in the series that feels like it has some artistic direction. There's a lot of silence to the action scenes and quick editing that I didn't remember from the first watch and gives this movie a unique look. The director seems to look at everything in an artistic way, even having the action set pieces  represent the elements of the earth. The car chase for earth, the boat chase for water, the plane chase for air, the hotel fight for fire. Also I think the cinematography is highly underrated. I know everyone looks to Skyfall as the stand out looking film of the series but I implore you to give Quantum a second look in that regard. This movie takes place in a lot of sandy countries so it is limited by its color palette but every shot is fantastic. I still love that shot from the beginning foot chase where they fall through the glass roof. So the Craig films get compared to the Bourne series a lot and honestly I think those comparisons stem from this film because I heard it a lot before Skyfall came out and this was the last point of reference for the Bond series. Well let me address my feelings on this. Yes the style of fighting is similar but it makes sense for close quarters fighting, it looks awesome, and isn't always the same in the Bond films. The Bourne fights are all fairly identical while Bond does just throw some wild punches from time to time. The Bourne films have the fast editing but I really only see that in Quantum as far as the Craig films go and it fits in with the rest of the direction of the film. To me it feels more like artistic choice than emulation. I've just never bought into the Bourne comparisons. These films feel completely different to me.

 Okay so since we are talking about the fight scenes, let's address the action. There's a lot of it. The movie opens up fifteen minutes after Casino Royale and starts with a great and brutal car chase. There are actually a lot of chases in this movie. It almost felt like every location change was transitioned by a chase. Luckily I love chases and all of the ones in this movie were fantastic. I feared for the stuntmen a lot in this movie. The action is just more brutal overall. Bond gets beat up a lot more, the hits feel a lot harder, there's even more blood than we normally see. Now the real complaint here is that there is too much action. Bond is a spy on the tail of a secret organization that doesn't want anyone to know they exist and he is blowing everything up along the way. I feel like the amount of action is to help with the fact that the writers strike really interfered with the script and honestly it works but does become a transparent distraction. Luckily all of the action is fantastic so it's not the worst situation to have. However if the trade off is more action and less character moments, I'd rather have the character moments. That was one thing that Casino Royale did perfectly which was to expand the character of Bond. He fell in love, quit his job, and then experienced a great loss. Not to say there are none of these moments in this film but some of them feel very forced. There is a big theme of trust in this film, especially between Bond and M. All of this is done really well. I love how M keeps trying to call him away from the mission and he won't leave his duty. M chastising him for using his charm on Strawberry Fields (yeah that's her real name), played by the beautiful Gemma Arterton, and getting her killed is also a great moment.. I wish there was more of this in the film but the script just didn't leave enough room for it. Instead they try to squeeze in a mention of Vesper whenever they can and it just feels off. However I do love the ending where he confronts and captures Vesper's boyfriend. Oh and the switching of hotels is a fun little character moment as well. Reminds me of the fake cover story he gave Vesper.

I have to say the opera scene is the best scene of the movie and really embodies what I wanted more of throughout. It's a great idea to have all of these secret members from around the world communicating through ear pieces during an opera and their reactions when they find out that they are compromised are just fantastic. Especially Greene when he comes face to face with Bond afterwards. If the whole movie was re-written around this little chunk of the movie, and Greene's party that follows, then this could have been an excellent next step in the Bond franchise. Unfortunately MGM ran into their troubles and we got a long break before Skyfall which basically ignores this plot. My hope is that Spectre picks up where this movie left off or at least addresses it in some way. That's my only hope. So aside from the Quantum story we also have Olga Kurylenko playing a a Bolivian agent that is trying to kill the general that murdered her family. Honestly this plot feels crammed into the story but it plays out well and Kurylenko was appearing in a lot of movies at this time and felt like the next IT girl and this is probably my favorite role she's had. She's a good actress who still has a lot of growing to do but in this film she brought her A game.

So do I still love Quantum of Solace? I do, it's a highly entertaining film and a solid entry into the Bond franchise. Now there are some things to note. It's more action heavy than a Bond film should be but you never feel bored because of it. It's short which can be both a good and bad thing. If it's not your favorite then you don't have much to watch but if the movie had been longer they could have made it spectacular. The way it stands now, and knowing that we have Skyfall next which softens the blow, Quantum of Solace is a nice sidetrack between Casino Royale and Skyfall and is solid action film that is at least worth your time to watch (or re-watch) and you shouldn't let the bad word of mouth drive you away if you've never seen it. I was highly entertained and gladly give Quantum a four out of five. This film is just so so highly re-watchable in my opinion and can get better with each watch.

007 Journals: Casino Royale

Man after Die Another Day I couldn't wait to rewatch this film. Alright lets face it, is there anyone who wouldn't at least nod in agreement at the idea that this is the best James Bond film? Look everyone has their favorites. You might be like Goldfinger is my favorite Bond, but Casino Royale is the BEST Bond. Daniel Craig is my favorite Bond, but I also feel that he's the BEST Bond. I think mostly though that comes from the strong character writing of the Craig films. Though he is a fantastic actor, he is what I picture when I read a Bond book. Now Casino Royale is actually the only book I've read so far and I was surprised to learn that pretty much everything from the novel is in the movie with the movie only being bigger. Even the chair torture scene is ripped right out of the novel. I feel safe saying that not only is Casino Royale my favorite Bond film, it's one of my favorite movies of all time. At least in my top five. So let me take you back to my first experiences with Casino Royale. Now the movie came out in 2006 but I probably didn't see it until 2009 or 2010. At the time I was more of a casual Bond fan and didn't keep up with it. I saw this movie around but didn't know that it was a James Bond movie. The second I found out though I asked around with my friends, asking how it was, still a little miffed over Die Another Day, and I heard nothing but praise. So I did some research and found out "Huh, there are two of these already I haven't seen" since Quantum of Solace was already out. I wasn't aware of the MGM crisis going on so with reckless abandonment I sat down and watched Casino Royale and Quantum back to back and then I learned that there were no new Bond movies on the horizon and I was heart broken. I had just been blown away by Daniel Craig and I needed more! As we know it all worked out in the end. So how did my rewatch of Casino Royale go this time?

I still love this movie. Shocker right? This is, by my own definition, a perfect film. Every actor is amazing, all of the action scenes are amazing, all of the spy work is amazing, the plot is amazing, the script is amazing, yeah this is going to be a love fest. Okay let's start from the beginning. The cold open. Now this is the first movie in what is the first reboot of the Bond franchise. Maybe reboot isn't the right word. I like relaunch. We have our new Bond, we are going to watch his first mission, and what better way to start this movie than by showing how Bond achieved his Double 0 status. This is a great scene and I love the choice of starting it in black and white. It's interesting to note that the director for this film also directed Goldeneye so for me it makes sense that my previous favorite Bond film was outdone by the same person. The opening is great. I love the dialogue and it's maybe one of the moments that shows Bond being his coldest, which is the start of the biggest theme in the Craig films. M has a constant mistrust of Bond because he is just a cold machine killer. Watching Craig evolve the character throughout the movie (and the other two) are some of my favorite aspects of the entire series. Judi Dench is a big highlight from this point on as well. M now feels like a main character and is present throughout the entirety of the films plots instead of just appearing at the beginning and end. The relationship between Bond and M is seeded here and carries on through the rest of the movies and it's something that was a nice change of pace and really helps flesh out characters. Casino Royale, more than any other Bond movie, feels the most like a character piece and I'm a sucker for good character development and with the relationships of Bond and M and Bond and Vesper there's plenty of that to go around.

So let's talk about some of the other characters before moving on. Vesper Lynd, I know I'm not alone because I've seen a lot of lists, but she's my favorite Bond girl. She is sexy in that classy kind of way and Eva Green is just a phenomenal actress. The moment's between Bond and Vesper are so much fun and just watching them try to one up each other is always entertaining. The scene on the train and any moment with them in their hotel room are all solid gold moments. All of the ways that Vesper meets Bond's wit make it believable that this is someone he would fall in love with. Craig also perfectly telegraphs how Bond tucks away his feelings for her after her demise. Something that is carried over into Quantum but not to it's full extent. Can I say that the drowning scene is some of the best drowning acting I've ever seen and I tip my hat to Eva Green for her performance during that scene because it is so haunting. The other major character to mention is Le Chiffre. Mads Mikkelsen is an amazing actor and plays one of the best and most unique Bond villains. This guy isn't much a take over the world or have an evil scheme villain. He's a money handler who has seriously messed up and is trying to fix his problem. It's really just a plot of make sure this guy can't fund terrorism. As maniacal as Le Chiffre is he really feels like a victim in the sense that he's in just as much trouble as Bond is. Also he cries blood in a totally legit injury kind of way. A nice quirk that Mikkelsen didn't even need but it helps him seem so creepy. I guess I should also point out Jeffery Wright as Felix Leiter. The first time seeing the character since License to Kill. Wright plays a great Felix but he doesn't get a lot to do here but every time he's around he's great.

Okay the plot. I'll admit the first time I watched it I was kind of confused. However on a few more viewings everything made sense to me. Le Chiffre is a banker who handles money for terrorists and short sells stocks in a company and then arranges a terrorist attack to slash the stock price and pull in a huge profit for himself. A great plan until Bond steps in and foils the attack. Now Le Chiffre owes a lot of money to some powerful people (we'll get there) and what do desperate men do for money? They gamble for it naturally. So he goes to the Casino Royale for a high stakes Poker game to try and win the money back. It's a great plot and it leads so perfectly into the bigger scheme that starts in the next movie with Quantum. Not only that, it's the plot of the book to a T just blown up to big blockbuster proportions. Now what comes with those blockbuster proportions? Blockbuster action, and this film has plenty of it. The action scenes are all great and that stairway fight is one of my favorite fights in movie history. Also we have to mention that parkour chase. This was the new fad at the time (which is the tradition of Bond films) and this chase is amazing. Especially since they were actually standing up on that crane with harnesses. They did a really good job of balancing the quick parkour style running and flips with Bond just tearing through everything. It also leads into the great embassy scene where Bond just manages to run in, mess everyone up, and escape. Such a great scene. Then there was the record breaking car flip which was so incredible that it even surprised the film makers. This movie is just pure entertainment from start to finish and is one of those films that exceeds just being a blockbuster action movie. A perfect balance of story, character, and action. A quick note, I know a lot of people aren't fans of the Chris Cornell song, and I wasn't either, but every time I watch the movie I come to love it more and more and it fits perfectly with the opening of this film. Just the way they use the gun barrel sequence in this film (which is genius) and the way it explodes into the song is just perfect.

If you hadn't guessed by now this film is a five out of five for me and I know I'm not alone. So rarely does a movie come around and just feel so tightly wrapped and well executed. I know this review was just a love fest but reviews are opinion pieces and this is my opinion. I feel like I won't meet much resistance with this review and if you are wanting me to dive deeper into something else then let me know and I will add an updated section (and that goes for any of my previous reviews. Just go leave a comment on it and I'll revisit your point) but for now I just want to say I love this film and honestly if you don't you really should.

007 Journals: Thunderball

I don't know what went wrong. Everything was going so smoothly. The first film was what it was, a starting place, then we had two amazing Bond films but then we get to Thunderball. Now I had heard that this was one of the lesser Bond films. Naturally every film has people who love it and people who hate it, and unfortunately I fall heavily into the hate category on this one. Maybe hate is a strong word, but I was so incredibly bored during the entire run of this film that I could barely follow what was happening. The production on this movie also felt so much like a step backwards that it pulled me out of the film like the others hadn't. Coming off of Goldfinger I was hyped for more Sean Connery as Bond, but now I'm getting anxious to move on.

So right from the opening scene I suspected trouble. We get a pointless ruse with a coffin that has JB on it and we are supposed to think that Bond is in it, but then less than five seconds later we see Bond and someone literally says "JB, those are your initials" and this is just some poor writing right from the start. Then we get a fight scene with a man dressed as a woman, that's right something out of a cartoon, that could have been interesting but there's a lot of unnecessary sped up action to make things look faster and more impactful then they are. Don't worry, this is something we will see a lot of in this movie. Then we get the jet-pack escape. Okay, Bond movies are notorious for taking what ever is the newest coolest idea and putting it into the films, but the jet-pack honestly hurts this scene. I would have rather have seen Bond fight his way out then take a jet-pack about a hundred feet to a car (that then sprays really bad looking CG water at guys to knock them over, one of which has to walk into the stream since he's not in the right place) just waiting for him to take off. Then the most abrupt entry into the opening theme song I have ever seen. Easily the worst cold open for a Bond film so far.

The villains plot is pretty standard. Steal a couple of bombs and bribe the US and British governments for money. I have a few problems here. The way they go about this first of all is just insane. They have a man get facial reconstruction surgery to look like one of the men on the plane carrying the bombs so he can crash the plane where they need it. Then nothing really every happens. There's just a lot of looking for bombs but there's never really any danger. The bombs are hidden away the whole time and are never in any threat of being used. This kind of makes it hard to care or worry about anything because there's no immediate threat of danger. The main villain Largo is also just completely uninteresting and maybe one of the dumbest Bond villains to date. He knows who Bond is but they keep running into each other and he even offers up Bond his niece to take on dates. Even Bond spends needless time running into Largo. At one point Bond is flying a helicopter around Largo's house, in broad daylight, while Largo is watching, and then shows up at his house for a chat afterwards! Everyone knows who everyone is, this all seems very pointless. Through the whole movie Bond is constantly putting himself in contact with all of these people who work for SPECTRE and is somehow still surprised when a trap is sprung. This film just needed more espionage and less flirting with the enemy.

Most of the film was shot in the Bahamas and I assume most of the budget must have went to scouting locations because a lot of the other production looks awful. The green screen in the boat scenes (especially the sped up green screen at end fight) Just looks terrible and hardly matches what's going on in the scene perfect enough. There aren't many gadgets worth mentioning in the film but I did very much like the breathing device, which does resurface in another later (and again horrible) Bond film. When I said most of this movie takes place in the Bahamas, I should have been more specific and said most of it takes place underwater in the Bahamas because I would say 90% of this movie has Bond with no pants and just swim trunks, swimming around somewhere. If you ever wanted to know what Bond was like in the water then this movie  is for you! We get plenty of underwater action and even a giant scuba battle at the end which is serviceable but ultimately kind of boring. It's hard to tell who anyone is and it's weirdly silent, opting for no score during this scene, which honestly at this point was fine by me because there is one theme for being underwater in this movie and it's a song we hear so much that by the end, no score was better than hearing that again. One thing I do want to point out though is this is the first significant amount of blood in a bond film and I believe the first time Bond takes a bullet in the series. If I missed a time he was shot feel free to remind me.

One thing I've noticed with Sean Connery is that his Bond is sounding more and more Scottish with each film and in this one it was the most noticeable. I know Connery was getting pretty screwed through his tenure as Bond as far as getting very little pay increases despite the movies making hundreds of millions at the box office. I get the feeling he started to care less and less because of his deal with the studios. The Bond girls this time around are, as usual, beautiful and more serviceable to the plot than they were in Goldfinger, though I doubt I will remember either of them past this film. Though I did like when Fiona called him "Mr. Bond James Bond." Adorable.

This was a hard watch and I think even Dr. No was a far superior film. As these movies are all time capsules for their era, I have a hard time thinking anyone who saw this film in 1965 could have possibly thought it was better than any of the previous Bond films. Everything is just so cartoony in this film, right down to the pool of sharks that Largo keeps at his house, and even to the sound effects of the underwater scenes. I wish I had more to say about this film because I know there are people out there who probably do love it, but I just can't see myself ever watching it again. I give Thunderball one star out of five.

James Bond will return in You Only Live Twice.

007 Journals: Goldfinger

So Bond had been wildly popular with the first two films so now it was time to make their first blockbuster James Bond film and this time with a budget bigger than the last two films' combined. Enter Goldfinger. Now just a heads up, this was the first film I took notes for so this could be a little more in depth or nitpicky, but either way it will probably be a longer read than my previous articles. Right away I will say Goldfinger exceeded my expectations even more so than the last film. Now I knew I was moving into Bond blockbuster territory and we are getting into the more silly aspects of Bond, with all of the crazy gadgets and even more rampant womanizing. Let's just get this out of the way now. The misogyny in this movie is at an all time high. Bond uses a woman as a human shield (I let that one slide since she was a bad guy), but then slaps a woman on the ass and says "Man talk", and then he turns a lesbian (though never stated as such but in the novel she was) by forcing a kiss on her. Not to mention the opening titles being scantly dressed gold painted women and the all blonde sexy female (probably all single too) airplane team. The general idea here was "Appeal to the bigger audience with more hot women!" Boy weren't the 60's fun to be a woman?!

The film opens with Bond seemingly enjoying a holiday but we are quickly introduced to Auric Goldfinger (great name), who may be one of my new favorite Bond villains. We learn right away that Auric is a man who doesn't like to lose and his evil scheme might be one of the best thought plans, though not the smartest executed. Auric is not a stupid Bond villain. I love the conversations and back and forth quips he has with Bond. He doesn't have that cheesy Bond moment where he tells his whole plan instead of killing him when he has the chance, although he does let him live in the laser situation but it's not to tell him his plan. He actually is very dismissive of Bond and they make him releasing Bond actually believable. He has an imposing bodyguard in Oddjob (the best character in Goldeneye for Nintendo 64) and his silence makes him even more menacing.

Auric's plan is to irradiate the US gold supply in Fort Knox in order to raise the value of his own large gold supply. Fairly genius if you ask me, it makes sense and could actually work. If only the execution was at all possible. I'll throw out the suspension of disbelief to a point. I'd accept them getting into Fort Knox almost any other way, even drilling underground I would have approved of. Flying planes around the area and nearby military base spraying an invisible knockout gas is probably at the bottom of my list of rejected plans. Watching everyone fall down (or in some extras' cases slowly lowering yourself down) immediately after the planes fly by is just ridiculous looking, even if it does just turn out to be a ruse. Everything that takes place after blowing the gate however I'm fine with.

The increased budget and production quality shines through in this film, and just the structure of the plot is better by design. There are way more location shoots this time around versus just using sets and just makes everything look way better. The opening espionage scene stands out and is, out of these first three movies, one of the better examples of Bond just doing spy stuff. Now I've made it clear that I'm not the biggest fan of the gadgetry in this series, and the car in particular is a little excessive in this film, but over all I was fine with everything they introduced. It was our first time getting James going down to Q's lab and getting his equipment run down. These were always fun scenes and even this first time was a great scene. All of the non-car gadgets get used to great effect, but I do have complaints that all of the car gadgets were used in one chase scene and then the car is quickly dispatched. I would have liked to have seen those get spread out a little more through the film because in rapid succession it just seems even more wacky. One thing about the car chase though is how real everything appeared. The stunts looked legitimately dangerous and convincing. Some of the extras diving out of the way even looked like accidents. We even get a car exploding (our second big explosion of the film) which just screams "Blockbuster's need more explosions!" Which raises the question, if they could afford to blow stuff up then why couldn't they afford some better green screens because some of the ones in the beginning at the hotel (why didn't they just shoot all of that on location?) are some of the worst green screens I've ever seen. On the other hand the laser scene actually still looks really good and that scene is tense even today. The famous "Do you expect me to talk?" banter, something I've seen parodied so many times, I expected to be extremely cheesy but actually that entire scene was great and everything just felt so honest. Very interesting to go back to something I know from pop culture and find it just as enjoyable as audiences probably did when it originally came out.

The Bond girls in this film are surprisingly completely inconsequential. Two of them are dispatched very quickly and contribute little to nothing to the advancement of the plot. However we do have one of the more iconic Bond girls, Pussy Galore. I'll never be able to get over that name. Pussy (really?!) is a pretty great character but she comes so late into the movie and honestly doesn't have a lot of screen time. I feel like more time to flesh her out would have been better. Her flip from loving (again more stated in the book) women to loving Bond feels very unearned and is just kind of rapey on Bond's part. Pussy (seriously guys) ends up being a redeemed and saving the day, which is great, but I just wanted more of her in the movie.

Now Auric is smart to a degree for most evil super villains. He never tells Bond his plan outright, he actually has a conceivable plan to begin with, but he does bring Bond along for the ride which instead he should have just left him in jail at his American base. Even Bond's allies make some questionable decisions. For instance they give him a tracking device in case of an emergency they can pinpoint his location, but then when he activates it they literally ignore it and assume that everything is fine and take the wait and see approach. All of this left me just shaking my head. They don't find anything wrong with James hopping oceans to America, but once he's being tracked just driving down a highway, well now it's time to figure out what he's doing.

It might sound like I'm picking this film apart but the truth is that I loved it. Goldfinger is known as THE Bond film and I don't think it's the best (Casino Royale) but if someone asked me which of the old Bond films would be the one to point out as a reference point then I would say Goldfinger. While it has a lot of just odd an silly moments, it has great production (I mean come on guys, Goldfingers rotating pool table and models alone) and is some of the most entertaining action of the Connery Bond films. So far two out of three have been just incredibly enjoyable to me and I'll give Goldfinger a four out of five star rating.

Journey Through the History of James Bond. 007 Journals.

My history with James Bond is a scattered one. I grew up in the Brosnan era and therefore he was my favorite Bond. That is until Casino Royale came out. I have seen every Bond from Brosnan to Skyfall but the earlier films escaped me for a long time. I had never seen a Sean Connery Bond film, seen bits and pieces of random Roger Moore films, and never saw either of the Timothy Dalton movies. Now I love James Bond. I've watched the Craig movies multiple times and same with the Brosnan ones but I felt it was time to rectify the gaping whole in my Bond knowledge.

So I started listening to a podcast that I am happy to plug, from the Nerdist network, James Bonding. It's a great podcast hosted by comedians with other film and comedian guests, and they watch all of the Bond films and talk about them. It's a great and fun listen where you can get some interesting thoughts on the films and some crazy trivia. For instance, I didn't know some of the movies had alternate theme songs that weren't in the films. Fascinating stuff. 

I became hooked on James Bonding and I decided to take matters into my own hands. I decided to watch all of the Bond films in order and write about my experience from the point of view of a twenty six year old watching them in 2015. So consider this the introduction to what I am calling my 007 Journals. I thought about taking an alternating order like James Bonding does but if I'm going to do this I want to do it right so I'm going from the first to the last. Hopefully I will finish up Skyfall before Spectre comes out and end the year on the newest one. So I hope you enjoy, I'm sure a lot of people won't agree with everything I have to say about these beloved films but hopefully some can agree and partake in the conversations as well.