The Sweenester's Review (Revised)
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The Sweeney
- 003
- Posts: 3389
- Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm
- Favorite Bond Movie: OHMSS, GF, LTK, CR, FRWL
- Favorite Movies: Bullitt, The Long Good Friday, The Towering Inferno, Jaws, Rocky, Superman the Movie, McVicar, Goodfellas, Get Carter, Three Days of the Condor, Butch & Sundance, The Sting, All the Presidents Men
- Location: Underneath a Mango Tree....
Re: The Sweenester's Review 1/10 (just kidding!)
I've just returned from a third viewing of QoS, and the faults have started to become more apparent this time round. I know exactly where the faults lie too.
1) We don't see enough of normal life situations inbetween the action set-pieces. In CR, Bond was human. We could imagine Bond eating and drinking. In this, he doesn't have time, and doesn't need food to refuel. It's like he's running on Duracell batteries. QoS was lacking down time, extra padding, normal life situations inbetween. It needed the audience to catch its breath again and relax before the next action peak.
2) Bond was human in CR. We saw Bond get hurt. We saw Bond hesitate before jumping off cranes, we saw him nervous before being tortured - hell we even saw him recovering in hospital. In QoS, for some reason this element has been removed. We (the audience) no longer fear that Bond is in danger, as he has reverted back to the super human Brosnan ways again. There was one shot in QoS, when Craig is at the wheels of the plane, with bullets flying all around him, and he looks like he is gasping to catch his breath, that he is struggling. Sadly, this was a fleeting moment. We needed more of that kind of look, the danger element, that Bond could get hurt. Something for the audience to have empathy with. Will he make it or won't he, etc. CR delivered this in spades. After the freefall scene, we needed a couple of minutes showing Bond and Camille recovering, crawling along the ground, checking to see if anything is broken, tending to each other, etc. Instead, the next shot they are both fine and healthy and walking as though nothing has happened.
3) The Dan Bradley action sequences. I personally don't have a problem with them, and think they were the highlight of QoS, but I appreciate this kind of style, confusion, shaky cam, fast editing, will lose the audiences, if the other parts of the glue is not strong enough in holding it all together.
QoS on third viewing has been a bit of a disappointment now for me. I have started to see the flaws in the movie, and understand now why so many critics have ganged up on this one. Someone should have told Forster to watch CR again to make him realise why that film was so successful - and it was because of point 2 above. Bond was human. In QoS, he wasn't.
Still delivers entertainment on a purely basic action level, and still has its brilliant moments throughout, but lacks the realistic, human side which was so strong in CR.
8/10 (mainly because Craig still delivers in it, even if other parts are sadly lacking).
1) We don't see enough of normal life situations inbetween the action set-pieces. In CR, Bond was human. We could imagine Bond eating and drinking. In this, he doesn't have time, and doesn't need food to refuel. It's like he's running on Duracell batteries. QoS was lacking down time, extra padding, normal life situations inbetween. It needed the audience to catch its breath again and relax before the next action peak.
2) Bond was human in CR. We saw Bond get hurt. We saw Bond hesitate before jumping off cranes, we saw him nervous before being tortured - hell we even saw him recovering in hospital. In QoS, for some reason this element has been removed. We (the audience) no longer fear that Bond is in danger, as he has reverted back to the super human Brosnan ways again. There was one shot in QoS, when Craig is at the wheels of the plane, with bullets flying all around him, and he looks like he is gasping to catch his breath, that he is struggling. Sadly, this was a fleeting moment. We needed more of that kind of look, the danger element, that Bond could get hurt. Something for the audience to have empathy with. Will he make it or won't he, etc. CR delivered this in spades. After the freefall scene, we needed a couple of minutes showing Bond and Camille recovering, crawling along the ground, checking to see if anything is broken, tending to each other, etc. Instead, the next shot they are both fine and healthy and walking as though nothing has happened.
3) The Dan Bradley action sequences. I personally don't have a problem with them, and think they were the highlight of QoS, but I appreciate this kind of style, confusion, shaky cam, fast editing, will lose the audiences, if the other parts of the glue is not strong enough in holding it all together.
QoS on third viewing has been a bit of a disappointment now for me. I have started to see the flaws in the movie, and understand now why so many critics have ganged up on this one. Someone should have told Forster to watch CR again to make him realise why that film was so successful - and it was because of point 2 above. Bond was human. In QoS, he wasn't.
Still delivers entertainment on a purely basic action level, and still has its brilliant moments throughout, but lacks the realistic, human side which was so strong in CR.
8/10 (mainly because Craig still delivers in it, even if other parts are sadly lacking).
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katied
Re: The Sweenester's Review 1/10 (just kidding!)
That's true.I mean,he gets a bit busted up and all it is a band aid here and there and it's alright,as if it never happened.2) Bond was human in CR. We saw Bond get hurt. We saw Bond hesitate before jumping off cranes, we saw him nervous before being tortured - hell we even saw him recovering in hospital. In QoS, for some reason this element has been removed. We (the audience) no longer fear that Bond is in danger, as he has reverted back to the super human Brosnan ways again. There was one shot in QoS, when Craig is at the wheels of the plane, with bullets flying all around him, and he looks like he is gasping to catch his breath, that he is struggling. Sadly, this was a fleeting moment. We needed more of that kind of look, the danger element, that Bond could get hurt. Something for the audience to have empathy with. Will he make it or won't he, etc. CR delivered this in spades. After the freefall scene, we needed a couple of minutes showing Bond and Camille recovering, crawling along the ground, checking to see if anything is broken, tending to each other, etc. Instead, the next shot they are both fine and healthy and walking as though nothing has happened