QoS sucks big time, what a huge dissapointment...
KIDDING!!!!
Lets get Boune over and done with, shall we. QoS rapes and then proceeds to whipe its backside and then piss all over all 3 Bourne movies. Done.
The thing you should know about QoS is that it's a very different Bond movie. It's almost hard to compare it with others in the series but if you know your stuff about the Bond movies, the parallels can be found. QoS is a real spy thriller, the way Bond is suposed to be, harkening back to the early Connery films. It delivers. I think people are too familiar and clingy to the cheesy Brosnan era where actual spy work and gathering of intel was handled so trivially, QoS goes back to Dr.No and FRWL times. Bond is busy and actually does spy work here.
A lot of the negatie reviews dampened my otherwise bloated expectations and my question now is, did all these naysayers watch the same damn movie or did they just swith their brains off?
QoS is abundantly fantastic and that is a mega understatement. The opening car chase is is a welcome thrill ride and delivers on the octane. I love how Bond in this movie is so focused, precise, determined and knows how to be a damn spy. Once danny boy whips out his gun, it's over for the bad guys, using his bullets sparingly, he puts an end to those tail-gaters.
Mr White in the safehouse was kind of creepy. It was great to see more from this character who was for the most part of CR mute. The ensuing action between Bond and Mitchel was great and funnily enough, like others I thought the car chase and all the action with slate would be my favourite scenes but as great as they are, they weren't. Daniel Craig proves that him being the best and favoured Bondis debatable. I personally think Connery will forever be head honcho but Daniel Craig is mind numbingly brilliant.
Lack of bond theme, No jokes/quips????? Huh?!?
Did these people actually watch the film I saw? Craig was forever making some sort of retort, he just didn't have this huge cheesy smirk as he delivered them. The quips are there, people. The variations of the Bond theme was used more in this film than it was in CR.
There is this huge emphasis on QoS being an action fest. Sure, it's an action movie BUT the way people were talking, I thought it was going to be balls to the walls action or at the very least like TND BUT it's not. There are plenty of "talky" scenes and quiet moments. In fact, I'd say it was a near perfect balance of action and exposition. BTW the action is brutal, bloody and violent, the way it amn well should be.
The film itself is brilliantly crafted. Is it bigger than CR? Nope but given the context of the story and given the fact that, despite it being a sequal, it's just another movie it doesn't need to be bigger. FRWL proved this also. Is it better than CR? Again, it doesn't need to be, it just has to be a good moive BUT yes, it is. QoS imo is better than CR. CR has something that QoS lacks though and that is, CR had this magical glitter glossed all over it, whereas, QoS has this beautiful, raw and unrefined look but it works, especially when you consider the locations the movie takes us to.
Domnic Greene, a very realistic villain. He won't be memorable but I think it's going to be hard for the movies to ever recreate such memorable villains like Goldfinger, Red Grant but Greene does the job that is asked and needed of him. He's an a-hole and a good one at that. Elvis is a throw away lacky, Camille was actually deeper than I thought she'd be. I was pleasently surprised and impressed with Olga's performance. Field's was underused but again, she served her purpose well. Felix was great. Would have loved to see more of him. Beam was a douche bag, Mathis was fantastic and M was at her best. Hearing her finally say, she trusted Bond....not to his face of course put a huge smile on my face, especially when she said it just after perhaps one of the most iconic and badass scenes in Bond history. Bond being stripped of his gun, license revoked, cuffed in the elevator and escaping, using the architecture of the hotel was divine. At that moment, all I could hear in my head were Dion Warrick's lyrics to kiss kiss bang bang. "He's suave and he's smoothe..."
The tosca scene was magnificent. Bond pilfering the tux, jacking a QUANTUM agent's ear piece and leaving him in the toilet and breaking off the handle was a nice touch but the real magic was Bond listening in on what was going on and then interjecting a sardonic suggestion. The ensuing action was brilliance in every sense of the word and that music playing just made the whole scene poetic.
The story and script itself, to me was fine. If this was a rush job or poorly planned out (which it was, considering the whole writer's strike and re-writes) then kudos. QoS is a smart, complex spy thriller, emphasis on complex and spy. Just because something is complex, it doesn't mean it's incomprehedable and thus you should shut your brain off. QoS challenges you to pay attention and to not just see the actors but to actually observe them. Observe their body language, facial expressions and the tone of their voices. This is where the genius of QoS lies. The subtlty of it all.
Bond and Mathis scenes were perhaps the most important because Mathis demands Bond's attention and Bond listens. It with these moments that Bond realises he can't go around fueling his actions by his anger and hatred of what occured in CR. Sure he's doing his job but is he doing it the right way? His talks with Mathis and M make him see sense and by the end of the movie, where Bond leaves Greene to fend for himself in the middle of the damn desert with a can of oil and where Bond goes to the source of his internal problems in Russia, we see James Bond 007 the professional come full circle and triumphs over his current and immediate quest as well as his spersonal demons. James Bond is back and I couldn't be happier.
Additionally, the title sequences were great. It wasn't as good as CR's but then again, the TS for QoS reflected the theme and tone of the movie, in that it showed isolation and desert sequences.
The run time isn't an issue. It was as long as it needed to be and it sure as hell doesn't feel short at all. In fact it felt quite long.
The gunbarrel was perfect. Just like the Brosnan ones except the blood flowed down quicker and craig walked a lil' too fast.
QoS esily a 9/10
Any questions I'll be happy to answer.
Edited by double o ego, 31 October 2008 - 06:48 PM.
