363 replies to this topic

[RMc2]

I am going to be nice and leave my vote for Casino Royale but Skyfall was amazing.

 

Agreed! SkyFall was amazing but for me, it's Martin Campbell's style and the very Flemingesque tone to Casino Royale that makes it my favourite. 

 

And probably nostalgia (is it too early for that?).

[Hansen]

Fully agree, except for the "amazing" aspect of Skyfall

[ViperSRT87]

Skyfall for me, but CR is incredible as well. 

[Agent 76]

Hands down, it has to be Skyfall.

 

 

 

ps: I've watched it a few times, one with the commentary of Sam Mendes, which is really interesting. 

[trevanian]

QUANTUM, despite Craig and the ADD cutting, at least is enjoyable and vaguely Bondlike. I despise SKYFALL and CR and still wonder what they put in people's popcorn to get them to sing their praises. 

[Major Tallon]

Sorry, Trevanian, but I've got to disagree.  "Skyfall's" good, but CR is a phenomenal James Bond movie.  Bond's tough, but with a tender side, and the story, though updated and modernized to draw in the modern audience, follows the lines of Fleming's original.  There are some who dislike the sinking house scene, but it's pretty well done, and they needed a big action sequence to end the movie on.  In today's market, they couldn't really end the story with Fleming's original sequence.  We purists can regret what we'd like to have been, but EON is a money-making business, and they've got to be mindful of what the audience wants.  CR is certainly closer in spirit to Fleming than many of the movies that preceded it.  It is, in my considered opinion, one of the best Bond films ever made.

 

Oh, and I don't eat movie popcorn.

[Hansen]

Sorry, Trevanian, but I've got to disagree.  "Skyfall's" good, but CR is a phenomenal James Bond movie.  Bond's tough, but with a tender side, and the story, though updated and modernized to draw in the modern audience, follows the lines of Fleming's original.  There are some who dislike the sinking house scene, but it's pretty well done, and they needed a big action sequence to end the movie on.  In today's market, they couldn't really end the story with Fleming's original sequence.  We purists can regret what we'd like to have been, but EON is a money-making business, and they've got to be mindful of what the audience wants.  CR is certainly closer in spirit to Fleming than many of the movies that preceded it.  It is, in my considered opinion, one of the best Bond films ever made.

 

Oh, and I don't eat movie popcorn.

Can't say better... Except for ""Skyfall's" good" 

[Agent 76]

CR is certainly closer in spirit to Fleming than many of the movies that preceded it.  It is, in my considered opinion, one of the best Bond films ever made.

 

 

wise words my friend, wise words.

[trevanian]

Sorry, Trevanian, but I've got to disagree.  "Skyfall's" good, but CR is a phenomenal James Bond movie.  Bond's tough, but with a tender side, and the story, though updated and modernized to draw in the modern audience, follows the lines of Fleming's original.  There are some who dislike the sinking house scene, but it's pretty well done, and they needed a big action sequence to end the movie on.  In today's market, they couldn't really end the story with Fleming's original sequence.  We purists can regret what we'd like to have been, but EON is a money-making business, and they've got to be mindful of what the audience wants.  CR is certainly closer in spirit to Fleming than many of the movies that preceded it.  It is, in my considered opinion, one of the best Bond films ever made.

 

Oh, and I don't eat movie popcorn.

I agree about CR needing more of an ending than Fleming supplied, quite strongly in fact. Back in the 70s after I'd made a really long Bond parody, my highschool friends and I spent awhile trying to figure out how to do CR, and I remember coming up with a showdown between Bond and the craggy faced guy who takes out LeChiffre. Probably was inspired by the Pearson book in that regard.

 

When the idea of CR was kicked around before Craig was cast, i came up with a huge third act that would be going down during Bond's recuperation, where you have LeChiffre's group invading VI and then a semi-intact Bond having to aid special branch & MI5 to retake the place, discovering Vesper's part in things while doing this.

 

No, my problems with CR, aside from Craig, have to do with plot cred and characterization. Rather than trot out the 5000 word essay, I'd just say that the 'killing people to get their cellphone info' approach to advancing story points was not something I could even begin to suspend disbelief about, given that these are supposed to be professionals who can actually memorize numbers and keep them in their head like covert types have always done. Also, that this Bond, while coming off as immature and bratty at times (Bond at 15 maybe, not 35-40), also seemed to be much more comfortable with cold-blooded kills than hot-blooded ones, which is WAY off the mark. Yeah, he can do the cold-blooded kills, but would he be messed up after a hot-blooded one? Nuh-uhh.

[jmarks4life]

Tough choice , but I choose Skyfall. I enjoyed seeing the human side of Bond, but I love Casino Royale and QOS too

[Bond31]

Skyfall for me but CR and SF are my top 2 Bond films both reshaped and bought Bond back after years of campiness and been overshadowed by CGI.

QUANTUM, despite Craig and the ADD cutting, at least is enjoyable and vaguely Bondlike. I despise SKYFALL and CR and still wonder what they put in people's popcorn to get them to sing their praises. 

Cause maybe your taste sucks.

[WhatMeWorry?]

Definately Skyfall. I thought Skyfall was Craig's only Bond film to date. I vaugely remember Craig in two Jason Bourne movies called Casino Royale and Quantum something.

[SecretAgentFan]

Can´t choose. They are all top-notch, with strenghs and weaknesses.

[Rik]

Casino Royale was simply superb. I was very pleased to see it stay as faithful to the novel as possible. I wasn't sure with the time difference how this would work but it worked very well in my view.

 

Quantom of Solace has a good script and performances. My problem with it is the editing. I found it makes the action sequences almost unwatchable in places.

 

Skyfall can only be described with one word..... Tremendous.

[S K Y F A L L]

I voted SF. Why not its my CBn id name after all. 

[Professor Pi]

1 -- Casino Royale.  Craig's performance seals the deal on his casting.  Martin Campbell, Judi Dench, and David Arnold all seem rejuvenated by the new direction. EON sandwiched Fleming source material with movie friendly action set pieces.  The Miami airport scenes modernizes Bond to topical issues of the times, and even the climactic house collapse can serve as a symbol that Bond can never settle down into domesticity.  The film's explanation of Vesper's motives could have been benefited from a clearer exposition, but the tragic ending is non-traditional yet the movie still ends on an uptick as Bond accepts his calling.

 

2 -- Skyfall.  Supremely acted and directed with great cinematography.  Excepting the DB5's existence, anniversary references are subtly placed to not detract from the story (*cough* Die Another Day *cough*.)  There are some plot holes (Silva's willing capture and subsequent escape), questionable decisions (Bond taking M to the least safe 'safe' house in the UK!), and how Bond recovers from the opening PTS is unanswered.  But the development of characters--Bond, M, Mallory, Eve, and Q--use of light and dark, and metaphorically cinematic way to advance the story triumphs concerns over unoriginal parts of the script (remaking both GE's former 00 villain seeking vengeance and TWINE's attack on MI6 and subsequent relocation.)  Plus the best titles sequence.  Plays as more of a sequel to CR than the preceding film.

 

3 -- Quantum of Solace.  A different take on the usual Bond, being the grittiest and darkest of the series, even more so than Bond's other vengeance film, LTK.  Camille is the strongest, most independent character of this Bond's female companions.  The action pieces mirroring the four elements--earth, water, air, and fire--tie in nicely with the environmental motif of the film.  Hampered by a poor editing style and the writer's strike, the film leaves too many loose ends as to the fate of Mr. White, Guy Haines, and Quantum.  With a great score, but tonally deaf title song, the film could have benefited from another year of development.  Though more comfortable in Skyfall, Craig nuances more subtext in this performance.

 

Still, this triad of films is the most solid start to a Bond actor's canon since Connery.

Edited by Professor Pi, 07 July 2013 - 06:22 PM.

[showjumper007]

1, Casino royale

2, Skyfall

3,Quantum of solace 

[Belmont]

Shortly after its release, Skyfall was an easy favorite. Half a year later, I still enjoy the film, but a few of its charms no longer really endear themselves as they once did.

 

These days, back to Casino Royale as my number one favorite of the DC era thus far! I pretty much love everything about it, save for the overlong airport chase.

[mrevans]

1-- Casino Royale  -- still love it just as much as I did when I first saw it in the theater.  I can still find very little fault in it.  Probably my favorite of the series

 

2-- Skyfall -- after seeing it I thought it might be the best in spite of some things that bothered me at the time.  As I've watched it on Blu-ray sense, I have to say its not as great as I first thought.  Many elements from the casino sequence in China stand out as weak or ill conceived and just stands out as an obvious weak patch in a great film for me.

 

3-- Quantum of Solace --IMO Its not awful or anything.  Just my least favorite of the series.  It's too artsy and pretentious for its own good.  Editing is distracting.  Don't get me started on the opera scene.  I literally dozed off or zoned out the first couple times I watched it.  Has good things going for it.  I like the basic story though I strongly believe CR did not need a sequel.  I was surprised when I realized it was a sequel.  At the end of CR I assumed Bond had got his man and that was that.  Skip this one and the only thing lacking is development in the Bond/M relationship.

[FlemingBond]

I've been weighing this the past few months and I've finally decided Casino Royale. It's just the most original, and one of the best of the series overall.

[dtuba]

CR for me, I think despite it being a reboot, it contains a bit more of the traditional James Bond elements than SF, and it was the movie that renewed my interest in the series after the Brosnan era ( a low point for me.) 

 

SF is a very good film as well. QOS, although hardly the best, is far from being the worst. There's lots to love there - Craig's performance, Arnold's score, Jack White's half of the theme song, and some beautiful cinematography and set design (that is, if your eyes can perceive it for more than a half-second, the editing was awful).

Edited by dtuba, 15 August 2013 - 10:20 PM.

[JSDude1]

Skyfall,

 

It is the best of the Craig era so far.

 

I would say that at first I didn't like Casino Royale, but it has aged well and grown on me (of course I actually liked PB as James Bond, except for DAD),  and I did not like QOS.

[saint mark]

Missed the option: the next one or have yet to be impressed.

[freemo]

1 - Casino Royale

2 - Quantum of Solace

3 - Skyfall

[Mr. Arlington Beech]

Definately Skyfall. I thought Skyfall was Craig's only Bond film to date. I vaugely remember Craig in two Jason Bourne movies called Casino Royale and Quantum something.

Right….. Because in Jason Bourne world (just like in CR) you usually see fancy Casinos and paradisiacal spas, and there are a lot of dialogs full of sarcasms and black humor, among other things…. Right??!!!

P.S. Regarding QOS, maybe you’re right at some extent.

[Orion]

I go back and forward between Casino Royale and Skyfall, loving both movies equally for the same reason (the highly traditional mixed with the ultra modern that both fims go for works brilliantly) but both are so different in their executions of that style that it's difficult to compare the two.

[Call Billy Bob]

Skyfall has the recency factor working strongly for its case... but Casino Royale was the perfect introduction to Dan's Bond (or any Bond, for my money). Gotta go with it.

[Iceskater101]

I go back and forward between Casino Royale and Skyfall, loving both movies equally for the same reason (the highly traditional mixed with the ultra modern that both fims go for works brilliantly) but both are so different in their executions of that style that it's difficult to compare the two.

 

Same.. these two are easily really good for me. 

[agentbug]

Without a shadow of a doubt, for me, it's Casino Royale. Triumphant on every level with clever touches, some originality and it blew the Daniel Craig naysayers out of the water.

 

QoS was a let-down initially, and remains so down to the unfinished script which was due to the writers strike. The producers should have waited, but the promise of money was always going to win out. Ho hum.

 

Skyfall. I think this is destined to be one of the most debated Bond films. It is very, very good, solid, highly polished and very well edited. And hell, the script is good too. And yet, when I first watched it, I was disappointed. I remember thinking, what that needed was a tank chase... and I said to a friend, I hope these films don't move any further away from, say, the Brosnan Bond films... any further away and it becomes something else.

 

I mean, Brosnan had the tank chase, a remote-controlled car, the Thames speedboat chase, then a car chase on ice... Daniel Craig has the excellent opening to CR, admittedly, a good opening to Skyfall... but where's the Bondness? There needs to be some over-the-top-ness. Sorry, gone way off topic now... lol.

[Trip_Aces]

Skyfall, definitely. I feel DC's performance in this particular film is firing on all cylinders - from his physicality to line deliveries, everything is on point.