For anyone who's seen the film (or doesn't care about having the plot spoiled for then), let's discuss the film on here, free to you about anything that happened including the ending.
Overall, I liked it, thought it was a very decent entry in the series and a good way for Craig to sign off. He's been a terrific Bond even when a couple of the films haven't been all that good. I thought the story was genuinely exciting, the action was a bit more low-key than you might expect but I liked that, not every blockbuster film needs to be Marvel or Fast and Furious.
Opening sequence: good stuff, handles the "links to the past" thing they're doing a lot better than Spectre did. I liked the way they tied it back to Lazenby and OHMSS. (And for proper Bond nerds, later they tied it back to Dalton with the 80s Aston which I liked, Craig is the true successor to him)
Bond theme: thought it was fine, certainly better than that Sam Smith dirge and the shambles they had for Quantum of Solace. Not a top Bond theme, and not the best of the Craig era (that's Chris Cornell), but did the job.
New characters: Lashana Lynch was good as another Double O agent who actually gets through a film instead of being killed off before the story gets going. Could perhaps have given her more to do but this was Bond's story. Ana de Armas was terrific as the CIA agent, slightly disappointed that they didn't bring her back for the final mission but it would have been a bit crowded if they had.
Villain: a bit meh, I thought. I like Rami Malek and he didn't do anything wrong, he was just a bit humdrum. Just your run of the mill psycho with a weapon of mass destruction and an island lair, didn't stand out like Silva or Le Chiffre. Obviously miles better than that wet fart from QoS or the mess they made of Blofeld in Spectre (although Blofeld was better here however briefly).
Killing off key characters: sorry to see Felix Leiter go, he's been a mainstay of Bond since the Connery days. I actually think it was a mistake. They obviously wanted to give Bond as much personal stakes and emotional resonance but there was already plenty of that. As for Bond himself, wow. It sort of makes sense at the end of Craig's tenure to give the character a proper send off and it worked well within the film. Perhaps it would have been too much of a shiny happy ending for him to just sail off into the sunset with Madeline and his new daughter. Cracking end to a great final mission on the island as well. But some people will no doubt hate it.
Speaking of his daughter, it was fine to introduce that to the story and it was well done and everything, but it caused a HUUUUUUUUGE plot hole. MI6 have supposedly been keeping an eye on her all this time in case she works for Spectre but they didn't notice her going off and having a baby, or do the maths and put two and two together about who the father is. Where the fuck was Madeline hiding her all that time?
The obvious question after that is what next for Bond. It says in the credits James Bond will return, because of course he will. They're not going to just drop a character who is the centre of the longest running franchise in film.
Two main possibilities as I see it. Firstly they could carry on, and have a new recruit to the Double 0 section who takes the name James Bond and 007 designation. Maybe in these days of social media accounts they need to give whole new identities to agents. Or they just reboot again. Craig became a Double 0 at the start of Casino so they left behind all the previous stories. Moore and Dalton were both reboots, less so Brosnan. The advantage of fully rebooting is you could get Leiter back, the advantage of carrying on with a new recruit is you can keep the existing characters like Nomi, Moneypenny etc. Or they could just keep them on and reboot like they did with Judi Dench.
My preference would be a.younger Bond this time, it wouldn't make sense to have an older Bond like Elba or Hardy when you're starting again from scratch. So my picks would be either Nicholas Hoult or Sope Dirisu. And to be more of a spy action thriller and less of an attempt to be a superhero film with insane stunts. Mission Impossible does that perfectly well already. And carry on with the idea of other Double 0 agents in the team.
Overall, I liked it, thought it was a very decent entry in the series and a good way for Craig to sign off. He's been a terrific Bond even when a couple of the films haven't been all that good. I thought the story was genuinely exciting, the action was a bit more low-key than you might expect but I liked that, not every blockbuster film needs to be Marvel or Fast and Furious.
Opening sequence: good stuff, handles the "links to the past" thing they're doing a lot better than Spectre did. I liked the way they tied it back to Lazenby and OHMSS. (And for proper Bond nerds, later they tied it back to Dalton with the 80s Aston which I liked, Craig is the true successor to him)
Bond theme: thought it was fine, certainly better than that Sam Smith dirge and the shambles they had for Quantum of Solace. Not a top Bond theme, and not the best of the Craig era (that's Chris Cornell), but did the job.
New characters: Lashana Lynch was good as another Double O agent who actually gets through a film instead of being killed off before the story gets going. Could perhaps have given her more to do but this was Bond's story. Ana de Armas was terrific as the CIA agent, slightly disappointed that they didn't bring her back for the final mission but it would have been a bit crowded if they had.
Villain: a bit meh, I thought. I like Rami Malek and he didn't do anything wrong, he was just a bit humdrum. Just your run of the mill psycho with a weapon of mass destruction and an island lair, didn't stand out like Silva or Le Chiffre. Obviously miles better than that wet fart from QoS or the mess they made of Blofeld in Spectre (although Blofeld was better here however briefly).
Killing off key characters: sorry to see Felix Leiter go, he's been a mainstay of Bond since the Connery days. I actually think it was a mistake. They obviously wanted to give Bond as much personal stakes and emotional resonance but there was already plenty of that. As for Bond himself, wow. It sort of makes sense at the end of Craig's tenure to give the character a proper send off and it worked well within the film. Perhaps it would have been too much of a shiny happy ending for him to just sail off into the sunset with Madeline and his new daughter. Cracking end to a great final mission on the island as well. But some people will no doubt hate it.
Speaking of his daughter, it was fine to introduce that to the story and it was well done and everything, but it caused a HUUUUUUUUGE plot hole. MI6 have supposedly been keeping an eye on her all this time in case she works for Spectre but they didn't notice her going off and having a baby, or do the maths and put two and two together about who the father is. Where the fuck was Madeline hiding her all that time?
The obvious question after that is what next for Bond. It says in the credits James Bond will return, because of course he will. They're not going to just drop a character who is the centre of the longest running franchise in film.
Two main possibilities as I see it. Firstly they could carry on, and have a new recruit to the Double 0 section who takes the name James Bond and 007 designation. Maybe in these days of social media accounts they need to give whole new identities to agents. Or they just reboot again. Craig became a Double 0 at the start of Casino so they left behind all the previous stories. Moore and Dalton were both reboots, less so Brosnan. The advantage of fully rebooting is you could get Leiter back, the advantage of carrying on with a new recruit is you can keep the existing characters like Nomi, Moneypenny etc. Or they could just keep them on and reboot like they did with Judi Dench.
My preference would be a.younger Bond this time, it wouldn't make sense to have an older Bond like Elba or Hardy when you're starting again from scratch. So my picks would be either Nicholas Hoult or Sope Dirisu. And to be more of a spy action thriller and less of an attempt to be a superhero film with insane stunts. Mission Impossible does that perfectly well already. And carry on with the idea of other Double 0 agents in the team.
Last edited: