Quantum of Solace--Bond. James Bond.
Mar. 30th, 2009 11:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gategrrlNo spoilers here. I finally saw this movie this weekend. I really didn't intend on watching it, but I walked through the living room and got hooked during the opening car chase. The car chase was confusing as hell, but I stuck with it and was rewarded mightily with a strong entry into the troubled Bond movie franchise.
What did I like about it? Aside from the fact that Daniel Craig as Bond is made of utter awesomeness, I'll tell you.
I liked that in this Bond flick, Bond does not come across as a misogynist. His chief motivation through this entire movie are his feelings for a woman spy he met and fell in with love in the first movie. His feelings are complex about her, but no matter *what* he thinks her motivations were, she still deserves retribution. (I haven't watched the first movie yet, but I'm planning on it)
There is a spy girl whom he falls into bed with (it's a necessary part of the franchise, I guess) BUT she's quirky, she's smart, she is no butterfly. It's with shock that later you find out she wasn't a field agent at all-she was a desk jockey, according to M. And Bond *makes a point* to M to note that spy girl ... well, the new filmmakers in charge of Bond are making sure that he acknowledges the women in his field as equally brave and taking equal risks as him.
And then there's M. There's a throw-away remark that you could almost miss where Bond comments about an attempt being made on a colleague's life, he's not going to let that pass. Even if, at the moment, M has to follow her orders and do what she has to do. But in her own way, she backs him, and trusts him. Even if she kind of sort of takes his "mother" role, they both know better. The two actors were able to get across that these two very pragmatic individuals are coworkers, boss and subordinate, but that there's also something else going on under the surface. She may not act like his mother, and certainly doesn't act like a mother hen or do anything of the sort--she trusts that he'll get in and out of his own tight spaces--she does *care*. They walk a fine line and it works.
Then there's the girl who Bond does NOT sleep with. She's got her own motivations that he doesn't discover the details of until later on in the movie. Never does he pooh-pooh her. Never does he think she can't handle herself. Never does he tell her what she can and can't do--if anything, he gives her advice on what might happen, how she might feel, and how to deal with a situation should it happen. He helps her do what she has to do if it doesn't interfere with is own revenge and mission. And, when she freezes in terror at the end, you know *why* and it makes sense, and doesn't make her any less than what she is.
Yeah, I really love this Bond.
The stunts were great, Craig has a real physicality that makes you believe that he could really do what he does. There is something of a Die Hard syndrome going on, though, where if you had the time to actually THINK about what's happened to Bond, he would have been in a hospital after the first car chase. But this is Bond. I wouldn't call him a sociopath. He does have feelings. He hides them, and he does his job, and from the movie, I get the feeling that this incarnation of Bond takes on the dangerous stunts and fights because they distract him from his inner life so he doesn't have to think about it. He is ruthless--if his own people are getting in his way, well, he'll hurt them. He cares for a former enemy who decides to trust him, and stays with him until the end. THAT is not a sociopath. And he has a sense of justice and he WILL fulfill that whatever it takes.
Oh yes. I can finally love Bond again. I'm going to think of the original Bond as a parallel universe Bond. They're both great. But this Bond? They've remade him into something more than he was in earlier movies.
What did I like about it? Aside from the fact that Daniel Craig as Bond is made of utter awesomeness, I'll tell you.
I liked that in this Bond flick, Bond does not come across as a misogynist. His chief motivation through this entire movie are his feelings for a woman spy he met and fell in with love in the first movie. His feelings are complex about her, but no matter *what* he thinks her motivations were, she still deserves retribution. (I haven't watched the first movie yet, but I'm planning on it)
There is a spy girl whom he falls into bed with (it's a necessary part of the franchise, I guess) BUT she's quirky, she's smart, she is no butterfly. It's with shock that later you find out she wasn't a field agent at all-she was a desk jockey, according to M. And Bond *makes a point* to M to note that spy girl ... well, the new filmmakers in charge of Bond are making sure that he acknowledges the women in his field as equally brave and taking equal risks as him.
And then there's M. There's a throw-away remark that you could almost miss where Bond comments about an attempt being made on a colleague's life, he's not going to let that pass. Even if, at the moment, M has to follow her orders and do what she has to do. But in her own way, she backs him, and trusts him. Even if she kind of sort of takes his "mother" role, they both know better. The two actors were able to get across that these two very pragmatic individuals are coworkers, boss and subordinate, but that there's also something else going on under the surface. She may not act like his mother, and certainly doesn't act like a mother hen or do anything of the sort--she trusts that he'll get in and out of his own tight spaces--she does *care*. They walk a fine line and it works.
Then there's the girl who Bond does NOT sleep with. She's got her own motivations that he doesn't discover the details of until later on in the movie. Never does he pooh-pooh her. Never does he think she can't handle herself. Never does he tell her what she can and can't do--if anything, he gives her advice on what might happen, how she might feel, and how to deal with a situation should it happen. He helps her do what she has to do if it doesn't interfere with is own revenge and mission. And, when she freezes in terror at the end, you know *why* and it makes sense, and doesn't make her any less than what she is.
Yeah, I really love this Bond.
The stunts were great, Craig has a real physicality that makes you believe that he could really do what he does. There is something of a Die Hard syndrome going on, though, where if you had the time to actually THINK about what's happened to Bond, he would have been in a hospital after the first car chase. But this is Bond. I wouldn't call him a sociopath. He does have feelings. He hides them, and he does his job, and from the movie, I get the feeling that this incarnation of Bond takes on the dangerous stunts and fights because they distract him from his inner life so he doesn't have to think about it. He is ruthless--if his own people are getting in his way, well, he'll hurt them. He cares for a former enemy who decides to trust him, and stays with him until the end. THAT is not a sociopath. And he has a sense of justice and he WILL fulfill that whatever it takes.
Oh yes. I can finally love Bond again. I'm going to think of the original Bond as a parallel universe Bond. They're both great. But this Bond? They've remade him into something more than he was in earlier movies.
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no subject
Date: 2009-03-30 07:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-30 08:15 pm (UTC)Starting with Casino Royale, the first Bond picture with Craig, it's like a reboot, apparently, taking the character nearly back to the beginning--not of his career, but of how he becomes what he becomes later on. It's more of a psychological evolution that plays out amid all the stunts and tech (which isn't overdone, and there is NO Q)
So in this Bond, I didn't get the sense that M dislikes Bond at all; she acknowledges that he's something of a loose cannon, and tries to leash him in but knows that's never going to work because, well, even if Bond is going for his OWN objectives, he'll always go for what's right/moral for Queen and Country, too. M likes him. Not in a "you're the son I never had" way, but in the "you're MY agent, and I KNOW you, so I'm going to TRUST that you know what you're doing".
no subject
Date: 2009-03-30 08:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-30 08:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-31 12:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-31 01:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-31 01:34 am (UTC)