Quantum of Solace: 007 goes art house

[Drew]

Vesper was definitely a major sticking point for me with QoS. I'd have prefered it if they'd left it at "Why would I need more time? Job's done, the bitch is dead." Instead they made her into some kind of super Bond girl, who they wouldnt shut up about for the whole movie. They didnt even do this when Bond's wife was gunned down at the end of On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

[bandbfan]

Lol they didn't do much of anything with OHMSS. Kind of the black sheep that is never talked about. Although I think they did mentioned that Bond had been married once in one of the other movies. Whichever movie was after OHMSS, I can't remember at the moment, pretty much ignored it completely.

I do think that Vesper was referred to too much.

I saw a commercial for QOS, and thought it was funny because Fields was shown several times, actually I don't think the other girl was shown at all, which is funny

And I actually take back what I said before about Craig's Bond being complete now. Bond 23 is supposed to be the last of a trilogy.

[Drew]

they showed Bond go after her killers pre-intro in Diamonds are Forever. And she was mentioned in The Spy Who Loved Me by the Bond girl of the film, the Russian agent when summing up his bio. And these were the perfect mentions, short & brief.

[bandbfan]

He went after Blofeld in DAF but I don't really think it was explicitly because he killed Bond's wife. I think they wanted that to be implied, but there wasn't a mention of it. You'd think even Moneypenny would've said something sympathetic. That weird manish woman was the actual one that killed Bond's wife and they never mentioned her again. I also thought the beginning of DAF was more to set up the fact that they were trying to make a copy of Blofeld...which they eventually did. They also didn't explain how Blofeld got a full head of hair, lol. (Although in the first movies he had hair, then he didn't for a few, then he had it again). Overall the continuity in general is a little fuzzy through the series.

[Cat]

OHMSS is actually one of my favorite Bond films (with a great ski chase scene). And Diana Rigg is probably my fave Bond girl (as was Eva Green who played Vesper. However, George Lazenby, who replaced Sean Connery in the role for that film, got a bit arrogant and was detested by the producers. Big Sean was probably a tough act to follow, too. I suspect the lack of mention of Bond's marriage may have as much to do with backstage politics as with the perception that Bond gets over womens' deaths pretty quickly.

As for Quantum of Sausage, it should have been an epilogue extra on the Casino Royale DVD. The action sequences were breath-taking and yet strangely forgettable. I felt that the producers were trying to shy away from elements of the Bond formula in a bid to placate their theatre-trained leading man and art-house director (who has gone on record saying he will not be doing the next film). For a start, the Bond villain was exceedingly meh. You cannot have a good Bond film without a worthy villain. Secondly, I know they are trying to move away from the Roger Moore/Pierce Brosnan school of campy puns, but a joke or throwaway line would not have gone amiss here or there.

I am looking forward to the next film, though. Curious to see where Daniel Craig's Bond will go from here.

[bandbfan]

It's one of my favorites as well. Who knows what would've happen if GL had stuck around. They had him for a six or seven film contract. I think he was the actual one who decided to not go forward. But you never know if the producers would've replaced him anyway. There are so many theories/rumors surrounding him that it's hard to know what's real.

I'm not sure that it'll be that much different since the next movie is supposed to wrap up this "trilogy." Yet CR and QAS were so different, it's hard to know what direction the next film will take.