Movie Review

OK, I saw it. Twice. Too much work to do otherwise I probably would have watched it a third time.

In a nutshell, I don't think they did anything wrong which was my greatest fear. It seems that the producers are treading carefully with this largest of movie franchises.

I have some minor complaints, in that the editing could be improved. A couple of scene changes happened a little fast and I missed some minor things (like a couple of shots in the opera/gun fight sequence). I'm sure it's difficult to identify how much time it takes for the audience to capture a concept when you (the editor/director) know what's coming already.

Overall, they got a lot right. It was more of a Bond film for Bond fans rather than one with more general appeal. If this were to be your first James Bond movie, I don't think you'd like it.

About Q and the gadgets: Ian Fleming didn't really write a lot of them into the books, but they were there. Interestingly enough, it was mostly the bad guys who had them. Dr. No had his torture chamber (mostly left out of the movie), and Emilio Largo had his boat the Disco Volante that turned into a hydroplane (Thunderball). One of Bond's earliest gadgets was the briefcase in From Russia With Love, but it was rather simple and straight-forward. I think the first big movie gadget was he Astin Martin in Goldfinger complete with machine guns, smoke screen and passenger eject button. The car was a movie creation, but from the book they included the lethal bowler hat that Odd Job carried. From there on we were hooked.

Ian Fleming seemed to have James Bond be the underdog, outgunned by the bad guys. It was the movie adaptations that gave him the gadgets. All the same, I love them and always looked forward to the small parts that "Q" would have. (I thought he was best in Tomorrow Never Dies.)

I hope they bring them back, but not to the extreme so that they upstage Bond himself.