Looks great. Glad to Blofeld back in a Hannibal-esque role. I was guessing that it would be a On Her Majesty's Secret Service-type fate for Madeline, but it looks like we're getting some twists. I can't wait to see what Phoebe Waller-Bridge came up with in her pass on the script.

one nice bit in the trailer: that overhead shot looking down on the trees in a winter forest, that was beautiful. Around the 1:35 mark.

The rest of it feels pretty standard for the Craig Bonds: trying a bit too hard to be serious - kind of playing at being serious without managing to convince. I'll probably see it out of habit, though I said that for the last one too and still haven't got round to watching it.

At this point, I really don't think it matters much who they cast as the next Bond, or who directs it: the whole Bond-film-making machinery is so hard set in place that there is almost no space left for any individual to make much difference to the end product.

Ariana Grande should have won for best album.

I like Craig, but I do not consider his films to be Bond films, no matter what name they put on them. To me, Bond is spy fantasy, an escapist world of beautiful women, bizarre villains, suave men, amazing, though somewhat plausible gadgets, and style. Bond is a fantasy knight out to slay dragons of Queen and Country.

The Craig films never had that sense of escapist fun to them. They were so determined not to be lumped in with Roger Moore that they exorcised any aspect of classic Bond, except names. They aren't bad films (well, Quantum of Solace isn't good), but they just come across as exercises in 9/11 metaphors and they aren't fun. Not for me, anyway.

I'm okay with being a dinosaur on this. To me, this is Earth Millennium Bond. I check them out, out of curiosity; but, I usually come back to Earth Connery through Brosnan Bond and smile. Well, Connery through Moore, then Living Daylights and Goldeneye. Scripting by committee ruined both Dalton and Brosnan's series.

I'm just said the rest of the world couldn't see how much fun Man From UNCLE was, so I could have more adventures with Solo and Kuryakin. Or OSS 117. I'm looking forward more to King's Man.

Gone are the days of Moore's Bond--which the producers knew had go bye-bye, or look silly in the ever-changing world of big screen adventure.



Critics have said that about the Bond series almost from the beginning, but the producers do shake things up for the better: after the by-the-numbers / tired You Only Live Twice, Connery left and the franchise released the Best Bond film ever made (arguably) with On Her Majesty's Secret Service--which had its own tone and drive, one that should have laid the path for the series' future. Unfortunately, that did not happen. The Moore era was too soaked in winks and saccharine for my tastes, but ever there, the producers decided to shake off the excesses (IOW, temporarily shut off the assembly line) by releasing For Your Eyes Only--the far and away best of all Moore Bond films.

Sadly, Moore's last two Bond movies were going-through-the-motions affairs, and once again, the franchise delivered something different and special with the Dalton films. Its downright criminal that he did not get additional films, as he was a Bond not only for a new age, but the best since Connery in From Russia with Love.

I would love to know what the planned 3rd Dalton Bond film would have turned out like.

I don’t think it ever got to script phase, but they had an outline for it. In a world where we’ve gotten comic adaptations of different versions of the Alien films, why not give us that story. 😉