Yes No Maybe So: Spectre
Thursday, July 23, 2015 at 7:00PM 
Here's new contributor Kyle Turner to talk Bond, James Bond...
Bond hasn’t had much of a history the last fifty years or so, and by that I mean Bond the character. The Bond films, perhaps up until 2006’s Casino Royale, had been content with a more anthological and informal character illustration. But with the Nolanizatoin of the Bond franchise (aka the Daniel Craig era), we’ve been treated to a revisionist approach to James Bond: history, character, person. That appears to be continuing with the newest film SPECTRE, from Skyfall helmer Sam Mendes, which looks like another pretty, maybe interesting, maybe terrible chapter in 007’s origin story.
Let's break down the trailer yes no maybe so after the jump...
Yes 007 in Mexico City for Dia de las Muertos! Reminiscent, no doubt, of the pre-title sequence in New Orleans for Live and Let Die.
YES Mr. Craig donning a skeleton mask. The color grading and palette makes it look all dusty, but you still get a glint of Craig’s icy blue stare. I can jam.
Maybe I recall (seemingly tenured) screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade mentioning that the films would lighten up a bit and become more directly pastiches of Connery’s devil-may-care sardonicism. And “taking a long overdue holiday” certainly seems to be evidence of as much. The thing is, I’ve always been kind of abivalent about quips in this series.
Moneypenny: “So what’s going on James? They say you’re finished.”
Bond: “What do you think?”
Moneypenny: “I think you’re just getting started.”
No thank you.
Maybe This is more of a comment on Aston Martin the car dealer/maker, but they’ve been looking pretty much the same for the last decade and a half. The differences between this and the V12 Vanquish from Die Another Day seem to be marginal, at least design wise.
Yes I'm finally on board the Ben Whishaw train!
Bond: Can you do one more thing for me?
Q: What did you have in mind?
Bond: Make me disappear.
No. To be fair, this kind of arch dialogue will probably work better in context in the film and have a kind of fluidity tonally, but out of context it sounds kind of dumb.
Bond: Tell me where he is.
Rando Henchman: He’s everywhere!
No While Bond dialogue has never been subtle, come on.
YES Monica Belluci! Why hasn’t she been a Bond Woman before? The world may never know. But, yay!
No Belluci’s dialogue is kind of terrible!
Yes Lea Seydoux! I love Lea. You love Lea. Everyone loves Lea. Remember when she had a bit role in the last Mission: Impossible movie? And remember those Wes Anderson directed Prada commercials she was in? Good times.
Yes Bond driving a plane only to sort of crash it. Reminds me of when Natalia in GoldenEye asked him (then Brosnan), “What is it with you and moving vehicles?”
Seydoux: Why should I trust you?
Bond: Because right now, I’m your best chance of staying alive.
No. Did they literally choose the worst bits of writing from the film for the trailer?
YES The SPECTRE insignia appearing on the computer was rad. So, thusly, I hope the film continues this relatively interesting trend of repeatedly asking “Why do we need Bond in a post-9/11 world?”
YAAASSS If there’s one thing I can give credit to this trailer, it’s showing off the very pretty cinematography by Her and Let the Right One In cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema.
Maybe Christoph Waltz as the head of SPECTRE, aka Not Blofeld. I don’t think anyone believes he isn’t some prototype of Blofeld, if not that character exactly, though. My hope is that he’s not playing Hans Landa/Dr. Schultz again.
Seydoux: Is this really what you want? Living in the shadows. Hunting. Being hunted. Always alone.
Bond: I don’t stop to think about it.
Maybe: Some iteration of this question gets thrown around a lot throughout the series, and the answer is still the same, or similar. But what I like about the Craig era films is that though the question is asked explicitly, there’s a great deal more effort to continue prodding into Bond as a psychologically complex human being. There’s speculation, rather than just rote gunplay. Also, Seydoux sounds like she’s mimicking Eva Green here.
Yes Don’t think I didn’t notice a revamped version of the theme from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service!
Yes That framing! That lighting! That composition! I LOVE IT!
Waltz: It was me, James. The author of all your pain.
No. There’s a certain point where I will become terribly ambivalent about Craig’s films existing as one long origin story. So long as that darkness is elevated by some sort of investigation into, like, contemporary sociopolitical allegory or subtext (see: various manifestations of terrorism in Casino Royale, capitalism in Quantum of Solace [I know, I try to pretend it didn’t happen too], and terrorism again in Skyfall).
Yes, I’m in, but more because I’m a devoted James Bond fan than the fact that this looks any good, which it... does not. It looks like a very pretty James Bond thriller that’s hampered by dialogue loaded with pretense, but without necessarily the self-awareness that something like Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal has. I’ll still go because I’m genuinely curious as to how and why it’s doing a revisionist Bond history.
We always know that Bond will return. We just don’t know whether it’ll be worth it to see him, each time he comes around. What did you suspect this time?
Reader Comments (18)
Yes with a Martini shaken not stirred!
YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES!!!!
The music was really spectacular. I still haven't seen Skyfall yet though.
Yes. Let's get that out of the way. Obviously Yes. I own three copies of A View to a Kill on disc, for God's sake.
But I mean, hm... The OHMSS music was a huge plus, and the shot of the woods at night tilting up to the city, and Seydoux/Bellucci are such perfect casting choices, so all those are good things. But OOF, the dialogue. And OOOOOOFFFF, Waltz's performance. I really don't know if I'm going to be able to survive it. That "author of your pain" line is just a nightmare - I mean, why can't we just have a damn standalone spy picture for once?
And you say "Reminiscent... Live and Let Die", as though that's not a terrible thing...
I never even cared about Bond before Daniel Craig assumed the role. I'm a huge YES.
He'll yes. I love the new bond films.
Skyfall was entertaining but I hope the female characters are treated better in this movie.
I agree it could be great or a disaster. Is the blonde woman playing his daughter? She's pretty. Can't he have hot bi 3-way with a man and a woman to spice it up? Oh, the budget, right. Good luck Daniel.
Also Jackie: not really fair. Skyfall gave Dench a HUGE amount of scree time. She was the main "Bond girl" last go around which was kinda a ballsy thing to do. So far with the new bond films, each has had at least one super strong Female performance with lots of screen time and it looks like they'll continue that trend here. They've definitely hired for it anyway! They may not be Eva Green but Seydoux and Belluucci definitely have skills.
Yes, because it's Bond, but maybe so on the merits of the actual trailr. Feels pretty disjointed to me, and I agree that the Craig movies have spent way too much time explaining Bond and his origins - Casino Royale and Skyfall are BOTH origin stories, and Skyfall's version actively annoys me to this day (Bond's bad assery is rooted in the fact that he completely fucked up and let Javier Bardem kill M? gee, what a hero). That's already one too many but this looks like more of the same.
I'm a maybe. I think Quantum of Solace has scarred me forever and as a result I transitioned from being a constant yes for Bond Movies to a constant maybe. It'll have to depend on the reviews. Skyfall was great but I'm a little bored of the origins story as well. I hope they don't waste Lea Seydoux. She has such potency. And I gave up on Christoph Waltz. I'm so impressed wih Tarantino for finding him for Inglorious Basterds but the man needs to stop playing evil variations of his personality. Range is important for actors. Or at the very least for fans.
Annony, I enjoyed it and Dench was great but I remember M came off as incompetent and I didn't like what they did with Moneypenny at the end.
I watch these films for Ralph Fiennes and there was far too little of him in the trailer, so I'll probably be waiting for DVD. (Also, Waltz as the villain is such obvious casting!)
With Christolph Waltz, I'm worried they might do the Star Trek Into Darkness thing, where they advertise that he's playing some guy who's totally not Blofeld and then SURPRISE! He is Blofeld after all!
I'm with you Kyle, which is why I declined to write a YNMS on Spectre. I'm all YES all the time, even when it looks like it won't be good. It'll still be good.
Why can't Lea Seydoux design the gadgets while Ben Whishaw kisses Bond?
I think a better prayer would be for Waltz not to play it like Walter Keane again.
Just go on composing this type of post. I will be a loyal reader, thanks a lot.