In the same duration of such masterpieces as Macbeth and Coriolanus, this Bond adventure proves that duration and budget cannot guarantee excitement. Or interest. Its length really hurts because into the second hour it is almost painful to sit through more of the monotony to reach the end.
Apparently $250millin does not buy very much these days. Sure, the technicians and the effects are all leading edge, or whatever, but the creative side: the script, the acting, and the rest, are mediocre, at best.
The essential flaw is the collective team behind his have forgotten that Bond was always ridiculous nonsense. It had no semblance of reality - Britain a leading world power, pluh-ease - and the capers as well as the fixed tropes, were part of the fantasy, the escape from the mundane world into adult comic action with some jokes and sex. It was trash, but fun trash.
This Bond is humorless, Craig has the charisma of a lampshade, so maybe his successor can be a credenza. The tropes of the brand are all fixed but extended into sequences that go way past their use-by date; physics no longer counts for anything, just as body mass and weight, so we have physical contests that bore everyone, except perhaps the stunt team, and fill in time.
The script, over which there was much media attention, is a dog. It fills the same template as Bonds must do but is witless and tedious with dialogue that would shame a third rate 1970's TV sci -fi. It's bathetic and even more awful; just gestures that smugly nod to updated shibboleths.
It has the depth of characterization that one expects from this genre but the pretensions to elevate the psychology to something like Le Carré. The inner life of Bond is neither interesting nor entertaining.
It's probably too much to hope that Bond will never return, but if he does, the folks in charge should remember that the films are fantasies, Bond is not real, he doesn't have to grow, nothing is real, and it's escapist nonsense that should not overstay its welcome, or the actual material.
Apparently $250millin does not buy very much these days. Sure, the technicians and the effects are all leading edge, or whatever, but the creative side: the script, the acting, and the rest, are mediocre, at best.
The essential flaw is the collective team behind his have forgotten that Bond was always ridiculous nonsense. It had no semblance of reality - Britain a leading world power, pluh-ease - and the capers as well as the fixed tropes, were part of the fantasy, the escape from the mundane world into adult comic action with some jokes and sex. It was trash, but fun trash.
This Bond is humorless, Craig has the charisma of a lampshade, so maybe his successor can be a credenza. The tropes of the brand are all fixed but extended into sequences that go way past their use-by date; physics no longer counts for anything, just as body mass and weight, so we have physical contests that bore everyone, except perhaps the stunt team, and fill in time.
The script, over which there was much media attention, is a dog. It fills the same template as Bonds must do but is witless and tedious with dialogue that would shame a third rate 1970's TV sci -fi. It's bathetic and even more awful; just gestures that smugly nod to updated shibboleths.
It has the depth of characterization that one expects from this genre but the pretensions to elevate the psychology to something like Le Carré. The inner life of Bond is neither interesting nor entertaining.
It's probably too much to hope that Bond will never return, but if he does, the folks in charge should remember that the films are fantasies, Bond is not real, he doesn't have to grow, nothing is real, and it's escapist nonsense that should not overstay its welcome, or the actual material.