As for this abomination of a flick though, wow, I'm almost speechless. The overwhelming vibe I'm getting, much more so even than Craig's previous outings, is how incredibly dreary and depressing it feels. I don't know but the way they've treated these beloved and long enduring characters feels almost spiteful (and we can probably drop that "almost"
). They haven't just very deliberately killed them all off, they've traveled even further down their side road of turning all the things we love about the classic Bond's character on their head. He's angry, wistful, tired, old, resentful and passive aggressive, and apparently a lot of the time just plain passive. I mean, if they don't like Bond why not give him to someone who does?I had to check several times your screenshot and description DB when you explained how they left no ambiguity around their Craig Bond's demise, because I just couldn't believe it! They've got their shock talking point already killing him off. Writing themselves into a dead end like that seems mad. I can only think it might've been Craig trying to make sure there was no way he could be tempted back again. Even that makes no sense though, because if "JAMES BOND WILL RETURN" then they obviously can work around that plot point, be it through killing the continuity with a full reboot (the most likely), prequels, or some ridiculous hand-waving about how the nanobots had a side effect of regenerating his flesh.
This trend in the movies of killing off beloved characters in lazy ways is nowhere near as clever as they think it is (See also Captain Kirk and Terminator's John Connor for a couple of notable examples). It doesn't make it deeper, more prestigious or even really more gritty. It's not gritty or realisitc because we all know they're going to be resurrected in some form later and you and I DB are by now both well-versed in how the continuity-busting reboots shatter that fourth wall and destroy any suspension of disbelief.
If they're trying to make a high brow, award worthy film, I just don't get how they made his death so apparently illogical. He doesn't sacrifice himself to achieve any meaningful gain, just this vague notion of trying to protect his family from the virus (Hello, social distancing, as you rightly pointed out), and given how pointless it seems to be, it doesn't sound like Madeline or the others do a very good job of trying to talk him out of it?
The right way to show a meaningful sacrifice is something like what they did with May Day. I must admit even that was a little contrived but at least Bond pleads with her to jump and she insists that there's a purpose, to hold the brake from sticking on the mine cart and save the day from Zorin's explosives. How hard would it have been to write in something more like that (I said like that, not a rip off by the way)? It's almost as if they just don't care, or as if they're not writing this for the fans anymore.
I'm sharing Veronica's morbid curiosity about this film but I doubt I can bring myself to slog all the way through, so thanks for saving me the trouble, DB. I'll probably check out some of the key scenes. I'm curious for example whether that off road car chase is quite as absurdly gravity defying as it looks from that screenshot. And that ending, how can it really be that bad?
Let's see how much worse it can get with the next one. Maybe they'll do what Trek did and go with an actor so young they've barely started shaving, then crank up the melodrama even higher and add lots of teenage angst.
