Skyfall

Still miss the old posters, but at least the barrel is there.

Film 23 and the 50th anniversary of the movie series since it was released in 2012. A bit hyped in Sweden as the the villain in the beginning was a Swedish actor. Begins with a mission where Bond is shot by one of the MI6 snipers (who later turns out to be a Moneypenny so establishing that character as well). Bond is presumed dead and M and is being questioned on how the mission could fail, the bad guy got away with some computer that I guess contained information about NATO agents as such. After a briefing on their way back someone blows up the MI6 building and begins releasing information about the agents. Bond watching in a bar in some village in Turkey or around there, travels back to London and begins the search which leads to South East Asia and some casino in Macao that takes him to some abandoned island.

Turns out that the bad guy is behind all this is some former MI6 agent named Silva who wants revenge after he was captured and suffered from an old cyanid capsule as he tried to take his life. Seems the pain drove him insane. Bond takes him hostage and back to London. Turns out that was part of the plan as the new Q looking into Silvas computer finds a virus that releases him and enables him to escape as a subway cop in order to infiltrate the hearing where M is questioned in order to kill her. Bond arrives in time to save her and take her away and gets his private Aston Martin and drives to his ancestral home Skyfall to fight Silvas off. The grounds keeper, 007 and M fights them off, but in the end M is fatally wounded, but Silva stills bites it. 007 returns to MI6 and meets the new M, Ralph Fiennes that have been in the movie all along.

It might be that I watched them all in a row for a very short time, but I'm getting bored by these movies. Besides that I don't know why. Maybe that I don't care about M which makes the whole emotional weight of the movie rather pointless for me. Cause the conflict is more with her, it has nothing with international politics or such things. They try to put it as a fight between the old and new as MI6 and spies are not needed with the dawn of the internet and such and the cold war ended 20 years ago. And I can see that, but as things like Snowden and Wikileaks proved, you still need someone to give the information away and if you want it from the enemy you need to get in there. Cause a fact was that Wikileaks only released information from the western world since those where the once that where willing to let out the information, none from Russia and China so it pretty much only hurt the western world. Now, don't get me wrong, it showed the hypocrisy and evil things that was committed by what we call democracies and want to have higher standards for it. 

Quantum of Solace

Another Way To Die!!!

Quantum of Solace, the first James Bond-movie I saw in cinema and that was back in 2008 when I was in the US. So maybe I'm blinded by nostalgic feelings, but I think this is the best Daniel Craig Bond-movie. First off, best song and soundtrack for Craig. Everyone else seems to hate the song Another Way To Die, but I love it. It's the only Bond track I got on my iPod after the Dalton-movies. They even used parts of the song in the actual soundtrack.

Story-wise it follows the last movie with Bond taking mr White to M for questioning, but a double agent set him free and is later killed by 007 who chased after him. Looking into the double agent 007 gets to Haiti to look into a contact for the agent, Bond kills him and is picked up by a woman who leads him to Dominic Greene, the head of an environmental organisation. Turns out the organisation is a front for Quantum, the organisation that mr White worked for. Greene is staging coups in Latin America and is looking into Bolivia at the time where a general is after the power. Meanwhile the CIA is striking a deal with Greene for the oil that Greene would be getting his hands on.

007 gets stranded by the MI6 after he gets framed by Quantum for killing a body guard to an adviser to the British government that are part of Quantum so he gets help from the agent he suspected double crossed him in Casino Royale so he gets to Bolivia. MI6 sends another agent to look over him. Both agents gets killed by Quantum, but Leiter slips him information about Greene's deal with the general so 007 and some Bolivian woman who's family was killed by the general go to the desert. Turns out that Quantum isn't after oil, but water. They dammed up the water in the area and are about to get control of most of Bolivia's water supply and are to resell it to Bolivia as a monopoly provider, fooling both the general and the CIA. 007 blows them up and the dam giving water back to the people. And then the movie ends with Bond confronting the agent that lured Vesper Lynd to betray him in Casino Royale and taking him alive.

I like this story. It's smart enough to get that oil isn't fought over more, but water is a new conflict resource, and people needs water. I might find it interesting since I studied American Foreign Policy in the US and it was brought up, conflict due to natural resources like water. Is the Israel-Palestinian conflict still religious, or is it due to who controls the water of the Jordan river? What happens when Sudan decides that it will block the Nile for their own electrical consumption that will make the Nile canal in Egypt worthless? Climate change, Scandinavium stands to be winner with a bit better warmer climate, but we already notice that we might have to think about conserving water since the changed weather patterns creates droughts (even in my own region). Might also be fun in that it pokes fun on the Americans, not only that they are so focused on oil that they miss the water, the bad guys take everything in euros since the dollar isn't what it used to be. That's a reference that the dollar plummeted in value probably around 2006 to be able to make it into the movie until the economic crash of 2008 in September. I mean, you could get a $ 1 for almost less than 6 SEK, it hasn't been that low since 1992 when the Krona was pegged to 5 SEK per dollar (we got used to at least 10 SEK per $ before and now it hovers around 8-9 SEK per $). It was a really great time being in the US with that dollar, but people was a bit scarred when it suddenly rushed up after the crash.

I still like it, it has forward looking plot, a shadowy organisation behind it all and it works rather well.

Casino Royal

 

The first shall be the last

21st film and Danial Craigs first. A reboot of the series as Bond is given his 00-license by killing an informant selling information from within the MI6. His first mission is to get a bomb maker in Madagascar which leads him to the Bahamas... is it the 3rd or 4th time we are in the Bahamas? And that leads to Miami where a terrorist organisation plan to bomb a new prototype airplane to tank the stocks of the company and win by betting against it. Bond stops that and the man with the money is in trouble. Le Chiffre as he is know is the treasury of an unknown organisation that take cares of terrorist groups money and lets them get it from everywhere in the world. And he gambled the money on the stock market and now the customers want their money back so he arrange a card game at the Casino Royale to get 150 million dollars to pay off the debt, the MI6 sends in 007 as their player.

So most of the tension is on the card game, throw in one assassination attempt on Le Chiffre from a dissatisfied customer and another on Bond with some poisoned drinks. Bond also loses the game at one point, but the incognito CIA-agent Felix Leiter allows him to use his part of the buy-in since he isn't good enough to beat Le Chiffre. Nice to see Leiter again since License to Kill. Bonds win, but after the game he and his assistant Vesper Lynd gets kidnapped by Le Chiffre to get back the money since his organisation will have his head. And they still do since as a Mr White said before killing him, trust is very important for their organisation.  Bond is rescued, believes that their contact man Mathis betrayed them and gets him taken by the MI6 for questioning. 007 and Lynd goes on holliday in Venice... also for the 3rd or 4th time. Turns out that Lynd was the snitch as she was black mailed by the organisation and she dies in a shoot out in a sinking house. Ends when Bond confronts Mr White who is the man behind it all. 

It was way better than the Pierce-movies, and I think it might be that it doesn't have the obvious fake effects like the missiles, explosions and paragliding in Iceland. It even have decent behind the scenes documentaries with Bond and the producers. The main title song don't move me, but the soundtrack works rather well. Still not as good as the older movies. M is still Judy Dench, but no Q or Moneypenny. Also, the threat is grounded in terrorism and a shadowy organisation behind them all. Good enough for me. Stock market gambling and all that still works and you shall never use company funds for your own pleasures. And you especially don't gamble with them. Especially more fun after the GameStop stockmarket debacle at the beginning of 2021.

Die Another Day

 

Is it over soon?

20th Bond-movie and the last of Brosnans-movies and basically the last of Classic Bonds. Or maybe Classic Bond is always before the current Bond? Whatever, we start in North Korea as Bond infiltrates the country and leads a helicopter astray with a diamond curier... not another diamond smuggling story! This gonna be bad. Still, he gets in and meets the son of a high ranking general, Moon, that I think gives weapons for diamonds, but they get information that Bond is a British spy so they arrest him and intends to kill him so Bond activates the bomb within the case of diamonds and hunts Moon until he crashes into the sea and apparently dies. Bond gets taken in by the father and is tortured for 14 months, all over Madonna's song Die Another Day. Worst Bond-theme ever.

He's exchanged for Moon's closest ally (who got some of the diamonds lodged into his face after the bomb went off) that got caught after killing three Chinese agents in some peace summit between China and South Korea. He's also believed to have broken down and given information on agents in North Korea so that was why MI6 had to get him out. To clear his name 007 escapes the facility in Hong Kong he been taken too he enters a hotel to get refreshed as well as get information from the Chinese agents running it. They send him to Cuba where diamond face have been going. There he meets a CIA-agent Jinx and enters a clinic that focuses on genetical engineering of rich clients. 007 tries killing diamond face, but fails and only gets some diamonds that are identified as conflict diamonds from Sierra Leone, but engraved with Gustaf Graves insignia, a businessman with a diamond mine in Iceland.

Bond confront him in a gentleman club with some fencing action until he's stopped by Graves personal instructor Miranda Frost. He's contacted by M and learns that Frost is an undercover agent tracking Graves so Bond is off to Iceland and Graves Ice Palace where he unveils Icarus, a solar satellite that can give solar energy for crop development all year round. But 007 discovers that he is in fact the genetical engineered Moon that survived the intro of the movie. Bond have him corned but is betrayed by Frost that also was the informant that got him caught in North Korea. And she did all that because Graves made the fencer that won gold medal in an olympics against Frost to default by giving the person steroids. Feels a bit small for betraying your country to a terrorist. Bond and Jinx escape and goes to the Korean border where the Americans and MI6 are stationed. A coup in North Korea where Graves father been overthrown by the nationalist and Graves as they begin using Icarus to level the mine filed and also take away the US nuclear umbrella, enabling North Korea to take over South Korea. Jinx and 007 boards Graves plane, kills Graves and escapes by dropping a helicopter midair from the plane.

Seen by many as the worst in the series and I'm inclined to agree. The effects doesn't look that good, not compared to earlier movies. Might still be the higher quality of the picture overall showing the faults more easily. Music is not that good, and it starts with the gun barrel sequence at the start of the movie with updates to the original theme. I liked it in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but that sounded good (or I prefer that sound would probably be more correct). It's also bit problematic in that it's the 40th anniversary so they look back to the older movies, the plot is inspired by Diamonds Are Forever for example with the diamond smuggling and satellite plot. The Aston Martin is back and we get a whole sequence with the old gadgets. But Bond should try to predict the future and this just defeats the purpose since it's already been done. Also, the North Koreans... yes, they are the only country one could show as evil during 2002 since that wouldn't affect box office numbers, but would they really risk biting the hand of China by killing their agents? China is pretty much the only reason no one does anything against them? 

Also the only Bond movie I owned before this collection. Must also add, that this movie had the worst content on how they made the movie. Overall, Brosnan-era wasn't that good. The only one who still would stand up would be GoldenEye since that threat is the only that would still work. All the other fails in some way, this one has North Koreans infuriating China, Tomorrow Never Dies have a Britain that believes they can take on China and The World Is Not Enough is destroyed by the collapse of the oil price after the recession of 2008. At least an EMP against a modern capital still works... but wasn't the microchips from A View to a Kill supposed to neutralise that threat?

The World Is Not Enough

 

The family motto

The 19th film and the last Bond-movie of the last millenia. As well as Desmond Llewelyn as Q as he tragically died after the films release. Longest serving actor on the movies so that won't probably be beaten for quite some time. Begins in Spain as Bond picks up some money that have been taken back by some Swiss banker, but 007 really want the name of the person behind it, but a fight breaks out, but he is saved by an unknown sniper. Back in London the moneys owner Sir Robert King thanks him, but is killed as a pin on him triggers an explosive reaction with the chemicals in the money and blows him up.

Turns out an old enemy of the MI6, ex-KGB Agent Renard that got a bullet in his brain from agent 009, is back to exact revenge. Bond goes to Azerbaijan to protect Elektra King, Robert Kings daughter and former kidnapped victim to Renard. King is an oil company that builds a pipeline on the north of the Black Sea (even more north you have Russian pipelines and on the south of the Black Sea  you have the oil from the Middle East). 007 follows a lead that takes him to a Soviet former nuclear base where Renard steals the plutonium from a bomb. It looks like the bomb is used to blow up a King plant via a pipeline but when Bond is there he finds that only half the plutonium is there and the rest is missing so he lets the bomb explode before reaching its target. Meanwhile Elektra has lured M to Azerbaijan and kidnaps her and moves her to Istanbul.

There Renard takes over a nuclear submarine on the pretense on getting equipment via deal with the ex-KGB agent from GoldenEye. The plan is to use the last of the Plutonium and get the submarine to meltdown and destroy the competition for the King company. Bonds stop it and blows it up.

I assume its the first time we have a female bad guy as the main antagonist, but they really muddle it with Renard so it looks like they try to have it's cake and eat it as well, since Elektra doesn't do as much sadistic things like the old main antagonist. Renard does it all and it's only in the end it's revealed Elektra is behind it all. Also, I get its ripped from the headlines with the oil pipes and such, but it feels like the plan falls short in 10 years when the oil price collapses and still haven't recovered some 10 years after that. Compare to Man With The Golden Guns focus on solar energy or A View To A Kill and the believes that microchips will be of importance. Maybe they thought oil would still be important even after like what happened with gold even though the gold standard fell 7 years after Goldfinger was released. 

Another things that bothers me is M. In GoldenEye she is described as all numbers and no gut reactions, following all the rules and all that and here... she seems to be to personally involved in the case just because she knew Sir Robert from school and putting her self in danger by bypassing  security protocols. Feels a bit inconsistent with her earlier portrayal, might be a problem related to that they try to give the supporting cast more depth and a calculating person is rather one-dimensional.