Re: Seamaster and Iago's endless rehashing Bond thread

**Seamaster** Wed Jul 11, 2012 3:51 pm

Friends don't hit friends with spoilers! Maybe they missed the memo.

**Iago** Wed Jul 11, 2012 5:35 pm

Do not forget, though, that friends also like torturing friends.

**Seamaster** Thu Jul 12, 2012 9:53 am

Well, there is that.

**Iago** Thu Jul 12, 2012 4:55 pm

Otherwise, what kind of friends would they be?

The marketing campaign is going into overdrive. They are still being pretty cagey, but it is going to get more and more difficult to avoid spoilers (especially since some advanced screenings are starting.)

**Seamaster** Thu Jul 12, 2012 6:03 pm

The trick is to not plug in. If you don't pay attention to the news, you won't see the spoilers. As for your friends, that is another matter!

**Iago** Fri Jul 13, 2012 3:50 am

Hmmm . . .

http://www.007.com/007-gets-his-quartermaster/

**Seamaster** Fri Jul 13, 2012 10:13 am

Indeed. He looks rather stiff in that screen shot. I wonder what they will do with the character?

**Iago** Fri Jul 13, 2012 4:14 pm

Well, stiff or not, the latter question is the crucial one. Rather, one of two crucial questions, the other of which being what kind of devices will he be providing. I am still holding out hope that he will be little more than a glorified armorer (at least at first) but that hope seems a mite slim.

**Seamaster** Fri Jul 13, 2012 5:24 pm

It is hard to tell from one still, but the apparent stiffness and his dress causes me concern. I'm worried that we're going to end up with an overly uptight character who hands out silly gadgets and tries to be serious about it. That said, we can't judge until the movie is released.

**Iago** Sat Jul 14, 2012 2:37 pm

Well, the dress causes concerns that his character will be comic relief, which will be wholly out of place with Craig. Unless they do some working class comic relief like they did with Q in Never Say Never Again, but that mode of dress hardly seems to fit.

Overall, though, they really have given little indication of what direction that they will take running characters. Rory Kinnear has been largely wasted as Bill Tanner (I really miss Michael Kitchen from the Brosnan films, who was one of the few highlights to that series.) They also did little to advance Felix Leiter's character in Quantum, other than to turn him into a grumpy old man. The reality is, of course, that they may simply have no real idea where they want to take things.

I also read recently that the new Bond Blu-Ray set will have an empty slot for Skyfall. Nice touch. That way the set will not seem outdated, at least for the next couple of years!

**Seamaster** Mon Jul 16, 2012 10:24 am

Now they just need empty spots for the 11 or so films I already own.

The biggest letdown will be if Q's character has been introduced for no other reason than to reinstate Q in the series.

**Iago** Tue Jul 17, 2012 4:59 pm

Well, there are more films coming after Skyfall, of course, so the set outdates no matter what you do. But since this one is already in the works it was nice for them to at least take it into account.

I have much higher hopes for Bane right now than I do for Q!

**Seamaster** Wed Jul 18, 2012 9:11 am

Can't argue with you there, and that's knowing that we won't be able to understand Bane half the time.

**Iago** Wed Jul 18, 2012 2:26 pm

Actually, one of the recent reviews that I read said that if anything they over-compensated, and now Bane's voice is drowns out everyone else around it! Tom Hardy has also revealed the inspiration for the voice:

http://screencrush.com/man-inspired-bane-voice/

Plus, have you heard about the kerfuffle over at Rotten Tomatoes?

http://www.avclub.com/articles/rotten-tomatoes-suspends-dark-knight-rises-comment,82616/

**Seamaster** Thu Jul 19, 2012 9:51 am

Funny. I avoid reviews before seeing a film. I find reviews ruin the experience for me and I prefer to go in knowing as little as possible.

**Iago** Thu Jul 19, 2012 11:44 am

I am careful which reviews that I read. Speaking of which, it is too bad that Rotten Tomtoes disabled commenting prior to Rex Reed's review going up. He would have gotten death threats, and very nearly deserved them. It is worth checking out his review after you see the movie.

**Seamaster** Thu Jul 19, 2012 3:35 pm

Even knowing that he disliked and probably bashed the film will play in the back of my mind when I see it. But, unless the film is totally horrid, I'll move on pretty quickly once the opening credits play.

**Iago** Thu Jul 19, 2012 6:04 pm

You must not know who Rex Reed is. If he had liked the movie, THEN you would need to be worried. I will make you read the opening paragraph of his review -- trust me, it will not ruin the movie for you!

“Get with the program!” scolds another letter from a brainwashed fan of the Batman-as-seen-through-the-pretentiousness-of-the-Christopher-Nolan trilogy, “You are a dinosaur!” He’s probably right, and I probably would—if I could only make one lick of sense out of what this nonsense is all about. Silly pop-culture comic book cinema about grown men in rubber masks and Styrofoam jock straps is bad enough, but incomprehensible gibberish to boot is just plain unacceptable. Halfheartedly, I give The Dark Knight Rises—the third and final Batflick in the Nolan trilogy—one star for eardrum-busting sound effects and glaucoma-inducing computerized images in blinding Imax, but talk about stretching things. That’s all most immature audiences require for their hard-earned money these days. The rest of it should not be reviewed by anyone over the age of 12.

**Seamaster** Fri Jul 20, 2012 11:09 am

I've heard of Reed, which is why I said I know he disliked the film and no-doubt bashes it--as is evident in the paragraph you included here.

**Iago** Fri Jul 20, 2012 2:22 pm

It is not so much his bashing of the film as it is his not particularly veiled contempt for anyone else who likes the stuff.

One decision that I made after reading a few reviews was to rewatch the first two before seeing the third on Monday. I had considered doing that before, but was not going to after all to keep my viewing "fresh," but several reviews have commented on how well this one ties up threads from the first two, especially those from Batman Begins..

Two minor details that I noticed while rewatching that one: first, while we both have praised Hardy's trap development, check out the scene when Alfred awakens Bruce and he is covered with bruises. There is a closeup of Bale showing that while his definition in that film was less, he had some serious mass in his traps. Also, we had a long discussion on the Next Bench after The Dark Knight came out about villians that we thought would fit the Nolan universe, and I had mentioned Zsasz as being a suitable non-superpowered psycho who would fit. Well, damned if he was not already right there in Batman Begins, and after several viewings I have always missed it. He is in the first scene with Jonathan Crane where Crane argues in court for committing him to Arkham -- Crane explicity calls him "Mr. Zsasz." I cannot believe I failed to catch that. Makes me wonder if he may have a cameo in this one, since he would be a fitting associate (or rather, a tool) for Bane.

**Iago** Mon Jul 23, 2012 3:16 am

Actually, Zsasz appears twice more in Begins: he is one of the Arkham inmates released by the League of Shadows, and he is the one who threatens Katie Holmes with a knife. So while in Knightfall Bane released the prisoners at Arkham to wear down Batman, it seems less likely that Nolan will use that element since he already did it once in Begins.

Speaking of traps, did you ever watch Warrior?

**Seamaster** Mon Jul 23, 2012 10:49 am

That's right! That's the character played by Tim Booth. Apparently some of the promotional material for Dark Knight Rises suggests Zsasz is still at large, so you never know.

You have now lined up my movie viewing this week -- I need to also rewatch Nolan's first two Batman flicks.

**PhotoOtaku** Mon Jul 23, 2012 11:22 am

Facebook update: He's in line, we can start spoiling it momentarily if we wanted to.

Seamaster and Iago's endless rehashing Bond thread - Page 12 In_lin11

Seamaster and Iago's endless rehashing Bond thread - Page 12 In_lin11

**Iago** Tue Jul 24, 2012 3:52 am

Well, I will avoid spoilers, but at least on a first viewing I really enjoyed it. It seems to have a somewhat shakey first act, but once the siege of Gotham begins (not exactly spoiler material, that) I loved it. There are defintely some serious points of debate about it, especially relating to a couple of revelations at the end (one of which I am confidant is definitely not what it seems, and the other of which could be taken one of two ways.) But it is well worth watching the first two films before you go see the third.

**Seamaster** Tue Jul 24, 2012 9:51 am

Still on track for my movie-watching then.

How does the third film stack up (in overall quality) against the first two?

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