Some of this ranks with top level Bond - the gloom, the references to On Her Majesty's Secret Service (including a reprise of "We Have All The Time in the World"), the new 007 (I loved that), the locations, Bond's dream house in Jamaica, Ana de Armas' Cuban agent, the acting, Remi Malek's villain, the action scenes.
The debits are clear and frustrating because so avoidable. Well, in a way. Lea Seydoux is gorgeous, can act and I loved her character and the romanticism of her relationship with Bond... but she looks so much younger than Daniel Craig it's like he's romancing his daughter. It never goes away. If only Monica Belluci had played this part in Spectre. Or they'd recast. But I guess they had to double down on a bad decision.
I didn't like that they killed off Felix Leiter. I guess they figured they needed motivation but if you can't get motivation in a film where Bond finds out he has a daughter... I mean, seriously?
The third act is a mess. And this was easy to fix. Just have them discover the plan, and the island, the world leaders get together (why keep it a secret, really? I know they try to explain it by having it be a secret British operation but it wasn't necessary), they decided to blow up the island, they need to open the hatch, Bond asks if he can extract his daughter and Seydoux, so you have a ticking clock I wish they'd brought along de Armas for the final attack. She was fun. The ending is messy. Malek is there, then he's gone, then he conveniently comes back.
And the death. It's a cheat. Because you know he's coming back and a missile hits him. They didn't even set up a clever "out". It's enough he can't see the woman he loves and his kid again. That's enough. Death is a cheat.
I think I could spot some Phoebe Waller-Bridge bits like the Ana de Armas being a bit ditsy and the associate of Leiter gushing over Bond. I could be wrong.
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