I very much ship Felicity Jones as a Bond Girl!
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Excellent choice. She reminds me Strawberry Fields.
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Hmm, i’m on the fence about Jones. She was good in Rogue One, but gave one the worse performances i’ve seen in recent years in Inferno.
There are caveats: Her character’s arc in Inferno was a complex one, so maybe what looked like poor acting was part of that arc. But, if so then that was very naive… If it looks like bad acting, then it is bad acting.
Her scenes with Hanks (a great screen actor) were laughable - it was as though Hanks had mistakenly turned up on a soap opera shoot; cutting back and fourth from a Hanks movie to Jones’ Hollyoaks. I know that’s harsh and i apologise, she seems like a nice person and she’s relatively new to the big screen, so i’m sure she will get much better, and as i said she was good in Rogue One, so perhaps her shortcomings in Inferno were down to it’s woeful Direction.
Inferno is itself is a truly BAD movie. Did Ron Howard realise just how poor Angels & Demons was and thought rather than improve on it, why don’t we see how bad a Dan Brown movie we can make…? Inferno really is that bad (even worse than the book, which takes some doing!) and makes the very mediocre Angels & Demons look like a masterpiece.
So it’s possible that Jones’ awful performance was down to awful direction, but that means she needs a director who knows how to get a performance out of her and Bond directors aren’t usually ‘actor’s directors’.
Final caveat is that i haven’t seen Theory of Everything, which must surely be a decent guide to her acting chops. Is she any good in this, or does Redmayne carry her?
All that said, even if she does have the chops i think she’s way too young to be 50-year-old-Craig’s love interest. It’s not fair on Craig’s last outing for the studio to saddle him with a Moore’esque implausible love interest which is another layer of disbelief they have to dog-leg upon the audience. There are great actresses out there in there mid 40s they can cast that will make far more sense.
And besides, Bond’s either with Swann, or avenging her, so i think another love interest is unnecessary; one-nighters, sure, but no more ‘this is love so i’m quitting the Secret Service’ stories, please.
Indeed. I can’t deny it’s a proper point of view.
I like the idea of an age appropriate Bond Girl. Kristina Hendricks, or Kate Beckinsale.
I’ll be very surprised if they go for an age-appropriate leading lady for Craig. Of the three main Bond girls that Craig has had, his latest one was his least age-appropriate, with Lea Seydoux being 17 years younger than Craig.
Early-to-mid thirties is probably the oldest we’ll see them go for the main Bond girl. If there is an older actress cast, it’ll be for a bit part like the one Monica Bellucci had in SPECTRE.
I’m sure you’re right, mores the pity. Perhaps it attracts a young audience, but it’s at the detriment of the film.
If the tabloids were right (fat chance but who knows) and Miss Markle was on the shortlist for BOND 25 because the search was on for a North American actress it seems likely that Craig will be paired with a late 20´s/early 30´s actress - and that would be highly unoriginal for Bond.
I also don’t believe this “wisdom” that audiences would not accept an older woman as Bond´s love interest. I would welcome Bellucci back as the only Bond girl (using the term here as established in order to avoid the awkward Bond woman/equal/partner etc.).
The Markle thing is a made-up tabloid thing meant to capitalize on two of the biggest things that tabloids like to dabble in: Bond and the romantic lives of the royals.
Sadly, only too true…
Spectre should show that the world is ready for an older Bond girl. Bellucci’s casting was praised on it’s announcement and the main criticism of her role was that she was underutilised and should have had more screen time.
Moreover, Bellucci’s part was also relatively unimportant for a plot that used far too much exposition over that stupid ring Bond picked up merely on a hunch. Not only was Bellucci wasted on this part, her role itself was so underdeveloped it could have been cut altogether.
More’s the pity since she and Craig seemed to share a better rapport and chemistry.
The funeral and the assassination attempt are actually my favorite scenes. Up to that point I was hoping for a deliciously layered plot which would have allowed Bellucci to return.
And I still hope for her to be revealed in BOND 25 as a real threat, the puppet player behind everything. It would make sense for her to drop a hint to the former M in order to have her husband assassinated (because he was too loyal to Blofeld whom she wanted to dethrone all along).
It would be a great feat if Bellucci returned in a much more central role. Christensen’s unexpected return to Bond was a definite plus for SPECTRE, however small his role was this time.
Yes I like the idea of Lena Heady doing a change of pace. She has the acting range to portray a Bond ally but she might be too pigeonholed to play villians now.
Monica as the actual Blofeld would be fantastic
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An interesting idea - but impossible to pull off now, with Franz Oberhauser claiming that name as his mother’s maiden name.
They would have to call Franz completely cuckoo. Then again…
Since we’re dealing with maiden names here:
the full name of Bellucci’s character is Irma Lucia Sciarra, née Bunt.
It’s that easy.
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She could reveal she was behind all the events of Craig’s tenure, from CR through SP. The true “author of all Bond’s pain,” with Oberhauser merely her ghostwriter.
Then in Bond 26, we can reveal the entire Craig era as a VR simulation run by Brosnan, wishing for more “gritty” adventures.
Then at the end, the camera can turn 180 degrees to break the fourth wall and reveal Babs and Micheal, who admit, “Just kidding, folks. There is no plan. Never had one. Thanks for the money, though.”
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Ditto!