Funny you mention it, I think we haven’t had this very often in Bond films recently. Bond snooping in on the Spectre meeting might have been it - if he hadn’t been expected.
Up to the point when Bond enters the Spectre meeting and then gets called out by Blofeld, SPECTRE, for me, was hugely entertaining.
And then the car chase happens.
Something I’ve been missing recently was the general absence of a ‘fog of war’ - a sense that both Bond and his adversaries have to deal with unexpected moves from the opposition. In SPECTRE - and even more so in SKYFALL, but thankfully not to such damaging effects on the suspense - the villain seems to know everything. While Bond, too, seems to know it all. Even when attending the meeting Bond already knew who would be behind it all. That’s not just hard to swallow, it also takes away large part of the necessary suspense.
It was already floundering for me at that point, but that car chase just sent it into free-fall. It’s just unreal to me that anyone could sit in an editing room putting that chase together and feel satisfied with the end product.
Good idea - that´s really a problem in SPECTRE. Although the whole scheme of Blofeld is very foggy… 
I wouldn’t say that my expectations go beyond the film being a sendoff fit for Craig. As he deserves it, with all he’s put up with as Bond! 
But wasn’t the end of Spectre the perfect sendoff? Captured the bad guy, and walking away with the girl as he tosses his PPK into the Thames. Pretty much looked like…“Th-Th-That’s All, Folks” to me. 
Yeah, same here. I’m focused on the near future at the moment. I prefer CR and SF, but I do like SPECTRE quite a bit as well. It’s not without flaws but the positives outweigh them in my book. I personally think the criticism is overblown.
Don’t get me wrong, the ending of SPECTRE was great, in my opinion. Just not for Craig’s Bond. “In like a lion, out like a lamb” is for winter patterns, not 007. For old times sake, give us CASINO ROYALE Bond. Though things have drastically changed around Bond, that shouldn’t really ever have changed him deep down, per say. The last image of Craig’s Bond on screen should finish with him just as rough and ruthless as he started on screen. Changed in many ways, yet still the same. Through it all, he still is 007.
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If Craig is back for one final time it does open up the possibility of one concluding confrontation with Blofeld, ending up with Bond losing his memory YOLT-style.
But I agree: I would rather have him close out his tenure as a strong and determined Bond succeeding against the odds.
Will Moneypenny turn out to be M’s secretary?
Now that made made me laugh. Brilliant stuff from Dustin there!
We aim to please…
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And pleased I am. I’m loving the new forum look and the new tools at our disposal! 
Keep up the great work!
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Well, I’m hoping for…
Less of the remote-control Bond dynamic. Lose the earpiece and GPS implant, give Bond his briefing and let him go about his mission alone.
Less of the “meanwhile, back at the ranch” approach to MI6. I’m afraid Eon will never roll back MI6 to its pre-nineties level, on account of their high regard for Fiennes, Harris, and Whishaw. These are “real actors”, so gotta give them something to do. But I don’t like the constant cutting back to London. A Bond film should have precisely one plot, not a Bond-based A-plot and an MI6-based B-plot.
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One of the things I’ve liked most about the Craig films is how each one builds on what has come before and adds a new layer to what has come before:
CR
The “Bond Begins” Origin Story
CR + QOS
The “Algerian Love Knot” Two Parter
CR + QOS + SF
The “Bond and M” Trilogy
CR + QOS + SF + SP
The “Spectre” Quartet
CR + QOS + SF + SP + B25
The “James Bond” Pentology?
The last scenes of each film always feel like the closing of a chapter and the beginning of a new era. I’m pleased DC is returning because it always felt to me that this era had one more chapter left to be made in what has been shaping up to be this grand (if not quite definitive) five-part statement on the themes and the character of James Bond.
I don’t know what Bond 25 will be about, but given that death was a motif of SPECTRE, Bond 25 could easily be about life, or more specifically, nature (“nature” both as in wildlife (the Japanese garden? the Crab Key obstacle course?) and as in human (Bond’s) nature). And given the way that SPECTRE concluded, Bond 25 could be about Bond - unable to stay away - returning to the dangerous world of secret agents life a moth to a flame, because, well, that’s who he is (anything else would be like “taking a room with a view”, surely). The girl could go off with some other guy at the end, like in the novel Moonraker, and 007 could carry on his way, half monk, half hitman. And to tie the whole run together, they could end with a callback to CASINO ROYALE, like Bond carrying out an assassination similar to the one in that film’s opening (in black and white), or with the line “Bond, James Bond”.
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That’s a fantastic idea. A brand new version of the Doctor No obstacle course would be pretty amazing and right up Craig’s alley. Because of the limited budget, the 1962 scene simplified things, and omitted the squid. The novel makes it clear it’s a test of pain, with Bond being observed by the villain. The film makes No look incompetent. So indeed, there’s room to make such a sequence fresh.
Flora and fauna are a big part of the Flemings, and the element that’s probably been underrepresented in the recent films. And Craig’s Bond was made to be physically tested. Bring on the giant squid and “get back to nature”.
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Would we want to see Craig’s Bond in Commander uniform, ala Connery, Moore and Brosnan? If so, Bond 25 is the last opportunity for that.
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Is Craig’s Bond even a Navy Commander?
I thought I remembered that back when CR came out, the official website had a “dossier” explaining the character’s back history and while it said he was in the SBS , which would have made him, what, part of the Marines? Forgive me, I’m a Yank so I don’t know how all that works. Anyway, it was all new to me, and one of many reasons I’ve never really considered Craig’s Bond the same character as “Classic Bond,” but rather a 21st century re-imagining. The others felt like “a gentleman the government trained to be a killer” where Craig feels like “a killer who learned how to wear a tux.”
Anyway, unless I missed something, Craig’s Bond has never been referred to as “Commander” by anyone on screen.
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While Craig’s Bond has never been addressed as Commander, it is noted when M is typing his obituary on her screen “James Bond - Commander RNVR - CMG”. Yes, though, it would be nice to see him in uniform.
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