In one conversation the Craig era has been accused of eschewing things fans loved and adding things fans loved. In both instances it was to complain.
Some might say that is contradicting…I’m going to go with “Welcome to the internet - Whatever you did I hate it! Kathy Bates in Misery is an unsung hero!!!”
After 50 years I’m more relaxed about it, which my younger self would be dumbfounded about. The sequence is not a product of shame for the Craig era. If it was, it would have been removed completely. I think it’s more about being playful in a postmodern sense.
Every Craig film has done something a little different with it – even SPECTRE’s version isn’t completely traditional with the music over the logos merging into the sequence, and then the ‘dead are alive’ statement. Which keeps in the spirit of QoS’s barrel having the film title appear afterwards, and Skyfall with the 50 years celebration logo.
I’m sure Bond 25 will have some unique twist as well, even if it’s at the beginning again ala SPECTRE.
I felt that the gun barrel sequences in the Craig Movies have been used quite logically with the exception of Skyfall…Origin logo in CR, earned at the end of QOS, didn’t need to be in Skyfall at all. Spectre being the more traditional it fitted the tone of that film.
I prefer LALD to TSWLM.
The whole gunbarrel thing I think is at least very strange.
The explanation was that there isn’t a gunbarrel in CR, because Bond is not the Bond yet we know.
Since when has the gunbarrel any meaning rather than a cool start of the movie, or anything to do with that kind of thing? Ofcourse there was the cool moment before the song, which made up for a lot.
Than there was QoS… the explanation for no gunbarrel at the beginning was that this was together with CR one story, so at the beginning of QoS we go ahead a couple of minutes/houres after what happened in CR. Placing it at the back was not great, but ok with me.
But then it happened again with Skyfall, this couldn’t explained at all and I thought was unnecessary and just a very strange move from Mendes.
I think the gunbarrel is a very cool and “Yes!! It begins!” moment in the cinema and I don’t wanna miss this at all!
Mendes has said why, several times. It WAS at the beginning originally, and, indeed, Craig is wearing his PTS outfit during the gun barrel, but when it was cut together it looked odd to go from Bond walking along then raising his gun toward the camera then Bond walking along a corridor and raising his gun toward the camera, so they moved it.
I don’t think that is a very good explanation. So that means he, Mendes with all his rewards, is the first director who can’t make the first scene fit to have the gunbarrel before it? That’s very, very odd.
Sell that. Go to your producer or studio and say “you know that carefully constructed shot me and Deakins did? Well it doesn’t partner the gunbarrel, so we need to do a reshoot for the beginning of the film so that some people on the internet can have things like when they were little.”
I’d say what the exact response would be, but it involves so much swearing.
I didn’t expect you to get mad about it.
He should have known and think about it before he cut it together, shouldn’t he? As a self proclaimed fan he should have known there has to be a gunbarrel before it.
He could have cut that shot differently. It is his job to get it right.
I’m not mad. You said something, I told you the actual reason why it’s not, I’m just explaining how making a film works. Despite the sound bite, “what the fans want” never factors in to anything but marketing, for the obvious reason that people dont agree on anything.
Ok, but that reason I knew, I just don’t buy it as a good one.
But no hard feelings.
I agree. LALD has flaws but it feels unique in a good way. TSWLM has some major pacing issues, particularly in its final battle(s).
Apologies - I never intended to reopen old wounds or revive old controversies by airing a minor gripe about the gunbarrel while in nostalgic mood on a Sunday night after half a bottle of wine.
The cold light of Monday brings a clearer sense of perspective, and I can appreciate that those EON people can hardly hope to please everyone in this and many other respects.
Could be worse, we could be GOT fans demanding they reshoot the last season with many online petitions.
That is really a thing now, isn‘t it? After THE LAST JEDI there also was a petition.
Man, can‘t they just gripe on message boards like normal people?
Quantum of Solace has the best Craig-era gunbarrel.
Bob Simmons was the best at the gunbarrel shenanigans.
I don’t know what it is when I watch that QoS gunbarrel, but there’s something about it what looks strange, maybe he walks too fast, it seems rushed.
To me, Craig has the best stance and the best walk. Additionally, the cgi is the best of the four and I like the more matte finish on the gunbarrel. I also like that Craig walks away after the shot. The SF gunbarrel’s CGI looks weird as does Craig’s pose. CR’s gunbarrel is nearly perfect, except that the blood looks very cartoony. SP’s gunbarrel is strange. It’s very static, the blood falls in a way that really just looks like someone pulling down a static image, and again Craig has a weird pose. Also, the gunbarrel looks uglier than it did during the Moore years.
I rank the Craig gunbarrels like this:
But isn’t that the point? It’s not abstract like it normally is, but specifically bleeding (pun intended) into the playing card style of the titles, thus the red matching the colour or a heart 
and diamond 
of the playing cards.
Am delighted to discover my iPad has emoji for 
