Friday 28 November 2008

Camera....ACTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Went to see Quantum Of Solace a few weeks ago and within 15 minutes I became dazed and very confused.As soon as the action started, 2 minutes, the camera man must have dropped his live camera more times than I missed my mouth with popcorn from the quickly emptying container.After staring wide eyed at the crazed action for about 10 minutes I closed my eyes and just listened to the deafening sound track of chaos and mayhem.You knew Bond was in a desperate situation fighting and chasing a villain over roof tops, swinging on ropes and crashing through plate glass....but so it seemed was the bloody camera man, so the end product was a sort of moving empressionistic painting ie loads of colours flicked without care over a sixty foot wide canvas.For a good ten minutes your eyes couldn't settle on any detail. Apart from the manic camera work a drug crazed editor made things even worse by cutting each 'scene' to be no longer than 1.5 seconds.When the film finally slowed down enough for us to catch up on some walking and talking you had to strain to listen as the camera man was still out of breath and his wheezing was too easily audible (ok joke).Some of these new shaved headed twenty something film directors should sit quietly and watch some of Stanley Kubrick's work, you saw and understood each scene as his camera calmly absorbed them.As a Bond fan I hope that the next extravaganza concentrates on some character building, skillful camera work and introducing a smattering of humour ....and sack that bloody maniac in the cutting room!

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