Those agents should have been withdrawn the moment that information was leaked. - Risk assessment? If they're in with groups as dangerous as they are portrayed as being, prematurely severing any intelligence feeds would be crippling. And probably an element of "Hey, Joe just abandoned the cell. Also Jack and Jenny and John-Boy. Do they know something we don't? And if they've just been abducted by the 'Good Guys' do they now know everything we do? We better change all our plans and/or do something rash that they wouldn't expect".
(Actually, what I'd do is use
my hacking resources (or any possible close cooperation with YouTube/whatever) to set up a counterfeit 'reveal' on various medium-level figures who were
actually annoyingly loyal members. Perhaps then set up a further counterfeit "No they aren't!" pertaining to be the original source, or echoing any "No they aren't!" he does on further revelations (if he gets in there first), and so flood the scene with accusations and counter-refutations of completely confusingly mixed-up origination that no terrorist organisation can take
any 'reveal' as being genuine. Of course, it's hinted that Silva effectively has the whole Internet (and MI6 intranet) tied down tightly under his control, so there may need to enlist other agencies in the effort... I could see that going wrong, but surely they can get enough resources to swamp his efforts, however well pre-organised!)
Q spewing on about obfuscated code and all that crap. - I rather dislike the "make it look like a protein-folding/travelling-salesman-problem visualisation" method of alluding to complex code, too. And did they pick out a fully alphabetic plaintext name out of hexadecimal 'debug' thingummy? OTOH, how else can you make it look interesting for the film viewer?
(Actually, the best example I can point out of "technogeeking" is the bit in Patriot Games where Ryan gets the friendly-government-hacker-dude to put together something to patch him into the not-so-friendly-government-guy's computer. The look of relish in his eyes as he goes and gets his archive-tape robot working overtime. Still
many problems with that scene (and the subsequent "Oh, I forgot to tell you, don't use this when he's at his computer" bit), but far enough away from Minority Report-style data-flinging that I can forgive those.)
HERP DERP HERP DERP (re: Silva's trap) - Q said how he'd
invented the code obfuscations (IIRC). Hubris. And the need to quickly get his stock of algorithms to work on the problem, probably with computing power outside of the confiscated equipment. (I have a harder time believing that individual
memory locations are 'booby trapped', or that if they are (simple gold wires leading out of modified RAM chips to create an 'overnet' of data transfer? ...that's what I'm envisaging... either that or the CPU's or motherboard's microcode being hacked) then I can't see
any safe way of getting the data away without patient physical disassembly of the equipment with (at various points) something akin to Scanning Electron Microscope being co-opted to 'feel' the data out of storage media. But that'd take time they don't think they have. (And probably didn't.)
And what's with the lack of empathy Bond? You just watched the girl get shot and didn't even flinch. Ugh. - What's breaking down in tears going to do? I'm with Flying Dice, in general, and she's an assignment, not an actual love interest (c.f. OHMSS). Of course, he could have
feigned an emotional attachment or (if she truly had burrowed into his heart, during the... 12 hours perhaps of their acquaintance) let his true feelings out. But why? He already had as much of the upper-hand as he needed, as evidenced by the take-down of Silva's posse moments later and the (
incredibly perfectly timed) arrival of the cavalry.
The Komodo dragon does not hunt like that Hollywood one in Hong Kong. - Perhaps trained to seize meat-treats and retreat into the shadows with them, for the entertainment of the customers? I had more feelings of "You idiot, take down Bond with a gunshot from someone outside of kicking range, don't go one-on-one with him in an enclosed space!", at that scene. When I let my natural disbelief become unsuspended, of course. But, really, Evil Overlords don't use snipers enough.
On a more critical note, why didn't they explore James's parentage? - Room for that in the next film? There's still an Old Retainer to bring back in to (select) future situations. Sorry, i was more bothered with the culture of 'faceless' mercenaries who go in mob-handed to (effectively) close-quarters fighting. I'm not sure how much they were being paid, but I hope they got themselves a death-benefits deal to support any loved-ones they might have had. Those guys don't seem the kind that get to be
old mercenaries. As, indeed, those didn't.
Let's go for my own nitpick. If Q was able to give breadcrumbs of
just the right size for Silva to believe, does he need to lead him to his
actual target? Either that, or why does Bond (while helping to lay the trail by
actually laying a trail that can be 'rightsized' to the level required) have to take Emma with him? Find a Travelodge somewhere off one of the motorways, drop her off in a manner that Q can fine-tune out of the trail that Silva will be following, let James do the Macguyvering on his own
as if she is there, to much the same result (for all the good she was, except for fitting up the explosive chandeliers, which no doubt and the Retainer would have managed anyway).
Oh and the Aston Martin... WHYYYYYYYYYYY - Because it was a "hur hur, I see what you did there...."
Brutality was not meant for such beautiful cars ;( - Ah, right, your complaint is aesthetic, not plot-related.
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Topic: Nitpicks that Ruined Movies (Read 138884 times)