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Cut to the river Thames, Craig and Tanner are cruising along in a military style fast boat; much like the one Craig stepped off ten years prior, seasick and woozy, when he was introduced as EON\u2019s biggest mistake. As the two pass the old MI6 HQ at Vauxhall Cross, Tanner laments how it will be torn down in a week (just because M’s office was damaged last film, talk about government waste!). Ooh foreshadowing! Juxtaposed against that, right across the river is the new center for national security building, a tall circular glass monstrosity jutting to the heavens, fresh, new, clean, sterile. The boat makes a left under a bridge and in to Q\u2019s new subterranean lair guarded by machine gun toting agents. They try to explain Q moved there to escape the prying eyes of the new regime, but I question how that was allowed, C and his plethora of spy cameras didn\u2019t notice as MI6\u2019s quartermaster division spirited away all of their equipment, projects, and personnel? Nor did they notice all the new heavily armed water sport enthusiasts down by the river?<\/p>\n
As they reach the pier Tanner tells Craig to mind his step as it\u2019s a bit slippery and offers his hand for assistance, Craig steps right off without need of it, sure footed as a mountain goat, exposing that Craig is indeed a man\u2019s man!<\/p>\n
They enter the lab where Craig is told Q has something special in store for him, as they break the threshold a rifle fitted with a fancy scope is seen on a table, Craig goes right to it, unfortunately for him this is not \u201cChekhov’s\u2019s gun\u201d and he is told to put\u00a0it down.<\/p>\n
Enter Ben Whishaw as Q, I must confess old Ben did a lot to grow on me here, he really steals the scene. (Not a difficult thing to do when up against Craig, but you get the point.) Gone is the effeminate, uppity, self-important I.T. guy persona, and in its place he does his best to effect a modern day Desmond Llewelyn. Still a bit effeminate perhaps but I guess that\u2019s who Ben is.<\/p>\n
Old Q shoots Craig up with the \u201cNano Blood\u201d which put\u00a0microchips in his blood stream, I can think of less convoluted ways to keep tabs on someone, but OK. Q shows Craig the Aston Martin DB10™, but since he\u2019s been grounded, I have to ask why? The car\u2019s been reallocated to 009 so why waste time showing it to Craig? Q gives him an Omega Seamaster 300 Spectre edition wrist watch™, available at fine jewelers everywhere, this one\u2019s been packed with explosives, as Q explains \u201cThe alarm is rather loud, if you get my meaning.\u201d Why is he talking in riddles, and why give an exploding $6000 watch to a man who shouldn\u2019t be using it? I also must point out, just last movie Q states \u201cWhat did you expect, an exploding pen? We don\u2019t really go in for that sort of thing anymore.\u201d You don\u2019t eh? No, exploding watches are all the rage now! So exploding pens are ridiculous, but an exploding watch is perfectly fine? OK, I see the logic in that.<\/p>\n
They pass the old DB5, ugh the way they flaunt it about. To paraphrase\u00a0Drax in Moonraker, that car has \u201cthe inevitable tediousness of an unloved season\u201d. They can\u2019t play the Bond theme mid film, but we see that darn car every movie! Q says \u201cI told you to bring it back in one piece, not bring back one piece\u201d cute line, but this Q didn\u2019t give him that car, in fact the inclusion of that car in this rebooted universe is rather confusing, I guess even for the film makers, not just for us.<\/p>\n
Craig asks Q to hold off on tracking him for a couple of days so he can jet off to Rome, Q agrees but I ask why? Their relationship hasn\u2019t been established to be one of career jeopardizing trust, so why is Q sticking his neck out for Craig? It doesn\u2019t matter, as we\u2019ll see later, many things happen in this film simply because \u201cWe say so\u201d.<\/p>\n
Cut to pretentious skyline shot of London with creepy music, then to Moneypenny\u2019s desk where she is opening a package containing a cell phone from Craig. I assume it\u2019s a \u201cburner\u201d phone meant to keep MI6 from keeping tabs on their conversations, it\u2019ll be important later on.<\/p>\n
Back to Q who is informed 009 is here for the car. Q opens the door to discover the car is gone and in its place a bottle of fine, chilled Bollinger champagne™, coupled with the high tech rifle Craig used\u00a0in Mexico begs the question, don\u2019t they lock anything up at MI6?\u00a0This is one of the many attempts to invoke the spirit of the Moore era. They all fail miserably; however I can\u2019t really accurately gauge this one, for one simple reason. Sir Roger never had to steal anything from Q.<\/p>\n
Would Roger leave a bottle of bubbly to make up for grand theft auto? Maybe, but he didn\u2019t need to, you know why? Because the producers understood in those days that Bond didn\u2019t need any \u201cpersonal motivation\u201d or to \u201cgo rogue\u201d in order for him to venture out to do battle, do you know why that is? BECAUSE SPYING IS HIS JOB!!! Globetrotting to exotic locals to thwart evil plots is his 9-5; it\u2019s what he\u2019s payed to do! It doesn\u2019t need to be \u201cpersonal\u201d because, why would it be? How often does your personal life and work life cross? How often do you \u201cgo rogue\u201d at work and need to \u201cborrow\u201d the copy machine for a weekend to \u201cget the job done\u201d? Has your sibling ever started a rival company to exact revenge against you? Has a \u201cdark secret\u201d ever come back to haunt your supervisor, requiring you to take action to save them? Yeah, neither should Bond, yet here we are with:\u00a0This time its personal, No\u00a0THIS<\/strong>\u00a0time its personal, No really\u00a0THIS<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0time its personal, No, no for reals\u00a0THIS<\/u><\/strong><\/em>\u00a0time it really, really is personal!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cut to the river Thames, Craig and Tanner are cruising along in a military style fast boat; much like the one Craig stepped off ten years prior, seasick and woozy, when he was introduced as EON\u2019s biggest mistake. As the two pass the old MI6 HQ at Vauxhall Cross, Tanner laments how it will be…<\/p>\n