3.5/5 Spectre There was simply no way Spectre was going to please the vast majority of viewers. Skyfall, the highest grossing and one of the most critically acclaimed entries in the franchise, was just too good. If you go into the movie with those kind of expectations, as I mistakenly did, you will leave, in some shape or form, disappointed. My advice: don’t re-watch Casino Royale or Skyfall beforehand. If you are really in the mood for some Bond flashbacks, check out all those lovely (not) Roger Moore years. That will be the only way that Spectre will blow your mind. That is not to say it is a poorly made film. Quite the contrary, actually. As far as technical proficiency, witty banter, expertly choreographed mayhem, and car porn goes, this is a grade-A film. But that’s part of the problem, you see. Banter: check. Expertly choreographed mayhem: check. Countless references to the other twenty-four films: check check check check. Casino Royale, still one of the best 007 films of all time, played loose with the specifics, refusing to pander to the audience in exchange for character spectacle. Spectre is the exact opposite. You can almost time the “shaken, not stirred” line down to the second - same goes for “Bond, James Bond.” Daniel Craig, neck and neck with Connery for the Best Bond title, has invested so much nuance and effort into recreating Bond as an emotional force that it’s saddening to see him behind the wheels of such a middling, run-of-the-mill 007 entry. | Director: Sam Mendes Starring: Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Léa Seydoux, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris Writers: John Logan, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Jez Butterworth |
Which leads me to the saddest point - I swear I will say some good things in a minute - of all: Spectre is likely to be Craig’s last run at the classic character. Seeing as how he says that he’d rather “slit his wrists” than play Bond again, I cannot see him slipping back on the tux. Worse yet, he may do another and look even more tired than he does here. In the slower moments, you can almost see the actor daydreaming of other projects. Again, that’s not to say he is bad. Craig is one of the best; his Spectre performance is more emotionally charged than every Bond film from the seventies, eighties, and nineties. If Craig could find it in him to give it his all one more time, we may get the chance to see a finale we deserve. I would never wish him miserable, though. That would not be good for anyone.
Returning to the director’s chair is Sam Mendes, the master who breathed fresh life into the series with Skyfall. That film was filled with a magnetic draw of doom that made it impossible to turn away. I am not sure what inspired him to make Spectre a Greatest Hits package, but it certainly is missing a sense of finesse and artistry. But whatever Mendes misses in inspiration, he more than makes up for it firecracker set pieces like the opening Day of the Dead scene, which finds Bond twirling around in a helicopter. It’s scenes like this where Mendes makes it look so easy - that is, until you realize that it took four screenwriters to whip this thing together.
Spectre is at its best when it veers towards what have made all the Craig-era films so revelatory. Both Casino Royale and Skyfall shone a light on what actually makes Bond tick. We have seen him lose love, make selfless sacrifices, confront his troubled childhood. It’s in this childhood where Spectre really soars. It seems like a good time to give credit to Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz for making the good scenes so effective. At first, he’s the shadowy leader of an international terror organization. Keep watching and you will see that him and Bond share a tangled past that is more satisfying than any of the nostalgic winks that threaten to suffocate the whole production.
The future of James Bond is cloudy. Is Craig out? Is it even possible for the next film to offer us something we have yet to see? Casting someone like Idris Elba would be a leap in the right direction, but there’s no confirmation on that front yet - God, please. Even if Spectre is largely forgotten in the grand scheme of things, that is no reason to discount the power and brilliance of ‘Royale’ and Skyfall. I guess we should just be that we still have such worthy talent working on a series that, by all rights, should be long dead by now. Long live Bond, James Bond.
Returning to the director’s chair is Sam Mendes, the master who breathed fresh life into the series with Skyfall. That film was filled with a magnetic draw of doom that made it impossible to turn away. I am not sure what inspired him to make Spectre a Greatest Hits package, but it certainly is missing a sense of finesse and artistry. But whatever Mendes misses in inspiration, he more than makes up for it firecracker set pieces like the opening Day of the Dead scene, which finds Bond twirling around in a helicopter. It’s scenes like this where Mendes makes it look so easy - that is, until you realize that it took four screenwriters to whip this thing together.
Spectre is at its best when it veers towards what have made all the Craig-era films so revelatory. Both Casino Royale and Skyfall shone a light on what actually makes Bond tick. We have seen him lose love, make selfless sacrifices, confront his troubled childhood. It’s in this childhood where Spectre really soars. It seems like a good time to give credit to Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz for making the good scenes so effective. At first, he’s the shadowy leader of an international terror organization. Keep watching and you will see that him and Bond share a tangled past that is more satisfying than any of the nostalgic winks that threaten to suffocate the whole production.
The future of James Bond is cloudy. Is Craig out? Is it even possible for the next film to offer us something we have yet to see? Casting someone like Idris Elba would be a leap in the right direction, but there’s no confirmation on that front yet - God, please. Even if Spectre is largely forgotten in the grand scheme of things, that is no reason to discount the power and brilliance of ‘Royale’ and Skyfall. I guess we should just be that we still have such worthy talent working on a series that, by all rights, should be long dead by now. Long live Bond, James Bond.