Spectre, 2015.
Directed by Sam Mendes.
Starring Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Ralph Fiennes, Lea Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Dave Bautista, Andrew Scott and Monica Bellucci.
SYNOPSIS:
A cryptic message from Bond’s past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organization. While M battles political forces to keep the secret service alive, Bond peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the terrible truth behind SPECTRE.
Spectre is infuriating.
If you list everything that a good Bond film needs, it’s present and correct. This is also Craig at his most Bondian and he’s great to watch. Given the OK to have a bit more fun, he’s clearly building on and enjoying the changes brought over from Skyfall. His niche has been discovered; in the vein of Connery or Dalton rather than Moore or Brosnan, and it works well.
The bothersome thing is that despite including everything we want, we’re not judging this film as ‘just a Bond film’. Skyfall propelled the series into a different arena, where the level of scrutiny is higher. The car chase contains two of the most striking vehicles to grace the franchise, but fails to excite as much as it should. The villains don’t get enough time to shine, and two more Bond girls fail to escape the shadow of Vesper Lynd.
Despite its long run time the story feels underdeveloped, with one thread in particular seemingly written in to seem topical but ultimately providing nothing. All of this is compounded by a non-existent score that does nothing to drive the film onward.
On the plus side, what the cast are given they use admirably. Waltz walks the line between sinister and camp perfectly, whilst Bond’s now established team all prove their worth. I really enjoy Bond’s interactions with them, but it’s good to see they can do their own thing too.
The action is exciting, but be warned; several moments are clearly pushing the 12A certificate to its limit. It’s not for the squeamish.
I’m a sucker for continuity, so the mention of events from Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace (I still quite like it), and Skyfall tickles my fussy bone no end.
With that in mind I do wonder if we’ll see Craig as Bond again. If he were to step off now I’d have mixed feelings. I’d love to see the next film go ‘full Bond’ with him in the role, but I think this might be as far as he can take it. Either way he’ll definitely go down as a worthy Bond in my eyes.
It’s easy to get caught up in the hype. Spectre is an entertaining film and well worth the time. But much like Skyfall, so much is done right that the missteps are all the more obvious.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Cooper is a Flickering Myth Staff Writer, and owner of the blog Super Duper Stuff. Follow him on Twitter @SDCCooper or visit the blog’s Facebook page.