Written by: John Logan and Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and Jez Butterworth (screenplay) John Logan and Neal Purvis & Robert Wade (story), Ian Fleming (characters)
Directed by: Sam Mendes
Starring: Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Léa Seydoux
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer
Plot
James Bond is back in the twenty-fourth installment of the franchise, this time battling the sinister organization Spectre, a group with plans to implement global surveillance.
Verdict
Spectre is ultimately an empty shell of a movie. It's less a spy movie and more some kind of super hero movie. That or spy fantasy wish fulfillment. This checks the boxes of what should be in a modern James Bond movie. We've got the action packed introduction, animated credits to open the film, cars, women, a torture scene, gadgets, and lots of action, but it was never as clever or as engaging as it should have been. I want James Bond to be clever and witty, relying on intellect and his team of associates. That never happens. As with most big budget movies, this is just a collection of large set pieces and explosions.
Skip it.
Review
This is the most expensive James Bond movie ever produced. All of this money was thrown at the movie for big sets, big action, big stars... and that's the problem. This movie is a collection of disjointed pieces that never come together to form a fully coherent movie. Sure it looks nice, but a lower budget Bond film would have to rely on clever solutions to make it work instead of resorting to the checkbook. A low budget movie would have to push strong dialog and character development instead of one big explosion after another.
All movies want to make money and turn a profit, but many of them are made because there is a story to be told. Bond films are now cranked out regularly, not because we need another one, not because there is more to Bond's story, but just to make money. The movie checks a bunch of boxes on the James Bond list, signs a big check and this is the result. It's not engaging and it's disappointing.
The introduction is great, with a near seamless tracking shot of Bond in costume at the Day of the Dead festival transitioning to Bond in a suit on a mission after bad guys.
We soon get our first big explosion and a lot of CGI that looked like CGI. Bond fights in a helicopter, and during the fight the helicopter begins flying inverted. I questioned the realism, but apparently some helicopters can fly inverted, but only for a brief moment.
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| Spectre - Another uninspired Bond film. |
Bond seduces the widow of the man he killed in the helicopter fight on the day of his funeral. By seduce I mean he looks at her and she melts in his arms. Unrealistic is an understatement. Bond is never realistic, but this strains even those boundaries, and it's not even entertaining. I can forgive Bond for a tenuous grasp on realism as long as it's entertaining.
Spectre is the big shadow organization villain, and it's used to tie the previous villains in the last few movies together in one organization. Bond almost shoots a mouse inside a hotel, though I couldn't begin to say why. The mouse leads him to the next plot point of the movie.
The movie contains a scene with Bond in a tuxedo with an arguably hot girl half his age on a train. I don't know who's fantasy this scene fulfills, but I'm sure someone is thankful for it.
Bond fights Dave Bautista's character in a rather bland fight that concludes with a poor attempt at an emotionally manipulative scene that was just set up in the previous scene.
The b-side plot is a young executive in charge of a surveillance program wants to shut down the double zero program, claiming hand to hand and assassins are old school and outdated. It feels like unnecessary drama when the movie should just focus on Bond's mission. It's pure fluff. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015) did the same thing with IMF on the verge of being disbanded and it didn't work there either. This b-plot does tie into Bond's mission eventually as part of a grand conspiracy, but it's clumsy.
The big conspiracy is that Spectre funded and created the need for surveillance program. It's one of their men that wants to shut down the double zero program.
Bond is given the choice to save the girl or save himself. As it always happens in almost every movie with this choice, Bond decides to save both himself AND the girl and succeeds. Big surprise there.
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