Spectre (2015, Movie Review)
Monday, November 16, 2015
Earlier this year I did an entire month dedicated to nothing but James Bond related posts, why because I’ve always been a fan of the franchise and I was really excited for a new film. Good old James Bond, it’s one of those film series where even at their worst, I’ll always find something to enjoy, and here we are with his 26th motion picture film titled “Spectre”. This is the fourth to star Daniel Craig in the title role, and he hits it out of the park again. Supposedly, this will be his last Bond film, which sucks because he’ll be a hard act to replace, but it’s been done before.
In this movie, Bond is forced to leave his organization in order to track down clues regarding a secret criminal organization called Spectre, who aim to collect global information from all across the nation, giving them the perfect advantage over their enemies. Leading this evil alliance is none other than Blofeld, one of the most classic villains from the Golden age of James Bond. In typical James Bond, there’s a beautiful woman becomes his partner on the adventure, car chases ensue, and more secrets are unearthed. Overall, it’s a standard 007 plot and while not as sharp as its predecessor “Skyfall”, it’s still engaging and has lots of highlights. The direction and cinematography on display are the most creative and dazzling of the whole franchise. Right at the beginning, there’s an incredible tracking shot that lasts for a good five minutes, and it really got things started. The theme song paired with the opening credits scene was a work of art, on par with some of the franchises best intros.
The action scenes were all very good, but nothing out of the box. I will say that it was the best shot action scenes of all the Daniel Craig Bond films. Lea Seydoux plays our female lead named Dr. Swan and she does a respectable job. I wouldn’t call her one of the absolute best Bond girls, but she is a welcome member into the Bond family of action woman. The villain Blofeld is played well by Christoph Waltz but he really doesn’t hold a candle to Donald Pleasence who played Blofeld back in “You Only Live Twice”. Also, there a twist at the end of the film regarding Blofelds relation to Bond, and I personally didn’t think it was needed, it just felt like a feeble attempt to make him the ultimate Bond adversary, only for it to fail.
When compared to some of the previous Bond films, I’d say this is a welcome entry and worth watching, but really wasn’t that special either. Of course after 25 films, the Bond movies will get harder to impress because we’ve seen so much already, but that’s not to say “Spectre” bad by any means. It still looks good, it has its entertainment, and it felt more like a classic old school Bond film then any of the other Daniel Craig installments. Some may complain that this film relies too much on the familiar James Bond formulas, but it really wasn’t an issue for me. Even though I won’t be putting this among my top 10 favorite Bond outings, it was still a good time, and I look forward to going on another mission with my favorite British agent some time soon.
I give “Spectre” 3 stars out of 5.