Review 419: Spectre

Spectre is an excellent action film, a superb continuation & extension of the themes, ideas and tone of Skyfall and is just an overall great Bond film.

A cryptic message from the past leads James Bond (Daniel Craig) to Mexico City and Rome, where he meets Lucia Sciarra (Monica Bellucci) the beautiful widow of an infamous criminal. After infiltrating a secret meeting, 007 uncovers the existence of the sinister organization SPECTRE. Needing the help of Dr. Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux) the daughter of an old nemesis, he embarks on a mission to find her. As Bond ventures toward the heart of SPECTRE, he discovers a chilling connection between himself and Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz) the enemy he seeks.

The plot is magnificent blend of old fashioned Bond flamboyance and the hard edged, gritty, stripped down espionage of the post-Casino Royale era films of recent years, a sort of compramise between the tones of the two eras if you will. The original James Bond films were at there best when emulating the low key espionage works of Fleming or when they were simply pure entertainment and Spectre does stray into that area but it never goes overboard (Moonraker).

 

The films portrayal of SPECTRE feels much more in line with the series earlier instalments, namely the magnificent and the wonderful From Russia With Love. Bringing the organisation back to basics even when the films set peieces seem larger than life.

 

Trying to tie SPECTRE back to the villain plots of the previous films of the Daniel Craig era does little to enhance the experience and just left me feeling cold and indifferent and didn't really add all that much to the story.

It thinks that it's really clever but it instead comes over as silly, half-baked and shoe-horned in rather than something that's been built to and feels at odds with what the film was trying to be which felt like just being a more traditional Bond film.  

Returning director Sam Mendes direction is absolutely, positively seamless, crafting action scenes with such efficiency that there certain parts of the film that function almost like silent films. The production design is stupendous, mixing & melding the realistic, highly polished 21st Century feel of the post-Casino Royale films with the classic outlandishness of the classic era films, the costumes are fabulous, the cinematography is gorgeous, the locations are beautiful, the score by Thomas Newman is excitingly elegant, the stunts are remarkable, the action scenes are fantastic including a car chase through Rome, a mountainside chase involving a Jeep and a plane and a brutal hand-to-hand fight scene between Bond and the main henchman Mr. Hinx (Dave Bautista) that harkens back to From Russia with Love. 

The acting is fantastic ensemble, Daniel Craig continues to impress as James Bond, he has rightfully made his mark on this iconic character. The film is entirely driven by Bond, right from the begining, he's on a mission. He's on the hunt; on the trail of somebody and we don't know why or what he's doing.

Lea Seydoux is luminous and lovely playing Dr. Madeleine Swann. Seydoux brought a wonderful balance of strength, sultryness and mystery 

Bond comes into contact with Swann because of a promise he made to her father

Dave Bautista as Mr. Hinx is a classic Bond Henchmen, he's imposing, intimidating, beast of a character who able to covery so much whilst saying very little. He also has an immencely powerful screen presence that

Sadly Monica Bellucci is criminally underused playing Lucia Sciarra, the wife of an assassin that Bond is tracking.

 

Andrew Scott is terrific playing Max Denbigh/C, a kind of greasy spin doctor character who's the Head of the new Joint Intelligence Service. He believes that the 00 is outdated and should be disbanded.

He’s also sitting there with his own quiet agenda but he can't appear to be too powerful because he's in the room with Mallory whose technically still the head of M.I.6 so can't automatically start telling him what to do and acting like he runs the place.

 

We also see the return of Jasper Christensen as Mr. White. 

Christoph Waltz is the perfect Blofeld for the 21st Century; He's still the same old diabolical mastermind, he's always been; a strange, spectral presence that you're not entirely sure where he's come from or what he's doing. Baring an inconsequential backstory, he's still very much a terrorist

What’s undercooked though is the revelation of Blofeld as Bond’s adoptive brother, not that the concept itself is bad, but not a lot is really done with it. Craig and Waltz don’t really share that much interesting dialogue which undercuts whatever payoff the reveal intended to have. As a result, Bond and Blofeld being half siblings doesn’t amount to anything and feels narratively inconsequential.

I'm sure that giving Blofeld a personal connection Bond sounded cool on paper but it undercuts the mystery the character had in the older Bond films. Lines like "It was me James. The author of all your pain" come across as hollow/Empty statements that hold little emotional weight and are impossible to take seriously.

It's also never explained how the events of the previous three Craig films where shaped by him so the idea that he's already hurt Bond falls flat as a result.

He could have just been a terrorist and would-be world conqueror and it would have changed nothing. He's Bond's half-brother; Ok so what?

 

Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw and Naomie Harris all return playing Gareth Mallory/M, Eve Moneypenny and Q, all whom get considerably expanded roles compared to what we're use to seeing in the series.

There's an upheval going on in M.I.6 and M's role as it's head is under threat because of a new makeover and rethink of how British Intelligence manage themselves and coupled with Bond going rouge is putting him under a lot of preasure.

Bond's relationships with Q and Moneypenny are also furthered here. Bond is on a rouge mission, he doesn't trust anyone and the only person whom he reveals what the mission is about to is Moneypenny.

We see them growing closer than they ever have before and they genuine trust each, there's a mutual respect between them  They risk their careers and livelyhoods to help him.

 
4.5/5

The Anonymous Critic.