Written by: John Logan, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Jez Butterworth
Starring: Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Dave Bautista
Rating: [3/5]
Sometimes too much of a good thing can lead to things turning a bit rotten and losing its originally strong taste. Really gives credence to the belief of moderation being key to a healthy and balanced diet. With Spectre, this run of Bond films takes the strong idea of giving this Bond a narrative throughline in each of the films but goes massively overboard in the wrong direction squandering an epic first half.
Attempting to complete one final mission assigned to him by the previous M, James Bond (Daniel Craig) learns of the new movement to create a combined international agency that would make the “00” program moot. While combatting this issue, he must dive deeper into an organization that has much more involvement in his previous missions than he could ever fathom.
Reaching now the fourth film of Daniel Craig’s run as James Bond, his films have proven to be quite the roller coaster in quality. While each of them qualifies as some level of good, the peaks and troughs of it will require a harness for protection. Obviously coming off the best one of them all in Skyfall, that then means this feature would be the trough, which unfortunately occurs certainly not because of the action set pieces but rather what this feature seeks to do on a larger scale through its narrative that nearly crumbles this feature down to its foundation.
Of the many plaudits this run of Bond films has received, one of the major ones lies in the praise for giving this Bond quite the character development from his first feature to where we see him in Spectre. His grief of losing Vesper still haunts him all of these years later making for richer films as a result because we invest in more than just the idea of Bond but also him as a human being on an emotional level. Unfortunately, this feature takes one step too far in the connection of these features in crafting a villain that somehow has a connection to everything and everyone Bond has interacted with throughout the previous films.
On one hand, it’s understandable with connected stories, the stakes, and status of the building need to continue to build but when being sold the idea of all of the previous villains serving under one organization led by one man simply causes nothing but a splintering headache. A move at the time made popular namely by comic book films, which demonstrates the reactionary aspect of the filmmaking involved to try to jump on this particular bandwagon but in this case, they get burned. It especially disappoints when we interact with the big bad guy behind it all and he does not even surpass the intrigue of Le Chiffre or Raoul Silva. Even casting Chrisoph Waltz in the role did not save this underwhelming villain.
Most of this nonsense occurs in the second half but the first contains vintage Bond greatness with the very opening sequence in Mexico City where Bond engages in a chase scene during a Dia de los Muertos celebration that displays the vibrancy and excitement one would expect from a Bond film directed by Sam Mendes and shot by cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema. They create some dazzling sequences throughout the feature that provide the thrill anyone whose a fan of this franchise adores and those moments help us forget the dreadful plot we need to endure in order to get to the next action sequence. This aspect proves quite the delight once again displaying the particular physicality Daniel Craig brings to the role and how these henchmen get dealt with fiercely. We also get quite the introduction of Dave Bautista as a top assassin Mr. Hinx. Their sequence in the train elicits the combining of three fingers pressed to your lips also known as a chef’s kiss. Something so thrilling to watch making quite the adversarial circumstance for Bond.
While disappointed in the direction taken by the story, Spectre contains more than enough to enjoy through what makes Bond films so easily watchable. With this one, you can skip around to the action sequences as they provide the thrills any audience member could ask for. Everything from the villain to the Bond girl by Léa Seydoux disappoints in what they contribute to the story that they should be best left forgotten. At the very least we have Monica Belucci show up in this feature as the early scene where Bond gets physically intimate with a woman. Always good to see her in stuff even if all of it comes in service of a fairly average film.
Films with Josh 
