Spectre Review

Moderate Royale 

Released : October 26th 2015

Certificate : 12

Director : Sam Mendes

Cast : Daniel Craig, Lea Seydoux, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, Ralph Fiennes, Andrew Scott, Christoph Waltz, Rory Kinnear, Monica Bellucci, Dave Bautista

Plot : Bond (Craig) goes rough, leading his own investigation and assault on an olden organisation known as SPECTRE. As he follows them across the global he slowly realises the mass scale SPECTRE has had not only on the world, but on his own life as well.

The bond film that has carried much hype around it after the rumoured that it could be Daniel Craig’s last outing as the British spy. Whether this is true or not will depend on who you ask, but the character stepping down is that of Mendes, who originally said that Skyfall would be his only instalment, but now is quiet insistent to leave Bond behind. These factors and the huge popularity of Skyfall, as the film which wasn’t a book that provided to be better than most, built up much anticipation for the 24th Bond film. Much excitement was also rallied when it was announced that Christoph Waltz would be the villain to do battle against Bond, the double Oscar winning actor who seems as if most of his career was building to being a bond villain.

Following the story of Skyfall, which story and script wise proved to be the best bond film for Craig and some labelled ever, left Spectre with a ‘return’ to the loosely book based material. Spectre was very much built like a fare well to Craig, due to the way that the film’s plot linked to all of Craig past films to create what felt like an extravagant finale, like an end to a franchise or horror trilogy. The way that the film went about this felt very purpose built, which was intensified by being followed by Skyfall. Skyfall’s use of a villain with connection to the other main characters past wasn’t a new idea to Bond but a rare one and not overly dramatics. But to follow it straight after with a villain of the same nature seemed unoriginal. It was much ruined by the huge build up that was present for this villain, maybe due to the connection with Bond or maybe because of it being Waltz or both. The build up was immense, only to result in a villain whose presence in the film is briefer than any other villain in a Craig Bond film, or ever. Resembling that of an old horror film where you see the monster at the end.

Other aspects of the plot of the film didn’t fly as they should, particularly the aspect of the film trying to interlink with every past villain by claiming that they are part of SPECTRE. Some could argue that this approach is new and original and attempts to bring Bond to modern standards instead of generic good guy versus bad. But when on screen it didn’t feel genuine, as with the link between Bond and the villain. Having had no inclination to the existence of SPECTRE existence or a link of any kind between the past villains, the same with that of the Waltz character relation to Bond, it gave the film a forced reality. In order to make this Bond more dramatic, dark and compelling, it built a story to tick all of those boxes, but didn’t really gel with the Bond universe, feeling less like a Bond film than Skyfall did. Despite the story aspects there were Bond classical trade marks that where more noticeable and enjoyable than in any Craig Bond film, such as the car full of gadgets, the villain with the unusual weapon, and the over the top method of killing Bond. These were fun warm additions to a story that was attempting to be overly dark and concluding in a clichéd way.

Not every aspect of the film fell apart along with the story, most noticeable being that of the directing of Mendes, who as out done himself, as if nothing else Spectre is one of the best shot Bond film ever. This is made clear from the outset of the film with an action scene in a Mexican Festival of Death, the camera panning through the crowd following Bonds movements is stunning and unlike anything the franchise has given us before. The actions scenes pitched by Mendes were also a special in the clean and orchestrated nature, however did fall short on the believability and the memorability of the works of Casino Royal and Skyfall. But Mendes other aspects where sound such as the music title sequence and the presentation of the vast different landscapes that Bond travels to on his journey. Mendes feel of the story was sound, despite the story itself being the fail, hence doing the best with what he had, constructing the dark suspense of the organisation to a tee. With a particularity memorable scene of the introduction of Waltz and Bautista in a SPECTRE meeting, using the shadowy effect that can be seen in the trailer to keep the audience enthralled and on edge, only to then let these two beautiful character have limited appearance.

The acting from Craig was up to the same high standard as usual, despite this film having the lacking nature of the character development from Bond as previously meaning that for some his performance may prove to be too subtle. But without a doubt with this performance amounting to the fact that Craig is the best actor for Bond since Connery and surpassing him. The Bond girl played by Lea Seydoux was impressive but unfortunately again one of the more passive girls to grace the screen during Craigs reign. Waltz was generic Waltz, enjoyable in his brief but maniacal cunning way.

Spectre is likely to have crowds divided due to it being so different from past Bonds, just as Skyfall did. But unfortunately it thought it was packing a bigger punch than it actually was. A global villains organisation could have been enough on its own to have taken the drama of Bond up, as this is a plot point had not been expanded on before in the time of Craig, but it lacked the direction. The film succeed on the following, performances, directing and build up (as you do go along with the Bonds hunt throughout the film, only to be left hungry). Failing with story, style and action.

Verdict : Not as good as Skyfall or Casino Royale by some way, but still a hell of a lot better than Quantum of Solace.

Verdict : 3/5

Quote : “You are a kite dancing in a hurricane, Mr Bond.”