Here's a question:
During the film, in the scenes in the compound in the meteor crater, I never ONCE though about YOLT's volcano lair. In fact, NO OTHER Bond film came to mind at all during my viewing. I was just so in the moment with the movie.
Was it like that for may others?
Sorry, but I had to think immediately:
"that Blofeld gotta LOVE volcanoes" but with a smile....
President of the 'Misty Eyes Club'.
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
Here's a question:
During the film, in the scenes in the compound in the meteor crater, I never ONCE though about YOLT's volcano lair. In fact, NO OTHER Bond film came to mind at all during my viewing. I was just so in the moment with the movie.
Was it like that for may others?
I'm sorry, how could you watch a movie called Spectre with a character called James Bond and an evil organization housed in a hollowed-out crater and not think of YOLT? Much like Newman's recycled score, it pulled me right out of the moment.
And that's my opinion of Spectre: unoriginal. So much so that they ripped off Austin Powers. I'd put it in the middle on my ranking list, certainly better than Moonraker (worst) but will nowhere near the heights of From Russia With Love, Casino Royale and OHMSS.
I enjoyed myself when watching it, I truly did, but after the daddy issues, white cat, no evil plan, a facial scar and two countdown clocks... Oh, and to the man whose goal is to destroy my life, I will take that headshot while you're on the ground.
I'm very happy that so many of you enjoyed it, it gives me hope that maybe I'll like it when I see it again.
Oh, and to the man whose goal is to destroy my life, I will take that headshot while you're on the ground.
I expected them to make Blofeld grab a gun from out of nowhere to MAKE Bond kill him (typical Hollywood crap), but they surprised me! Bond didn't kill Blofeld because he's not a killer- he's an assassin. There's a difference. :v
Here's a question:
During the film, in the scenes in the compound in the meteor crater, I never ONCE though about YOLT's volcano lair. In fact, NO OTHER Bond film came to mind at all during my viewing. I was just so in the moment with the movie.
Here's a question:
During the film, in the scenes in the compound in the meteor crater, I never ONCE though about YOLT's volcano lair. In fact, NO OTHER Bond film came to mind at all during my viewing. I was just so in the moment with the movie.
Was it like that for may others?
I'm sorry, how could you watch a movie called Spectre with a character called James Bond and an evil organization housed in a hollowed-out crater and not think of YOLT? Much like Newman's recycled score, it pulled me right out of the moment.
And that's my opinion of Spectre: unoriginal. So much so that they ripped off Austin Powers. I'd put it in the middle on my ranking list, certainly better than Moonraker (worst) but will nowhere near the heights of From Russia With Love, Casino Royale and OHMSS.
I enjoyed myself when watching it, I truly did, but after the daddy issues, white cat, no evil plan, a facial scar and two countdown clocks... Oh, and to the man whose goal is to destroy my life, I will take that headshot while you're on the ground.
I'm very happy that so many of you enjoyed it, it gives me hope that maybe I'll like it when I see it again.
Don't forget that the hero rescues the girl who is tied inside a building about to collapse...That's the big ending. How original is that? like silent movie original...In the 1920s it was probably a fresh idea.
Here's a question:
During the film, in the scenes in the compound in the meteor crater, I never ONCE though about YOLT's volcano lair. In fact, NO OTHER Bond film came to mind at all during my viewing. I was just so in the moment with the movie.
Was it like that for may others?
You must be joking...
I'm like a kid that way I'm afraid; when I get enthralled by a film and am in the ride of it I just soak it in with no other thoughts going through my head. )
Here's a question:
During the film, in the scenes in the compound in the meteor crater, I never ONCE though about YOLT's volcano lair. In fact, NO OTHER Bond film came to mind at all during my viewing. I was just so in the moment with the movie.
Was it like that for may others?
You must be joking...
I'm like a kid that way I'm afraid; when I get enthralled by a film and am in the ride of it I just soak it in with no other thoughts going through my head. )
I watched Spectre tonight, my first viewing.
I've just spent two hours reading the fantastic reviews on this thread.
Brilliant job to you all !
I usually post a review and I will in the near future, but I need to get my head straight around this one.
Suffice to say for now, I was in no hurry to watch it, and I'll be in no hurry to watch it again.
I'm like a kid that way I'm afraid; when I get enthralled by a film and am in the ride of it I just soak it in with no other thoughts going through my head. )
I believe you
It's a power I possess. I'm an X-5 after all. We were taught to focus on the task at hand. :v
I'm like a kid that way I'm afraid; when I get enthralled by a film and am in the ride of it I just soak it in with no other thoughts going through my head. )
I believe you
It's a power I possess. I'm an X-5 after all. We were taught to focus on the task at hand. :v
Yes, it certainly takes X Men power not to think of OHMSS, YOLT, GF or LALD seeing SPECTRE. I shall call you Forgeto.
I enjoyed myself when watching it, I truly did, but after the daddy issues, white cat, no evil plan, a facial scar and two countdown clocks... Oh, and to the man whose goal is to destroy my life, I will take that headshot while you're on the ground.
Of course, Bond isn't the only older man within a stone's throw of Parliament who has issues with 'shoot to kill'...
Then again, doesn't this cast doubt on M's wise speech to C, about how an agent can make a decision about what is the right way to act when he has a villain in his sights?
Spectre, Daniel Craig’s fourth outing as OO7, opens with a traditional gun barrel sequence. Not seen preluding a Bond movie since the days of Pierce Brosnan, this rather neatly anticipates what is to follow as this new adventure for Britain’s top secret agent seems in part to be a two and a half hour homage to almost all of the 23 movies which came before.
It’s fun to sit there and pick out the bits you think the writers have pinched from previous films as well as from a few as yet unused novels or short stories. Indeed Purvis and Wade (again), this time aided by Jez Butterworth and John Logan, utilize several of the best and most frequent recurring set pieces from the very start. Mexico City’s Day of the Dead festival is a spectacular annual fiesta which brings to mind the voodoo scenes in Live and Let Die. We’ve seen Bond in this kind of peril during a public jamboree once too often, most recently in Quantum of Solace’s Palio pursuit, at its peak in Thunderball’s Junkanoo chase, but often these share mixed results. Here it’s delivered with some aplomb. There is a much heralded opening tracking shot and a spectacular assassination complete with collapsing building a la Casino Royale. There’s even a neat little visual gag involving a sofa which Craig handles with the finesse of Moore in his prime.
It’s at this point that the movie feels suspiciously like a retread of something I’ve recently seen – a month ago in fact when I re-watched Skyfall on DVD. A mere few minutes in and I’m almost screaming for the credits, yet exactly as in the previous outing, this PTS is stretched to almost unendurable length and while I agree the helicopter fight is so well directed, edited and choreographed you can barely see the CGI joins, I have to argue that the interminable length of this scene – say nothing of the whole movie – is the real battle for James Bond.
I cannot fathom what persuaded the director, producers, writers, editors, money men or whoever else is involved in these decisions to burden us with over two and half hours of OO7. When you watch the older, more satisfying Bond films it is surprising how little action there is. You may think you are getting a lot of bangs for your buck, but in fact most of them are not that action orientated. Instead there is a raft of clever and relevant dialogue, which explains the characters motives and the plot. Interspersed with these are periods of tension, suspense and intrigue, but the action sequences themselves, pitched showdowns in volcano craters and oil tankers accepted, tend to be very short, sharp and shockingly violent. This persisted even into Brosnan’s era – think of the two scenes in the Graveyard of Communism or the halo jump. Yet for the second episode running there appears to be an inability on anyone’s part to reign themselves in, to understand that sometimes less can actually demonstrate more.
The first two thirds of the movie proceed at a brisk pace. Narrative plot holes abound and Bond’s actions fail to make any kind of sense, but cast that aside we have some splendidly photographed landscapes, some nice cinematic portraiture and a bit of cheesy banter between Bond and Q. The action’s reasonable too, if long winded. There’s a particularly dreary snow bound plane / car chase which really ought to have ended on the cutting room floor and Bond spends another chase scene sharing quips and data downloads over his mobile phone with a post-coitus Moneypenny. Well, I guess I never saw that in a sixties Bond! Not sure I want to see it now either.
Eventually, via Rome and Monica Bellucci’s bed, via Austria and Mr. White’s hell hole of a hideaway, via some Swiss clinic, via a dingy dodgy hotel in Tangiers, we end up on a train heading for the deepest darkest deserts of Morocco. Bond has found a reluctant ally in Mr. White’s daughter, the fetching Madeleine Swann, played by the astonishingly gorgeous Lea Seydoux. Their romance seems unlikely, but all women fall for Bond on trains and make no mistake so does this one. It follows a vicious fight with an almost mute heavy called Hinx. This bruising encounter destroys half the train. Luckily most of the carriages seem to be empty, so the two lovers have their pick of rooms to make rather animalistic intentions of lust. Earlier Swann attempts to psychoanalyze our Bond, but he’s having none of it, or is he? That twinkle in Craig’s eye is back; the same one he wore so effectively in his debut. If I’m honest, I’ve never warmed to old DC, but he’s very good in this one. Like Connery in Thunderball (also a fourth film) he now seems to inhabit Bond, rather than act him. He’s as relaxed in a dinner jacket as he is punching seven bells out of Hinx or downing vodka in a rundown hotel or sitting static and silent in his London flat. Pity they couldn’t uncramp him from those Tom Ford suits he constantly bulks out.
What he can’t control is the wayward narratives. Jesper Christiansen’s Mr. White refers to Bond as “a kite, caught in a hurricane” and you do get the feeling our James is rather lost in this one. The train eventually dumps our lovely looking pair at a meteorite crater now housed for Spectre’s secret world wide data zapping thingumajig. I thought the sadly departed Silva had already achieved this feat in Japan in Skyfall, but apparently, despite all of Craig’s recent enemies all being disparate elements of Spectre, they had to rebuild it all over again. This, much like Hashima Island , is a startling setting, and, manned by many more minions this time around, the stage appears to be set for a big showdown the like we haven’t witnessed in a Bond film since those astronaut marines took on Drax’s laser toting regiments. Except there’s a problem: Bond is all alone. Disowned by MI6 (again?) he’s gone rogue, a bit like Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt in the recent Mission Impossible movie, but without the natty camerawork and the toothy grin.
So rather than having Bond simply be given orders to eradicate Sciarra in Mexico, the writers, director and producers have concocted an intertwining tale which involves all the past three films, their villains and heroines and even informs us that the head of Spectre, the wonderfully named Ernst Stavro Blofeld – great name that, must be one of Ian Fleming’s – is the sort of step brother of our man Bond. As played by Christoph Waltz he’s creepy and thoroughly believable, but he lacks all the menace of Silva. Even an update of Donald Pleasance’s facial scar can’t make him more than a strangely anodyne figure. He doesn’t even wear socks. That Bond escapes is no surprise, neither is it that Blofeld wasn’t even killed and nor was his on line surveillance project thwarted, because Bond must to return to London and endure another twenty five minutes of running and shooting and exploding stuff to help Q crack Spectre’s secret digital codes and shut down the system. Yes. It’s actually Q who saves the day, not Bond. A bespectacled man with glasses and a laptop has more power in his fingertips than Bond does in his Sig Sauer.
I sound like I’m jesting. I’m actually rather upset. I need to back track. Early on in the movie we learn Bond has been following up an ‘order from the grave’ delivered by the previous M in a DVD playback; we learn he has some childhood memories of a man called Franz Oberhauser; we learn MI6 & MI5 are uniting under a new department head called C – for ####, obviously – this officious, soapy little man even has to grow badly trimmed stubble to look older than twenty five. So obviously up to no good. So couldn’t care less. Q, Tanner, Moneypenny and M all get to play at spy games in a secondary plot of dire and dull circumstances which need not have been utilized, slows the movie down and constantly removes the focus of the story from wherever Bond is to London or wherever Q is. Gallingly at the point we ought to have a great battle scene, a fight with the bad guy and a rescue of a damsel in distress, all we get is a half-startling reveal of a villain, a half-baked torture scene and an unlikely all-encompassing explosion.
They’ve dressed the movie really well, with top notch actors, a returning classy director in Sam Mendes and some great production design, costumes and effects. Thomas Newman’s music score is too reminiscent of Skyfall, but I like the theme tune from Sam Smith. Hoyte van Hoytema deserves a particular mention for his photography which is at times magnificently beautiful. Generally, like most Bond films, it’s an enjoyable ride which tries not to take itself too seriously; there is plenty of evidence of slapstick and wit, not always successful, but always welcome, and plenty of tough stuff, long winded or not.
And there, I said it again. Sadly Spectre is simply too long. It drags in too many places and there are too many conversations between people discussing things which have no relevance to the driving narrative. There’s no need for extraneous explanation in a James Bond film. He’s an agent. He’s an assassin. He tracks people or organizations down and kills or destroys them. The intrigue is how he does it, not why he does it. The producers would do well not to hark back to what they think the franchise and the hero are about, but to why they worked so well in the first place.
Their romance seems unlikely, but all women fall for Bond on trains and make no mistake so does this one.
^ )
The end also appeared to be a mix of MI3 where Hunt is running around Shanghai in search for his wife and Dark Knight where Joker provided options to the passengers on the boats.
LoeffelholzThe United States, With LovePosts: 8,998Quartermasters
Very well-reasoned and equally well-written review, chrisno1. I'm certainly glad I enjoyed it more than you did! The self-referentialism has certainly come to a head in this one, to be sure, and desperately needs to be reined in.
Check out my Amazon author page!Mark Loeffelholz
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Very well-reasoned and equally well-written review, chrisno1. I'm certainly glad I enjoyed it more than you did! The self-referentialism has certainly come to a head in this one, to be sure, and desperately needs to be reined in.
Spectre was the 50th Anniversary film we didn't get with Skyfall. It had more nods to previous Bond films than Die Another Day had.
There’s no need for extraneous explanation in a James Bond film. He’s an agent. He’s an assassin. He tracks people or organizations down and kills or destroys them. The intrigue is how he does it, not why he does it. The producers would do well not to hark back to what they think the franchise and the hero are about, but to why they worked so well in the first place.
This is why I can't warm entirely to the DC era and the constant re-evaluation of who Bond is and what shapes him.
I don't want to know. I never questioned, ever, who he was. Simply an agent working for Her Majesty's government.
I want the mystique and the not knowing who Bond is. I want my Bond to be able to tell me who the enemy is, what he knows of them when quizzed by M...how he knows, well, Bond has his methods, and we listen enthralled by his knowledge of them.
I want Bond to inhabit a world I know little of, yet a one he revels in.
I need to know who my Bond is, secure in the knowledge we are in safe hands.
I don't think even Bond knows who he is right now.
When was the last Bond movie where the third act was the best?
When was the last time the best/most spectacular stunt and action scene was in the third act?
When was the last Bond movie where the third act was the best?
When was the last time the est/most spectacular stunt and action scene was in the third act?
I guess that is a rhetoric question (and 3rd act = final act). But will list a few films from the top of my head for my own reference - DN (The exchange with DN was facinating), FRWL (Train sequence and battle with Klebb), YOLT (Blofelf's lair and that fascinating background score), OHMSS (an unusual end), TMWTGG (The sequences on Scaramanga's Island), FYEO (the climb), OP (Train and plane sequences), AVTAK (Golden Gate Bridge), TLD (The plane sequence), and LTK (Truck chase sequence).
Appears as if things haven't been the same since Dalton left
When was the last Bond movie where the third act was the best?
When was the last time the est/most spectacular stunt and action scene was in the third act?
I guess that is a rhetoric question (and 3rd act = final act). But will list a few films from the top of my head for my own reference - DN (The exchange with DN was facinating), FRWL (Train sequence and battle with Klebb), YOLT (Blofelf's lair and that fascinating background score), OHMSS (an unusual end), TMWTGG (The sequences on Scaramanga's Island), FYEO (the climb), OP (Train and plane sequences), AVTAK (Golden Gate Bridge), TLD (The plane sequence), and LTK (Truck chase sequence).
Appears as if things haven't been the same since Dalton left
LTK is definitely the best example of an exciting final act.
FRWL is one of the few Bond films that doesn't have much action until the end. In the middle it has the Roma camp fight, but the end has the fights with Grant and Klebb, but also the helicopter and boat sequences. It really saves it all for the end.
TSWLM and MR both have large battles at the end. The fight with Alec at the end of GE is pretty great.
TSWLM and MR both have large battles at the end. The fight with Alec at the end of GE is pretty great.
Agree. However the final act may not have been the best on those films, for e.g. ignoring the PTSs, GE had the interesting tank chase sequence so the final part looked bland relatively. TSWLM had some awesome sequences in Egypt and Italy. However its final act was interesting too with the sub getting captured and Bond water skying to Stromberg's lair (in fact, the everything about TSWLM is great) .... MR probably had a better final act if we consider all events in Brazil
So a couple of days ago I mentioned being curious on hearing Roger Moore's thoughts on SPECTRE, though I still haven't heared anything from his side as of now, another one of the Bond's did share his assessment on SPECTRE.
Comments
Sorry, but I had to think immediately:
"that Blofeld gotta LOVE volcanoes" but with a smile....
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
Interesting - I hope people don't avoid it based on the reviews...
"Better make that two."
Gotta love Sir Rog! :007) -{
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
And he will say the same thing about the next Bond film, guaranteed!
Indeed ! He's nothing if not a team player
It is by no means guaranteed that Roger will heap praise on the next Bond film. He did say that Quantum of Solace was "a long disjointed commercial."
I'm sorry, how could you watch a movie called Spectre with a character called James Bond and an evil organization housed in a hollowed-out crater and not think of YOLT? Much like Newman's recycled score, it pulled me right out of the moment.
And that's my opinion of Spectre: unoriginal. So much so that they ripped off Austin Powers. I'd put it in the middle on my ranking list, certainly better than Moonraker (worst) but will nowhere near the heights of From Russia With Love, Casino Royale and OHMSS.
I enjoyed myself when watching it, I truly did, but after the daddy issues, white cat, no evil plan, a facial scar and two countdown clocks... Oh, and to the man whose goal is to destroy my life, I will take that headshot while you're on the ground.
I'm very happy that so many of you enjoyed it, it gives me hope that maybe I'll like it when I see it again.
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
Have his priorities.
You must be joking...
Don't forget that the hero rescues the girl who is tied inside a building about to collapse...That's the big ending. How original is that? like silent movie original...In the 1920s it was probably a fresh idea.
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
I believe you
I've just spent two hours reading the fantastic reviews on this thread.
Brilliant job to you all !
I usually post a review and I will in the near future, but I need to get my head straight around this one.
Suffice to say for now, I was in no hurry to watch it, and I'll be in no hurry to watch it again.
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
Yes, it certainly takes X Men power not to think of OHMSS, YOLT, GF or LALD seeing SPECTRE. I shall call you Forgeto.
Of course, Bond isn't the only older man within a stone's throw of Parliament who has issues with 'shoot to kill'...
Then again, doesn't this cast doubt on M's wise speech to C, about how an agent can make a decision about what is the right way to act when he has a villain in his sights?
Roger Moore 1927-2017
http://www.ajb007.co.uk/topic/31479/two-weeks-of-bondage-reviews/
Spectre, Daniel Craig’s fourth outing as OO7, opens with a traditional gun barrel sequence. Not seen preluding a Bond movie since the days of Pierce Brosnan, this rather neatly anticipates what is to follow as this new adventure for Britain’s top secret agent seems in part to be a two and a half hour homage to almost all of the 23 movies which came before.
It’s fun to sit there and pick out the bits you think the writers have pinched from previous films as well as from a few as yet unused novels or short stories. Indeed Purvis and Wade (again), this time aided by Jez Butterworth and John Logan, utilize several of the best and most frequent recurring set pieces from the very start. Mexico City’s Day of the Dead festival is a spectacular annual fiesta which brings to mind the voodoo scenes in Live and Let Die. We’ve seen Bond in this kind of peril during a public jamboree once too often, most recently in Quantum of Solace’s Palio pursuit, at its peak in Thunderball’s Junkanoo chase, but often these share mixed results. Here it’s delivered with some aplomb. There is a much heralded opening tracking shot and a spectacular assassination complete with collapsing building a la Casino Royale. There’s even a neat little visual gag involving a sofa which Craig handles with the finesse of Moore in his prime.
It’s at this point that the movie feels suspiciously like a retread of something I’ve recently seen – a month ago in fact when I re-watched Skyfall on DVD. A mere few minutes in and I’m almost screaming for the credits, yet exactly as in the previous outing, this PTS is stretched to almost unendurable length and while I agree the helicopter fight is so well directed, edited and choreographed you can barely see the CGI joins, I have to argue that the interminable length of this scene – say nothing of the whole movie – is the real battle for James Bond.
I cannot fathom what persuaded the director, producers, writers, editors, money men or whoever else is involved in these decisions to burden us with over two and half hours of OO7. When you watch the older, more satisfying Bond films it is surprising how little action there is. You may think you are getting a lot of bangs for your buck, but in fact most of them are not that action orientated. Instead there is a raft of clever and relevant dialogue, which explains the characters motives and the plot. Interspersed with these are periods of tension, suspense and intrigue, but the action sequences themselves, pitched showdowns in volcano craters and oil tankers accepted, tend to be very short, sharp and shockingly violent. This persisted even into Brosnan’s era – think of the two scenes in the Graveyard of Communism or the halo jump. Yet for the second episode running there appears to be an inability on anyone’s part to reign themselves in, to understand that sometimes less can actually demonstrate more.
The first two thirds of the movie proceed at a brisk pace. Narrative plot holes abound and Bond’s actions fail to make any kind of sense, but cast that aside we have some splendidly photographed landscapes, some nice cinematic portraiture and a bit of cheesy banter between Bond and Q. The action’s reasonable too, if long winded. There’s a particularly dreary snow bound plane / car chase which really ought to have ended on the cutting room floor and Bond spends another chase scene sharing quips and data downloads over his mobile phone with a post-coitus Moneypenny. Well, I guess I never saw that in a sixties Bond! Not sure I want to see it now either.
Eventually, via Rome and Monica Bellucci’s bed, via Austria and Mr. White’s hell hole of a hideaway, via some Swiss clinic, via a dingy dodgy hotel in Tangiers, we end up on a train heading for the deepest darkest deserts of Morocco. Bond has found a reluctant ally in Mr. White’s daughter, the fetching Madeleine Swann, played by the astonishingly gorgeous Lea Seydoux. Their romance seems unlikely, but all women fall for Bond on trains and make no mistake so does this one. It follows a vicious fight with an almost mute heavy called Hinx. This bruising encounter destroys half the train. Luckily most of the carriages seem to be empty, so the two lovers have their pick of rooms to make rather animalistic intentions of lust. Earlier Swann attempts to psychoanalyze our Bond, but he’s having none of it, or is he? That twinkle in Craig’s eye is back; the same one he wore so effectively in his debut. If I’m honest, I’ve never warmed to old DC, but he’s very good in this one. Like Connery in Thunderball (also a fourth film) he now seems to inhabit Bond, rather than act him. He’s as relaxed in a dinner jacket as he is punching seven bells out of Hinx or downing vodka in a rundown hotel or sitting static and silent in his London flat. Pity they couldn’t uncramp him from those Tom Ford suits he constantly bulks out.
What he can’t control is the wayward narratives. Jesper Christiansen’s Mr. White refers to Bond as “a kite, caught in a hurricane” and you do get the feeling our James is rather lost in this one. The train eventually dumps our lovely looking pair at a meteorite crater now housed for Spectre’s secret world wide data zapping thingumajig. I thought the sadly departed Silva had already achieved this feat in Japan in Skyfall, but apparently, despite all of Craig’s recent enemies all being disparate elements of Spectre, they had to rebuild it all over again. This, much like Hashima Island , is a startling setting, and, manned by many more minions this time around, the stage appears to be set for a big showdown the like we haven’t witnessed in a Bond film since those astronaut marines took on Drax’s laser toting regiments. Except there’s a problem: Bond is all alone. Disowned by MI6 (again?) he’s gone rogue, a bit like Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt in the recent Mission Impossible movie, but without the natty camerawork and the toothy grin.
So rather than having Bond simply be given orders to eradicate Sciarra in Mexico, the writers, director and producers have concocted an intertwining tale which involves all the past three films, their villains and heroines and even informs us that the head of Spectre, the wonderfully named Ernst Stavro Blofeld – great name that, must be one of Ian Fleming’s – is the sort of step brother of our man Bond. As played by Christoph Waltz he’s creepy and thoroughly believable, but he lacks all the menace of Silva. Even an update of Donald Pleasance’s facial scar can’t make him more than a strangely anodyne figure. He doesn’t even wear socks. That Bond escapes is no surprise, neither is it that Blofeld wasn’t even killed and nor was his on line surveillance project thwarted, because Bond must to return to London and endure another twenty five minutes of running and shooting and exploding stuff to help Q crack Spectre’s secret digital codes and shut down the system. Yes. It’s actually Q who saves the day, not Bond. A bespectacled man with glasses and a laptop has more power in his fingertips than Bond does in his Sig Sauer.
I sound like I’m jesting. I’m actually rather upset. I need to back track. Early on in the movie we learn Bond has been following up an ‘order from the grave’ delivered by the previous M in a DVD playback; we learn he has some childhood memories of a man called Franz Oberhauser; we learn MI6 & MI5 are uniting under a new department head called C – for ####, obviously – this officious, soapy little man even has to grow badly trimmed stubble to look older than twenty five. So obviously up to no good. So couldn’t care less. Q, Tanner, Moneypenny and M all get to play at spy games in a secondary plot of dire and dull circumstances which need not have been utilized, slows the movie down and constantly removes the focus of the story from wherever Bond is to London or wherever Q is. Gallingly at the point we ought to have a great battle scene, a fight with the bad guy and a rescue of a damsel in distress, all we get is a half-startling reveal of a villain, a half-baked torture scene and an unlikely all-encompassing explosion.
They’ve dressed the movie really well, with top notch actors, a returning classy director in Sam Mendes and some great production design, costumes and effects. Thomas Newman’s music score is too reminiscent of Skyfall, but I like the theme tune from Sam Smith. Hoyte van Hoytema deserves a particular mention for his photography which is at times magnificently beautiful. Generally, like most Bond films, it’s an enjoyable ride which tries not to take itself too seriously; there is plenty of evidence of slapstick and wit, not always successful, but always welcome, and plenty of tough stuff, long winded or not.
And there, I said it again. Sadly Spectre is simply too long. It drags in too many places and there are too many conversations between people discussing things which have no relevance to the driving narrative. There’s no need for extraneous explanation in a James Bond film. He’s an agent. He’s an assassin. He tracks people or organizations down and kills or destroys them. The intrigue is how he does it, not why he does it. The producers would do well not to hark back to what they think the franchise and the hero are about, but to why they worked so well in the first place.
^
The end also appeared to be a mix of MI3 where Hunt is running around Shanghai in search for his wife and Dark Knight where Joker provided options to the passengers on the boats.
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Spectre was the 50th Anniversary film we didn't get with Skyfall. It had more nods to previous Bond films than Die Another Day had.
This is why I can't warm entirely to the DC era and the constant re-evaluation of who Bond is and what shapes him.
I don't want to know. I never questioned, ever, who he was. Simply an agent working for Her Majesty's government.
I want the mystique and the not knowing who Bond is. I want my Bond to be able to tell me who the enemy is, what he knows of them when quizzed by M...how he knows, well, Bond has his methods, and we listen enthralled by his knowledge of them.
I want Bond to inhabit a world I know little of, yet a one he revels in.
I need to know who my Bond is, secure in the knowledge we are in safe hands.
I don't think even Bond knows who he is right now.
When was the last time the best/most spectacular stunt and action scene was in the third act?
I guess that is a rhetoric question (and 3rd act = final act). But will list a few films from the top of my head for my own reference - DN (The exchange with DN was facinating), FRWL (Train sequence and battle with Klebb), YOLT (Blofelf's lair and that fascinating background score), OHMSS (an unusual end), TMWTGG (The sequences on Scaramanga's Island), FYEO (the climb), OP (Train and plane sequences), AVTAK (Golden Gate Bridge), TLD (The plane sequence), and LTK (Truck chase sequence).
Appears as if things haven't been the same since Dalton left
LTK is definitely the best example of an exciting final act.
FRWL is one of the few Bond films that doesn't have much action until the end. In the middle it has the Roma camp fight, but the end has the fights with Grant and Klebb, but also the helicopter and boat sequences. It really saves it all for the end.
TSWLM and MR both have large battles at the end. The fight with Alec at the end of GE is pretty great.
Agree. However the final act may not have been the best on those films, for e.g. ignoring the PTSs, GE had the interesting tank chase sequence so the final part looked bland relatively. TSWLM had some awesome sequences in Egypt and Italy. However its final act was interesting too with the sub getting captured and Bond water skying to Stromberg's lair (in fact, the everything about TSWLM is great) .... MR probably had a better final act if we consider all events in Brazil
I wasn't a big fan of Spectre but I still take it over the last three Brosnan efforts.