I saw SPECTRE for the second time last night, and here is my opinion:
The PTS was very impressive and near faultless. It was also very welcome to have the gunbarrel back again.
The title sequence was also very good. The song did work better with the visuals, but I still dislike the falsetto part.
The first London scenes are nice, and it's a joy to see the new MI6 staff working together again. Two comments here: did you notice the Turner painting on the wall behind M when he meets up with Q and Moneypenny? On the negative side: Did you see China was one of the Nine Eyes? Would they seriously have us belive the UK would share all its inteligence information with China - on purpose and willingly!
Then to Rome. Still like it. Monica Bellucci is still hot and delivers a good, but brief performance. Loved the scene where she comes home after the funeral, fully prepared to be murdered, walking into the garden to music and the suppessed sound of the bullets. She turn around and sees her dead would-be assassins and Bond :007)
The SPECTRE board meeting in the castle is also great. Both Blofeld and Hinx get good introductions in the movie. I also liked the car chase. CR, QoS and SPECTRE all have car chases of sorts, and they are all distinctive from each other. My only complaint is that there are suspiciously few cars in the streets of Rome, even for nighttime.
Then Austria. I liked the Mr White scenes. Moody and tense scenes with meaty scenes for two solid actors to work with. I think the mountaintop clinc, Ms Swann and the chase down the mountain were also great in most ways, but was I the only one who was let down by the scenery ?:) I have made no secret of where I would have liked these scenes to be filmed (see, British understatement ) ), but this was made worse by the grey and boring scenery shown here. When Bond sees the clinic from the plane, all is fine and sunny. Great. But did you notice the scene where Bond and Swann meet and she asks: "I hope the view isn't too dictracting?" What view? We see outside is overcast weather and the grey outline of a few mountains in the distance. The following car/plane chase scene is great and origional. Q is great too! But the nature as shown is still grey and boring. In terms of scenery this looks like a drive to the local COOP market in overcast weather to me Compare the scenery shots to OHMSS and spot the differnce!
While I would like to have seen a Norwegian or at least Scandinavian actress playing Madeline Swann, I can honestly say Lea Seydoux is wonderful in the role. She is beautiful and makes the most out of a well written character.
The North African part of the story has a few weaknesses, but in general it's great. It makes no sense that Bond had to knock down the wall to the secret room at the L'American, though. A hidden door would be more elegant and logical. The train ride and the fight between Bond and Red Grant .... sorry, Hinx is great, but where are all the other passengers?
Lea looks stunning in her train dress, and in the abondoned train station scene it was great to see the end of her ;%
It's good to see a villan's lair again, but Waltz doesn't live up to his first Blofeld scenes in Rome. He is good, but not great. At least he finds a new way to torture Bond, and the scene works great. It would have saved a lot of time and trouble killing Blofeld before they ran out of there, but oh well. I wish Bond had a good quip when the lair blew up, but in general the humour works well in this movie.
Back in London the story continues. I feel this scene lacks a fantastic stunt. In fact the movie doesn't have a stunt the audience will talk about while leaving the cinema. I also found it far fetched that Bond managed to shoot down a helicopter with just a pistol. Perhaps they should have shown SWAT police (or whatever they're called in Britain) shooting at it with assualt rifles to make it more believable?
SPECTRE is a good movie, in some ways better than SKYFALL. My negative remarks are mostly niggles and the movie is well shot, acted and scored. I hope Craig makes one more Bond movie where Blofeld escapes, Hinx returns (but not Lea Seydoux) and (perhaps) Blofeld is killed.
LoeffelholzThe United States, With LovePosts: 8,998Quartermasters
I actually enjoyed the snowy, foggy air in Austria. Seemed very real---after all, the sky isn't always cloudless! Perhaps they tried to wait the weather out, and then decided to shoot anyway? Regardless, it works for me! -{
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
Bond isn't supposed to be about normal, everyday life, especially when it comes to the weather! I agree it works in the moody Mr White scenes. But the clinic scenes is a different matter, especially after Swann's comment about the view.
LoeffelholzThe United States, With LovePosts: 8,998Quartermasters
Doesn't make it any less beautiful to me. As I said: might have been a financial decision---on location, burning thousands of dollars a minute...and they were over budget. This could have contributed.
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
I actually enjoyed the snowy, foggy air in Austria. Seemed very real---after all, the sky isn't always cloudless! Perhaps they tried to wait the weather out, and then decided to shoot anyway? Regardless, it works for me! -{
I'm sure it was because they were strapped for time and the clouds didn't go away, but for me it's disapointing. It's like the casting of Lea Seydoux. Sure I was disapointed Synnøve Macody Lund or some other Norwegian actress didn't get the role, but Lea was so good in it I fine with it now. In the same way I wished the Austrian scenes were filmed in Norway, but if the scenery looked like it did in OHMSS I would (nearly) have gotten over it. But the Austrian landscape looks very underwhelming to me, I see it as a missed oportunity.
LoeffelholzThe United States, With LovePosts: 8,998Quartermasters
I live amid cornfields...so it looked spectacular. There is nothing underwhelming about the Austrian Alps.
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
I see your point, but I think we can agree it could have been better with sun and clear weather.
LoeffelholzThe United States, With LovePosts: 8,998Quartermasters
No, actually I enjoyed it as is. Great setting and sense of being in a moment, IMO.
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
OK. Then you are wrong and I'm completely and utterly right, as usual.
But can we at least agree that Lea Seydoux is hot?
...I would, but I simply can't get past your second sentence there.
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
I am with Chrissial.
And Millenium force. Lea Seydoux is fantastic. Craig's best Bond girl And for me, there has not been a contender since the Moore. Yes Eva Green was great but Swann is amazing lol. Makes me all giddy thinking about her :x
“The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning. "
-Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
I saw SPECTRE last week on opening day here in the US. I liked it but left feeling a little underwhelmed. That said, it's grown on me the more I've thought about it this week. I always see Bond movies at least three times during their initial theater run and will be seeing it again tomorrow night (this time with my wife). And I'm still really looking forward to it!
On a side note, I watched the previous Craig films in the days leading up to SPECTRE. I watch CR and SF on a pretty regular basis but don't bother much with QoS. What surprised me was how much I enjoyed Solace when I watched it last week for the first time in several years. In hindsight, I'm not sure it deserves the flogging it received.
I am with Chrissial.
And Millenium force. Lea Seydoux is fantastic. Craig's best Bond girl And for me, there has not been a contender since the Moore. Yes Eva Green was great but Swann is amazing lol. Makes me all giddy thinking about her :x
Tbh, I don't find Vesper THAT attractive.
Madeleine, on the other hand, now that is hotness ;% .
"Hostile takeovers. Shall we?"
New 2020 ranking (for now DAF and FYEO keep their previous placements)
1. TLD 2. TND 3. GF 4. TSWLM 5. TWINE 6. OHMSS 7. LtK 8. TMWTGG 9. L&LD 10. YOLT 11. DAD 12. QoS 13. DN 14. GE 15. SF 16. OP 17. MR 18. AVTAK 19. TB 20. FRWL 21. CR 22. FYEO 23. DAF (SP to be included later)
Bond actors to be re-ranked later
LoeffelholzThe United States, With LovePosts: 8,998Quartermasters
edited November 2015
Tonight I walked from my childhood home, where I live once again, to the same cinema where (at age 9) I walked to see Diamonds are Forever in 1971. Today, this theatre is now a four-screen multiplex, which is about to be converted and expanded into an 8-screen multiplex with stadium seating. But in 1971, it was a single-screen movie palace that dated back to the 1930s. Another difference, today, was that I had two Vesper martinis before making that walk :007)
The problem with reviewing a Bond film here, after it’s been in release on another continent for a couple of weeks---and a great many members of this fan site have weighed in on it---is that pretty much everything has already been said, and said well. Bearing that in mind, I’m going to try to do my best, skipping a linear story description of a film most of us have seen by now and bowing to stream-of-consciousness…while also reviewing some reviewer’s reviews :v
“SPECTRE” (3rd viewing review)
I can’t say how pleasing and exciting it was to watch the MGM and Columbia logos, hearing ominous strains of Bond musical cues, and then see the gun-barrel intro flash across the screen---then again, I probably don’t have to The title card after a fade to black reads: “The dead are alive,” and the relevance of that isn’t made apparent until quite a bit later. The opening shot appears to be a four and-a-half-minute, one-take tracking shot (cleverly disguised, as we move from a crane camera to a Steadicam at some point early on), elegantly photographed and paced in Mexico City during the “Day of the Dead” parade…and as this shot comes to a close, Craig’s Bond is walking along the edge of a high building, fastidiously adjusting his cuffs and then assembling a rifle…and what follows is possibly one of the most exciting pre-credit sequences in Bond history, involving a collapsing building and helicopter aerobatics over a crowd of thousands of extras---the whole thing just looks dangerous, CGI bits and green-screen shots notwithstanding, and as we move into Danny Kleinman’s entertaining-as-ever title sequence, there’s no doubt whatsoever that we’ve bought tickets to a James Bond film.
I don’t mind the Sam Smith song nearly as much as many here do, and it dovetails nicely with Kleinman’s graphics depicting an octopus and its tentacles, writhing around Craig’s Bond and the requisite dancing female nudes.
Of course, the pre-credit sequence and the title graphics are part of the ‘Bond’ brand, and SPECTRE clearly shows very early on that it intends to serve up a traditional James Bond experience, in terms of a slightly lighter tone---and all of the ingredients that the franchise’s many fans have come to expect: Bond and M meeting in M’s old office to start things up…Bond and Q (gadgets, the car)…Bond with multiple beautiful women…Bond versus a brutal, overpowering henchman…Bond chasing, Bond being chased…exotic locations, and a villain’s remote lair which simply must explode in spectacular fashion---with humour and irony sprinkled throughout.
And humour there is…not the cheeky dinner theatre stuff we got in the late ‘70s into the mid-‘80s, but just enough to distinguish this one from Craig’s clearly grimmer and darker other three. By this point Craig’s Bond--- like the classic-era Bonds at their best---knows he is going to survive his perils. His escape from the collapsing building in the pre-credit sequence reflects a distilled hybrid of the physical comedy of Keaton and Lloyd from the 1920s with the suave debonair of vintage Connery (which sharply distinguishes it from the more heavy-handed Keystone Cops ‘fire-engine ladder’ gag ripoff from AVTAK). When Craig plops onto the couch, he looks genuinely grateful that the couch was there…but not terrifically surprised. It works. His Bond moves through this film like Bonds of old, enjoying his hot car and his drinks and his dalliances, moving headlong into danger with a knowing half-smile on his face.
The character and plot stuff works satisfactorily, and I enjoyed the subplot about ubiquitous surveillance technology and the loss of privacy personified by the pencilneck character ‘C’ as played by Andrew Scott: was there ever any doubt who he was really working for, though? M, Q, Moneypenny and Tanner all are steadfast. Bond’s home team is solid, and has quite a bit to do in this piece. I didn’t mind Q’s appearance in Austria, as his character works so well with this Bond.
Distant locations such as Rome, the Austrian Alps and Tangier are well-represented (although it’s obvious that the Austrian sequences were probably compromised by cloud cover, snow and a low ceiling…but I rather enjoyed the authenticity of ‘being in the moment’); Italy and Morocco sharing a washed-out amber texture during daylight---but Rome is luminous and golden by night, during a high-speed car chase not far at all from where the Pope lays his head down at bedtime. Much has already been said about how desolate Rome and London’s streets seem to be, which plays here as an admitted concession to the fantasy of this hyper-escapist world, running parallel universe-wise with its more mundane real-world counterpart. The villain’s lair, de rigueur for this particular brand of entertainment, is suitably remotely located somewhere in North Africa and is visually interesting, if a bit disappointingly underexplored.
The women…ah, the women: Monica Bellucci owns the very few minutes of screen-time she’s allotted as the widow of the assassin Bond takes down in Mexico City, and her scenes with Craig show Bond at this film’s most callous and exploitive, but not so much that he doesn't do his best to keep her alive, by putting her in touch with a regrettably unseen Felix Leiter---in fact, a recent formula is broken here by not having Bond’s early-film love interest turn up dead before the final act. Bellucci is simply ravishing here. Lea Seydoux is also very easy to watch as Quantum/SPECTRE heavy Mr. White’s daughter, Dr. Madeline Swann, and her chemistry with Bond seems very organic as it develops. She wears her clothing really, really, really well---whether it’s a standard dress, a shimmery white silky number or fairly basic pants, and she makes the best of a fairly standard primary Bond love interest part. I do regret that we don’t see more of Stephanie Sigman, the Mexican actress at the beginning of the film, as she is gorgeous, but is obviously simply there to adorn Bond’s arm for the introduction.
The organization meeting in Rome that Bond sneaks into may well be the best Blofeld board meeting we’ve seen so far: atmospheric and eerie in its long pauses and lack of musical score, featuring both the introduction of Chrisoph Waltz and Dave Bautista, as Franz Oberhauser/Ernst Stavro Blofeld and Mr. Hinx respectively---the former making his impression with soft-spoken politeness, the latter with brutal stoic death-dealing.
(This is a great example of Sam Mendes doing with SkyFall and SPECTRE what Marc Forster deliberately chose not to do with Quantum of Solace: letting scenes breathe, and dramatic beats play out. Some have argued that Mendes plays them out a bit too long, but I’d rather have them err that way than the other. No Bond film yet has been too long for me, especially as they only come every three years or so now.)
The action is fantastic, as it tends to be in these films: helicopter aerobatics, supercars at high speeds, crashing airplanes colliding with Land Rovers on a snowy landscape (which is obviously a bit daft but clearly and enjoyably ‘James Bond’ in its execution)…but the personal highlight for me was the fight on the train between Bond and Mr. Hinx, which for my money is the best one-on-one throwdown since Sean Connery faced off against Robert Shaw in 1963. The brute physicality is awesome, and I’m still smiling about it three viewings later. Where the other diners went once the fighting began (we see a couple of them in the background at one point)---and where any of the train's staff went once it was over---is a very fair question.
My biggest issue with SPECTRE is Act 3. Now, historically many of the Bond films (if not most of them) tend to go a bit sideways in the third act, but it seems particularly problematic here, as Bond and Madeline arrive at Blofeld’s digs in a vintage Rolls-Royce and are allotted old-school supervillain-style courtesy and hospitality. Momentum flags, and tone shifts, as we work through the exposition-via-dialogue stuff. The actors’ performances aren’t the problem, in my opinion; Craig and Waltz do their best with what they’re given. By the same token, I’m not at all convinced that a family tie (even a ‘foster’ one) was necessary, but there we are nevertheless. Bond escapes because of a gadget watch and ESB’s poor drilling aim, or whatever, and then we’re back in London for a final cat-and-mouse in the old MI6 HQ with some ticking-bomb suspense. Add to that the crazy good fortune of Bond shooting down a helicopter with his Walther PPK from fifty yards away, and we have a weighty bit of disbelief demanding to be held aloft.
The critics…ah, the critics. U.K. reviewers were more balanced in their appraisal of this picture, but it has been savaged by American film critics, many of whom clearly aren’t fans of the classic Bond formula. My favourite review headline here in the states: “For Better or Worse, SPECTRE is Quintessential Bond.” Yes, in many ways it is…and that isn’t really a bad thing
Yes, Eon needs new writers. Yes, Sam Mendes should probably move on and let another director have a go. But I think Daniel Craig should stay and complete a Blofeld Trilogy, now that the table has been set. I realize that this probably means that Madeline will have to be “Tracy’d,” as happened in OHMSS, and we’ll have yet another Bond in revenge mode…but I really think Eon has decided to complete Bond’s origin with Daniel Craig, and that means getting both tragic relationships out of the way. I predict that Bond #7, whoever he is, will step---fully formed---into the tuxedo.
FINAL THOUGHTS: A friend of mine has said that SPECTRE is like a ‘greatest hits’ album, and I think he has a point---it certainly works on that level, and is an enjoyable and rewarding experience for Bond fans. However, going forward post-Craig (whenever that comes), Eon is going to have to give up the self-derivative habits it has picked up…and at some point move away from the “Backstory Bond” crutch it has leaned on in the Craig Era. James Bond is a professional doing a job, and his personal history should not continue dictating major plot points and storylines in perpetuity.
This movie made me smile much more than it made me frown.
7.5 out of 10
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
Tonight I walked from my childhood home, where I live once again, to the same cinema where (at age 9) I walked to see Diamonds are Forever in 1971. Today, this theatre is now a four-screen multiplex, which is about to be converted and expanded into an 8-screen multiplex with stadium seating. But in 1971, it was a single-screen movie palace that dated back to the 1930s. Another difference, today, was that I had two Vesper martinis before making that walk :007)
The problem with reviewing a Bond film here, after it’s been in release on another continent for a couple of weeks---and a great many members of this fan site have weighed in on it---is that pretty much everything has already been said, and said well. Bearing that in mind, I’m going to try to do my best, skipping a linear story description of a film most of us have seen by now and bowing to stream-of-consciousness…while also reviewing some reviewer’s reviews :v
“SPECTRE” (3rd viewing review)
I can’t say how pleasing and exciting it was to watch the MGM and Columbia logos, hearing ominous strains of Bond musical cues, and then see the gun-barrel intro flash across the screen---then again, I probably don’t have to The title card after a fade to black reads: “The dead are alive,” and the relevance of that isn’t made apparent until quite a bit later. The opening shot appears to be a four and-a-half-minute, one-take tracking shot (cleverly disguised, as we move from a crane camera to a Steadicam at some point early on), elegantly photographed and paced in Mexico City during the “Day of the Dead” parade…and as this shot comes to a close, Craig’s Bond is walking along the edge of a high building, fastidiously adjusting his cuffs and then assembling a rifle…and what follows is possibly one of the most exciting pre-credit sequences in Bond history, involving a collapsing building and helicopter aerobatics over a crowd of thousands of extras---the whole thing just looks dangerous, CGI bits and green-screen shots notwithstanding, and as we move into Danny Kleinman’s entertaining-as-ever title sequence, there’s no doubt whatsoever that we’ve bought tickets to a James Bond film.
I don’t mind the Sam Smith song nearly as much as many here do, and it dovetails nicely with Kleinman’s graphics depicting an octopus and its tentacles, writhing around Craig’s Bond and the requisite dancing female nudes.
Of course, the pre-credit sequence and the title graphics are part of the ‘Bond’ brand, and SPECTRE clearly shows very early on that it intends to serve up a traditional James Bond experience, in terms of a slightly lighter tone---and all of the ingredients that the franchise’s many fans have come to expect: Bond and M meeting in M’s old office to start things up…Bond and Q (gadgets, the car)…Bond with multiple beautiful women…Bond versus a brutal, overpowering henchman…Bond chasing, Bond being chased…exotic locations, and a villain’s remote lair which simply must explode in spectacular fashion---with humour and irony sprinkled throughout.
And humour there is…not the cheeky dinner theatre stuff we got in the late ‘70s into the mid-‘80s, but just enough to distinguish this one from Craig’s clearly grimmer and darker other three. By this point Craig’s Bond--- like the classic-era Bonds at their best---knows he is going to survive his perils. His escape from the collapsing building in the pre-credit sequence reflects a distilled hybrid of the physical comedy of Keaton and Lloyd from the 1920s with the suave debonair of vintage Connery (which sharply distinguishes it from the more heavy-handed Keystone Cops ‘fire-engine ladder’ gag ripoff from AVTAK). When Craig plops onto the couch, he looks genuinely grateful that the couch was there…but not terrifically surprised. It works. His Bond moves through this film like Bonds of old, enjoying his hot car and his drinks and his dalliances, moving headlong into danger with a knowing half-smile on his face.
The character and plot stuff works satisfactorily, and I enjoyed the subplot about ubiquitous surveillance technology and the loss of privacy personified by the pencilneck character ‘C’ as played by Andrew Scott: was there ever any doubt who he was really working for, though? M, Q, Moneypenny and Tanner all are steadfast. Bond’s home team is solid, and has quite a bit to do in this piece. I didn’t mind Q’s appearance in Austria, as his character works so well with this Bond.
Distant locations such as Rome, the Austrian Alps and Tangier are well-represented (although it’s obvious that the Austrian sequences were probably compromised by cloud cover, snow and a low ceiling…but I rather enjoyed the authenticity of ‘being in the moment’); Italy and Morocco sharing a washed-out amber texture during daylight---but Rome is luminous and golden by night, during a high-speed car chase not far at all from where the Pope lays his head down at bedtime. Much has already been said about how desolate Rome and London’s streets seem to be, which plays here as an admitted concession to the fantasy of this hyper-escapist world, running parallel universe-wise with its more mundane real-world counterpart. The villain’s lair, de rigueur for this particular brand of entertainment, is suitably remotely located somewhere in North Africa and is visually interesting, if a bit disappointingly underexplored.
The women…ah, the women: Monica Bellucci owns the very few minutes of screen-time she’s allotted as the widow of the assassin Bond takes down in Mexico City, and her scenes with Craig show Bond at this film’s most callous and exploitive, but not so much that he doesn't do his best to keep her alive, by putting her in touch with a regrettably unseen Felix Leiter---in fact, a recent formula is broken here by not having Bond’s early-film love interest turn up dead before the final act. Bellucci is simply ravishing here. Lea Seydoux is also very easy to watch as Quantum/SPECTRE heavy Mr. White’s daughter, Dr. Madeline Swann, and her chemistry with Bond seems very organic as it develops. She wears her clothing really, really, really well---whether it’s a standard dress, a shimmery white silky number or fairly basic pants, and she makes the best of a fairly standard primary Bond love interest part. I do regret that we don’t see more of Stephanie Sigman, the Mexican actress at the beginning of the film, as she is gorgeous, but is obviously simply there to adorn Bond’s arm for the introduction.
The organization meeting in Rome that Bond sneaks into may well be the best Blofeld board meeting we’ve seen so far: atmospheric and eerie in its long pauses and lack of musical score, featuring both the introduction of Chrisoph Waltz and Dave Bautista, as Franz Oberhauser/Ernst Stavro Blofeld and Mr. Hinx respectively---the former making his impression with soft-spoken politeness, the latter with brutal stoic death-dealing.
(This is a great example of Sam Mendes doing with SkyFall and SPECTRE what Marc Forster deliberately chose not to do with Quantum of Solace: letting scenes breathe, and dramatic beats play out. Some have argued that Mendes plays them out a bit too long, but I’d rather have them err that way than the other. No Bond film yet has been too long for me, especially as they only come every three years or so now.)
The action is fantastic, as it tends to be in these films: helicopter aerobatics, supercars at high speeds, crashing airplanes colliding with Land Rovers on a snowy landscape (which is obviously a bit daft but clearly and enjoyably ‘James Bond’ in its execution)…but the personal highlight for me was the train fight between Bond and Mr. Hinx, which for my money is the best one-on-one throwdown since Sean Connery faced off against Robert Shaw in 1963. The brute physicality is awesome, and I’m still smiling about it three viewings later.
My biggest issue with SPECTRE is Act 3. Now, historically many of the Bond films (if not most of them) tend to go a bit sideways in the third act, but it seems particularly problematic here, as Bond and Madeline arrive at Blofeld’s digs in a vintage Rolls-Royce and are allotted old-school supervillain-style courtesy and hospitality. Momentum flags, and tone shifts, as we work through the exposition-via-dialogue stuff. The actors’ performances aren’t the problem, in my opinion; Craig and Waltz do their best with what they’re given. By the same token, I’m not at all convinced that a family tie (even a ‘foster’ one) was necessary, but there we are nevertheless. Bond escapes because of a gadget watch and ESB’s poor drilling aim, or whatever, and then we’re back in London for a final cat-and-mouse in the old MI6 HQ with some ticking-bomb suspense. Add to that the crazy good fortune of Bond shooting down a helicopter with his Walther PPK from fifty yards away, and we have a weighty bit of disbelief demanding to be held aloft.
The critics…ah, the critics. U.K. reviewers were more balanced in their appraisal of this picture, but it has been savaged by American film critics, many of whom clearly aren’t fans of the classic Bond formula. My favourite review headline here in the states: “For Better or Worse, SPECTRE is Quintessential Bond.” Yes, in many ways it is…and that isn’t really a bad thing
Yes, Eon needs new writers. Yes, Sam Mendes should probably move on and let another director have a go. But I think Daniel Craig should stay and complete a Blofeld Trilogy, now that the table has been set. I realize that this probably means that Madeline will have to be “Tracy’d,” as happened in OHMSS, and we’ll have yet another Bond in revenge mode…but I really think Eon has decided to complete Bond’s origin with Daniel Craig, and that means getting both tragic relationships out of the way. I predict that Bond #7, whoever he is, will step---fully formed---into the tuxedo.
FINAL THOUGHTS: A friend of mine has said that SPECTRE is like a ‘greatest hits’ album, and I think he has a point---it certainly works on that level, and is an enjoyable and rewarding experience for Bond fans. However, going forward post-Craig (whenever that comes), Eon is going to have to give up the self-derivative habits it has picked up…and at some point move away from the “Backstory Bond” crutch it has leaned on in the Craig Era. James Bond is a professional doing a job, and his personal history should not continue dictating major plot points and storylines in perpetuity.
This movie made me smile much more than it made me frown.
7.5 out of 10
A well-rounded review! And I agree completely, EON needs to hire new writers. I've never been a great fan of Purvis and Wade. I thought the Brosnan era went down hill the moment they came onboard and wrote The World is Not Enough. And don't get me started on Die Another Day. I think the Craig films work because another writer tidied up the Purvis and Wade scripts (Paul Haggis, John Logan, etc.). It's definitely time for new blood. I know they did heavy rewrite work on the SPECTRE script . . . I also noticed, in the opening credits, there were four our five writers credited with the screenplay. That's never a good sign.
Comments
The PTS was very impressive and near faultless. It was also very welcome to have the gunbarrel back again.
The title sequence was also very good. The song did work better with the visuals, but I still dislike the falsetto part.
The first London scenes are nice, and it's a joy to see the new MI6 staff working together again. Two comments here: did you notice the Turner painting on the wall behind M when he meets up with Q and Moneypenny? On the negative side: Did you see China was one of the Nine Eyes? Would they seriously have us belive the UK would share all its inteligence information with China - on purpose and willingly!
Then to Rome. Still like it. Monica Bellucci is still hot and delivers a good, but brief performance. Loved the scene where she comes home after the funeral, fully prepared to be murdered, walking into the garden to music and the suppessed sound of the bullets. She turn around and sees her dead would-be assassins and Bond :007)
The SPECTRE board meeting in the castle is also great. Both Blofeld and Hinx get good introductions in the movie. I also liked the car chase. CR, QoS and SPECTRE all have car chases of sorts, and they are all distinctive from each other. My only complaint is that there are suspiciously few cars in the streets of Rome, even for nighttime.
Then Austria. I liked the Mr White scenes. Moody and tense scenes with meaty scenes for two solid actors to work with. I think the mountaintop clinc, Ms Swann and the chase down the mountain were also great in most ways, but was I the only one who was let down by the scenery ?:) I have made no secret of where I would have liked these scenes to be filmed (see, British understatement
While I would like to have seen a Norwegian or at least Scandinavian actress playing Madeline Swann, I can honestly say Lea Seydoux is wonderful in the role. She is beautiful and makes the most out of a well written character.
The North African part of the story has a few weaknesses, but in general it's great. It makes no sense that Bond had to knock down the wall to the secret room at the L'American, though. A hidden door would be more elegant and logical. The train ride and the fight between Bond and Red Grant .... sorry, Hinx is great, but where are all the other passengers?
Lea looks stunning in her train dress, and in the abondoned train station scene it was great to see the end of her ;%
It's good to see a villan's lair again, but Waltz doesn't live up to his first Blofeld scenes in Rome. He is good, but not great. At least he finds a new way to torture Bond, and the scene works great. It would have saved a lot of time and trouble killing Blofeld before they ran out of there, but oh well. I wish Bond had a good quip when the lair blew up, but in general the humour works well in this movie.
Back in London the story continues. I feel this scene lacks a fantastic stunt. In fact the movie doesn't have a stunt the audience will talk about while leaving the cinema. I also found it far fetched that Bond managed to shoot down a helicopter with just a pistol. Perhaps they should have shown SWAT police (or whatever they're called in Britain) shooting at it with assualt rifles to make it more believable?
SPECTRE is a good movie, in some ways better than SKYFALL. My negative remarks are mostly niggles and the movie is well shot, acted and scored. I hope Craig makes one more Bond movie where Blofeld escapes, Hinx returns (but not Lea Seydoux) and (perhaps) Blofeld is killed.
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
They had to wait the weather out for snow.
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
But can we at least agree that Lea Seydoux is hot?
...I would, but I simply can't get past your second sentence there.
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
{[]
"Better make that two."
-Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
-Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
I think she's one of the best-looking Bond girls ever.
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
Nah...she's not even in the same league as Dame Diana...and compared to Eva Green, she not even playing the same sport ;%
She looked damn fine, particularly when she had her hair up and in the short dress at Blofeld's Morroco lair.......he certainly had fine taste!!
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
And Millenium force. Lea Seydoux is fantastic. Craig's best Bond girl And for me, there has not been a contender since the Moore. Yes Eva Green was great but Swann is amazing lol. Makes me all giddy thinking about her :x
-Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
On a side note, I watched the previous Craig films in the days leading up to SPECTRE. I watch CR and SF on a pretty regular basis but don't bother much with QoS. What surprised me was how much I enjoyed Solace when I watched it last week for the first time in several years. In hindsight, I'm not sure it deserves the flogging it received.
Tbh, I don't find Vesper THAT attractive.
Madeleine, on the other hand, now that is hotness ;% .
New 2020 ranking (for now DAF and FYEO keep their previous placements)
1. TLD 2. TND 3. GF 4. TSWLM 5. TWINE 6. OHMSS 7. LtK 8. TMWTGG 9. L&LD 10. YOLT 11. DAD 12. QoS 13. DN 14. GE 15. SF 16. OP 17. MR 18. AVTAK 19. TB 20. FRWL 21. CR 22. FYEO 23. DAF (SP to be included later)
Bond actors to be re-ranked later
{[]
"Better make that two."
The problem with reviewing a Bond film here, after it’s been in release on another continent for a couple of weeks---and a great many members of this fan site have weighed in on it---is that pretty much everything has already been said, and said well. Bearing that in mind, I’m going to try to do my best, skipping a linear story description of a film most of us have seen by now and bowing to stream-of-consciousness…while also reviewing some reviewer’s reviews :v
“SPECTRE” (3rd viewing review)
I can’t say how pleasing and exciting it was to watch the MGM and Columbia logos, hearing ominous strains of Bond musical cues, and then see the gun-barrel intro flash across the screen---then again, I probably don’t have to
I don’t mind the Sam Smith song nearly as much as many here do, and it dovetails nicely with Kleinman’s graphics depicting an octopus and its tentacles, writhing around Craig’s Bond and the requisite dancing female nudes.
Of course, the pre-credit sequence and the title graphics are part of the ‘Bond’ brand, and SPECTRE clearly shows very early on that it intends to serve up a traditional James Bond experience, in terms of a slightly lighter tone---and all of the ingredients that the franchise’s many fans have come to expect: Bond and M meeting in M’s old office to start things up…Bond and Q (gadgets, the car)…Bond with multiple beautiful women…Bond versus a brutal, overpowering henchman…Bond chasing, Bond being chased…exotic locations, and a villain’s remote lair which simply must explode in spectacular fashion---with humour and irony sprinkled throughout.
And humour there is…not the cheeky dinner theatre stuff we got in the late ‘70s into the mid-‘80s, but just enough to distinguish this one from Craig’s clearly grimmer and darker other three. By this point Craig’s Bond--- like the classic-era Bonds at their best---knows he is going to survive his perils. His escape from the collapsing building in the pre-credit sequence reflects a distilled hybrid of the physical comedy of Keaton and Lloyd from the 1920s with the suave debonair of vintage Connery (which sharply distinguishes it from the more heavy-handed Keystone Cops ‘fire-engine ladder’ gag ripoff from AVTAK). When Craig plops onto the couch, he looks genuinely grateful that the couch was there…but not terrifically surprised. It works. His Bond moves through this film like Bonds of old, enjoying his hot car and his drinks and his dalliances, moving headlong into danger with a knowing half-smile on his face.
The character and plot stuff works satisfactorily, and I enjoyed the subplot about ubiquitous surveillance technology and the loss of privacy personified by the pencilneck character ‘C’ as played by Andrew Scott: was there ever any doubt who he was really working for, though? M, Q, Moneypenny and Tanner all are steadfast. Bond’s home team is solid, and has quite a bit to do in this piece. I didn’t mind Q’s appearance in Austria, as his character works so well with this Bond.
Distant locations such as Rome, the Austrian Alps and Tangier are well-represented (although it’s obvious that the Austrian sequences were probably compromised by cloud cover, snow and a low ceiling…but I rather enjoyed the authenticity of ‘being in the moment’); Italy and Morocco sharing a washed-out amber texture during daylight---but Rome is luminous and golden by night, during a high-speed car chase not far at all from where the Pope lays his head down at bedtime. Much has already been said about how desolate Rome and London’s streets seem to be, which plays here as an admitted concession to the fantasy of this hyper-escapist world, running parallel universe-wise with its more mundane real-world counterpart. The villain’s lair, de rigueur for this particular brand of entertainment, is suitably remotely located somewhere in North Africa and is visually interesting, if a bit disappointingly underexplored.
The women…ah, the women: Monica Bellucci owns the very few minutes of screen-time she’s allotted as the widow of the assassin Bond takes down in Mexico City, and her scenes with Craig show Bond at this film’s most callous and exploitive, but not so much that he doesn't do his best to keep her alive, by putting her in touch with a regrettably unseen Felix Leiter---in fact, a recent formula is broken here by not having Bond’s early-film love interest turn up dead before the final act. Bellucci is simply ravishing here. Lea Seydoux is also very easy to watch as Quantum/SPECTRE heavy Mr. White’s daughter, Dr. Madeline Swann, and her chemistry with Bond seems very organic as it develops. She wears her clothing really, really, really well---whether it’s a standard dress, a shimmery white silky number or fairly basic pants, and she makes the best of a fairly standard primary Bond love interest part. I do regret that we don’t see more of Stephanie Sigman, the Mexican actress at the beginning of the film, as she is gorgeous, but is obviously simply there to adorn Bond’s arm for the introduction.
The organization meeting in Rome that Bond sneaks into may well be the best Blofeld board meeting we’ve seen so far: atmospheric and eerie in its long pauses and lack of musical score, featuring both the introduction of Chrisoph Waltz and Dave Bautista, as Franz Oberhauser/Ernst Stavro Blofeld and Mr. Hinx respectively---the former making his impression with soft-spoken politeness, the latter with brutal stoic death-dealing.
(This is a great example of Sam Mendes doing with SkyFall and SPECTRE what Marc Forster deliberately chose not to do with Quantum of Solace: letting scenes breathe, and dramatic beats play out. Some have argued that Mendes plays them out a bit too long, but I’d rather have them err that way than the other. No Bond film yet has been too long for me, especially as they only come every three years or so now.)
The action is fantastic, as it tends to be in these films: helicopter aerobatics, supercars at high speeds, crashing airplanes colliding with Land Rovers on a snowy landscape (which is obviously a bit daft but clearly and enjoyably ‘James Bond’ in its execution)…but the personal highlight for me was the fight on the train between Bond and Mr. Hinx, which for my money is the best one-on-one throwdown since Sean Connery faced off against Robert Shaw in 1963. The brute physicality is awesome, and I’m still smiling about it three viewings later. Where the other diners went once the fighting began (we see a couple of them in the background at one point)---and where any of the train's staff went once it was over---is a very fair question.
My biggest issue with SPECTRE is Act 3. Now, historically many of the Bond films (if not most of them) tend to go a bit sideways in the third act, but it seems particularly problematic here, as Bond and Madeline arrive at Blofeld’s digs in a vintage Rolls-Royce and are allotted old-school supervillain-style courtesy and hospitality. Momentum flags, and tone shifts, as we work through the exposition-via-dialogue stuff. The actors’ performances aren’t the problem, in my opinion; Craig and Waltz do their best with what they’re given. By the same token, I’m not at all convinced that a family tie (even a ‘foster’ one) was necessary, but there we are nevertheless. Bond escapes because of a gadget watch and ESB’s poor drilling aim, or whatever, and then we’re back in London for a final cat-and-mouse in the old MI6 HQ with some ticking-bomb suspense. Add to that the crazy good fortune of Bond shooting down a helicopter with his Walther PPK from fifty yards away, and we have a weighty bit of disbelief demanding to be held aloft.
The critics…ah, the critics. U.K. reviewers were more balanced in their appraisal of this picture, but it has been savaged by American film critics, many of whom clearly aren’t fans of the classic Bond formula. My favourite review headline here in the states: “For Better or Worse, SPECTRE is Quintessential Bond.” Yes, in many ways it is…and that isn’t really a bad thing
Yes, Eon needs new writers. Yes, Sam Mendes should probably move on and let another director have a go. But I think Daniel Craig should stay and complete a Blofeld Trilogy, now that the table has been set. I realize that this probably means that Madeline will have to be “Tracy’d,” as happened in OHMSS, and we’ll have yet another Bond in revenge mode…but I really think Eon has decided to complete Bond’s origin with Daniel Craig, and that means getting both tragic relationships out of the way. I predict that Bond #7, whoever he is, will step---fully formed---into the tuxedo.
FINAL THOUGHTS: A friend of mine has said that SPECTRE is like a ‘greatest hits’ album, and I think he has a point---it certainly works on that level, and is an enjoyable and rewarding experience for Bond fans. However, going forward post-Craig (whenever that comes), Eon is going to have to give up the self-derivative habits it has picked up…and at some point move away from the “Backstory Bond” crutch it has leaned on in the Craig Era. James Bond is a professional doing a job, and his personal history should not continue dictating major plot points and storylines in perpetuity.
This movie made me smile much more than it made me frown.
7.5 out of 10
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
A well-rounded review! And I agree completely, EON needs to hire new writers. I've never been a great fan of Purvis and Wade. I thought the Brosnan era went down hill the moment they came onboard and wrote The World is Not Enough. And don't get me started on Die Another Day. I think the Craig films work because another writer tidied up the Purvis and Wade scripts (Paul Haggis, John Logan, etc.). It's definitely time for new blood. I know they did heavy rewrite work on the SPECTRE script . . . I also noticed, in the opening credits, there were four our five writers credited with the screenplay. That's never a good sign.