No matter how many new blockbuster franchises pop up, one of the most enduring characters on the big screen is still Ian Fleming’s James Bond.
Like the character himself, this franchise is hard to kill. Even if the movies are expensive, take years to make, and face some intense competition, they still make nearly a billion dollars each.
Spectre marks the fourth movie featuring Daniel Craig as the seductive spy and is rumored to be his last. Overall, barring Quantam of Solace, Craig has had a great run as Bond with hits like Casino Royale and Skyfall balancing the darker themes with the classic 007 action.
If this is to be his last, does Spectre allow Craig to go out with a bang, or is it too shaken and not stirred enough?
In this outing, Bond is pitted against the criminal organization Spectre (a terrorist group that was in the older films), led by Franz Oberhauser. He is joined by the daughter of Mr. White (an antagonist in the previous films) and sent on a wild chase to take the criminals down. Along the way he discovers how much the organization and its leader have interfered with both his recent missions and his personal life.
Meanwhile, the new M is in the middle of a power struggle with the head of the Joint Intelligence Service named C. C convinces Britain to form alongside eight other countries to form a global surveillance and intelligance program and erase the ‘00’ section. Though C’s methods are effective, M, Q, and the other MI6 members debate on C’s true nature and whether Bond should be allowed to go through with his mission.
The main issues of Spectre can be summed up with the villain. He certainly had the potential to be one of the best to date as they hired acclaimed actor Christoph Waltz to play him. However, he unfortunatelty isn’t given enough scenes to demonstrate his talent, which is surprising given the movie’s long run time of two and a half hours.
Normally this criticism would be minimal with most movies today, as Marvel films are able to get away with it constantly. But Spectre is set up to rely more on the villain and organization, which don’t have as big of an impact or are as memorable as they should be.
They try to make the bad guys feel more important with some connections to the villains and plots of the other Craig Bond films, as if it was all leading up to it. The problem is they feel forced. Aside from Casino Royale’s ending that tied into Quantam of Solace, the other Bond films didn’t feel the need to build up to this one gigantic event.
The movies themselves were gigantic events, and the idea that a lot of it was orchestrated to screw with Bond feels like an afterthought.
There’s also a twist when it comes to Oberhauser’s true identity that results in yet another forced connection (if you know your Bond lore) and a weak villain motivation.
The C subplot does allow more screentime for Bond’s associates like Ralph Fiennes’ M. It doesn’t help that it borrows the same premise used in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and Captain America: The Winter Soldier of how a major governmental spy organization gets duped from the inside.
Unfortunately, there’s little to comment on the plot besides that, aside from an underdeveloped love interest and a lot of boring lecture scenes.
Thankfully, they put a lot of money into this movie for a reason. Even if the action and setpieces aren’t as memorable as Casino Royale or Skyfall, they still get the job done.
Special mention is reserved for the opening scene where Bond stops a bombing in Mexico City on Day of the Dead. Had the movie’s plot and action been more like that scene, I would be even more enthusiastic about this film.
The actors themselves do a fine job with the roles they’re given, particularily Craig, Fiennes, and Whishaw as the iconic MI6 team.
Unfortunately, the writing on this wall of text says that Spectre is a boring Bond mess.
If you wanna go for your fix of action and Daniel Craig goodness, you’ll get it. But if you want a Bond film with memorable action set pieces and decent villains that didn’t require a number of forced connections with the past Craig films or the originals, this might not cut it.
It’s not as bad as Quantam of Solace, but that’s not saying much.