Spectre

Spectre is the fourth in the rebooted James Bond franchise, and attempts to wrap up all the loose ends that have followed the super spy since 2006's Casino Royale.  It also attempts to call back to the franchise's roots, by reintroducing one of the Bond's greatest villains.  This gives the film a tricky balance of trying to emulate the older films, while at the same time not betraying the approach that the filmmakers have established since the series was rebooted with Daniel Craig in the lead role.  With the acclaimed Sam Mendes at the helm (who directed the last Bond entry, Skyfall), you would think this would be an easy task.  However, thanks to a sluggish pace, and a mash up of stale gags and uninspired action, this single entry winds up undoing almost everything that the franchise has been working toward for almost 10 years now.

The action sequence that opens Spectre at least gets things off to a spectacular start.  Bond is in Mexico City on an unauthorized mission, hunting a villain during the Day of the Dead festival.  There is a long, seamless and unedited shot that follows Bond through a hotel and across the rooftops as he tracks the villain.  It's breathtaking in a certain way, and is easily the highlight of the film.  Bond does end up succeeding in his mission, while destroying half a city block in the process.  We see the streets filled with innocent people, which adds intensity to Bond's mission as the situation increasingly grows more dangerous and out of control.  Again, this is fantastic, and it really adds a sense of urgency.  It is a sense we will never feel again, as not only does any action sequence that comes afterward come nowhere close to the one that opens the film, but everywhere Bond fights is strangely abandoned.  It doesn't matter if it's the streets of Rome, or even the dining car of a train.  Everywhere Bond goes from then on is empty, which kind of makes it look like the ensuing action sequences are overly choreographed and occurring an an empty sound stage, rather than an area filled with people.

Due to his actions in Mexico City, Bond is called off of spy work by the new M (Ralph Fiennes), who is dealing with political pressure back in London.  The entire "Double-O" program is under fire by intelligence agent Max Denbigh (Andrew Scott), who wants to replace the super spies with drones and wiretapping that would spread all over the world.  Bond is supposed to lay low and have his movements monitored by Q (Ben Whishaw), but instead goes rogue with the help of Q and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), so that he can continue to track down a crime syndicate known as Spectre, and its mysterious leader Oberhauser (Christophe Waltz).  As the plot unravels, we learn that not only is this organization behind a string of recent terrorist bombings, but has also been behind every villain Bond has fought over the past four movies. 

There is little invention or excitement in Spectre.  Once the opening action sequence in Mexico City ends, the movie almost seems to run completely out of steam, and turn into a long-winded and talky ordeal that never really goes anywhere new.  Even the characters don't seem to have much energy behind them.  As the evil mastermind behind Spectre, Christoph Waltz is surprisingly given very little to do, and is probably one of the more boring Bond villains in recent memory.  Lea Seydoux, as the most recent Bond girl, almost seems shoehorned into her role, as she inexplicably falls in love with him for absolutely no reason whatsoever, This gives her declaration of love, and the passionate scene that follows it, unintentional laughs from the audience.  Even Daniel Craig (who has stated he wants this to be his last time in the role) seems somewhat bored, and tries to liven things up with some inappropriate mugging for the camera during certain scenes.  His performance ends up being somewhat of an uncomfortable mix of the dark and brooding Bond he has created, and the more campy and fun Bond that we are used to.

Indeed, the whole movie suffers from a tonal clash.  One minute, the movie will be asking us to take this seriously, and the next, we get a car chase through the streets of Rome which takes a more comical approach to the action, as Bond deals with malfunctioning car weapons, a wonky car stereo, and getting stuck behind a slow driving old man. (Who just happens to be the only other person driving down the street at this particular time, for some reason.) I understand that these kind of comedic action sequences are a staple of Bond's past, but it doesn't fit the tone that the series has been establishing since 2006.  It was that kind of stuff that was killing the franchise and driving the fans away, which led to the reboot in the first place, so why would the filmmakers want to revisit it?  This is sadly not the only callback to this kind of humor, as we also get villains who get off one liners right before they die. 

On a technical sense, Spectre does look good, though not quite as good as the last Bond entry, Skyfall.  This is mostly due to the new cinematographer Hoyle van Hoytema (Interstellar), who fills a lot of the scenes with brilliant sunlight, but in the film's darker scenes, holds no real distinction.  The darker scenes of the film actually look a little bit muddied.  It creates an inconsistent look, and if there's anything this movie doesn't need any more of, it's inconsistency.  What we're left with is a fairly typical Bond story that is stretched out to a needlessly long two and a half hours.  There's a lot of dead space where little happens, and the plot could have easily been tightened with little effort.  I think we have actually reached a point where Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible films are better Bond films than the actual Bond series, if this is indeed the direction the filmmakers want to follow from this point on.

Since the franchise has been rebooted, there have been a number of nods to the series' past.  Spectre takes that idea, and runs it into the ground.  My only hope is that the filmmakers take a close look at what they're doing, and get the films back on track.  And whoever does end up taking over for Craig, hopefully they can bring something new, which these films desperately need.

See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

0 comments