The fourth Daniel Craig James Bond came out last week and I knew I’d have to see it even though it’s the National Novel Writing Month and Fallout 4 was just released. I found time to go see it with my friend Glenn and I’m very happy I did. Let me give you a warning first. Make sure you’ve seen all the other Daniel Craig James Bonds. Especially Skyfall. It’s not a complete deal breaker if you missed Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace but certain things will make a lot more sense. Spectre is a Bond movie through and through so you know exactly what to expect. It doesn’t matter if it’s a classic Sean Connery movie or a more over the top Pierce Brosnan movie, it follows a formula which works almost every time.
I kind of want to jump right in to what bugged me about the movie… so I’ll do just that. First off, Sam Smith is bad and he should feel bad. He wrote a terrible Bond theme. According to Google, it’s number one on the UK charts which makes me wonder if anyone in the UK (besides Rax, of course) has ears. He doesn’t even mention the name of the movie ONCE! Hasn’t this fool ever seen a Bond movie or heard the song from one? The theme was the worst part of the movie. The other thing that bothered me was that the story felt a bit rushed. Not in the sense of sloppy writing or anything like that. It just felt like they needed the movie to be just a little longer so they could explain more. There were a couple of jumps that just felt like someone hit the next button and skipped a scene. It wasn’t terrible and didn’t ruin the movie in any sort of way, but it would have been nice to have a more fleshed out story. Lastly, the conclusion to one of the side stories just felt unfulfilling. I was just a little let down by M’s part of the story.
Okay. Now that I’ve bitched about that, onto what worked. The opening was a true Spectrecle… okay. I’m sorry. Last Spectre joke. I swear. The opening scene was full of action, had a bit of humor, and had some beautiful scenery. It was everything the first post opening credit scene needs. From there the movie followed the Bond formula. The movie takes you from one amazingly beautiful location, to London, to another beautiful location, back to London, and so on. Spectre is just like all the other Daniel Craig bonds and is a visually pleasing movie that still uses CG but has more of a focus on practical effects. The last four Bond movies are almost like true stories when compared to Pierce Brosnan’s films so the suspension of disbelief is easier to obtain. On the flip side there’s also a fine line to walk. If the stunts get too crazy or Q’s inventions become too fantastic, then a moviegoer will be more likely to call bull.
The acting was great. I think that Casino Royale set the bar high and each movie met or surpassed that mark. Daniel Craig is a legendary James Bond. It doesn’t seem like a terribly hard role to play. Bond’s range of emotions isn’t that impressive but I think it’s more than that. Bond is a style, Bond is an aura, if anyone portrays Bond who doesn’t exude Bond from every pore, the performance will come across as lackluster, tried, and sad. Christoph Waltz (Django, Inglorious Bastards) was amazing as always. I always thought it was Christopher, but his IMDB page says otherwise. Whenever I review a movie he does I should just say “Christoph Waltz was in it,” an everyone should know that meant he was great. Lea Seydoux (Blue is the Warmest Color) was fantastic and had a really touching scene that would have gotten a tear out of me had I been more attached to her character at the time. Ralph Fiennes (Schindler’s List, Harry Potter), Naomie Harris (Pirates of the Caribbean), and Ben Whishaw (I’m Not There) reprized their roles as M, Moneypenny, and Q respectively so you already know what to expect from them. Andrew Scott (Sherlock) was superb though I have trouble trusting him no matter what role he plays thanks to his portrayal of Moriarty. I’d like to give a nod to Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy, Former WWE Wrestler) because he was a great bad guy. Don’t worry, that’s not a spoiler. You know he’s bad from the minute he walks on screen.
This review is much longer than I thought it was going to be. Though to be fair that last paragraph was me just listing people and saying they were good, so that’s not my best piece of writing. Let me wrap this up. Spectre is a Bond movie and you should know what to expect. If you’ve never seen one before then you have lived under a rock since at least 1963 when Dr. No was released. It’s best if you’ve seen the previous 3 Daniel Craig movies, but you don’t need to. This is a action/spy movie at its best and could very well could be Craig’s Bond swan song. It was a fun movie that does the Bond name proud. The biggest problems the movie had were the song and having too much story for 2 hours and 20 minutes. If you like James Bond films, then see this movie.
Spectre gets an 8 out of 11