When Bond goes rogue during an unsanctioned mission in Mexico this begins a series of events that sends 007 on a personal mission to uncover the sinister organisation that has been teased since Casino Royale. Meanwhile, Ralph Fiennes’ M battles it out with his bureaucratic counterpart C, no I’m not making that up, who’s played by Sherlock’s Andrew Scott, who to be fair is a bit of a C. Well anyway, giving away anymore of the plot verges on spoilers territory, so let’s try to answer the big question: does Spectre live up to the incredibly high standards set by Skyfall?
Now the follow up to Skyfall was always going to struggle to match the bar that was set, let alone exceed such standards, but you can’t deny that both Daniel Craig and Sam Mendes have given it their all in what could be their final Bond. Like any Mendes’ film the stunts, set-dressing and cinematography are all top-notch, don’t believe me, then watch any other film he’s ever made. Craig is still brooding, intense and pretty mopey for a Bond but at least this time he looks like he’s having fun from time to time.
The rest of the cast are quality when they are on screen, but that’s part of the problem, many of them are not on screen for very long. We have Monica Bellucci, who stuns as the most age appropriate Bond girl in a long time, she’s cool, calm and sexy, but she’s also hardly in the film. Of course then there’s the second Bond girl who has a lot more screen time but very little to do, even though she is a great actress, just see Blue Is The Warmest Colour for evidence of that, her character’s priorities and beliefs turn on a dime meaning she has very little impact on the story and will not be a memorable Bond girl. Then there’s Dave Bautista, who finally brings back the Bond henchmen to the series and is nothing short of a muscle-bound bag of fantastic but once again he’s only in a few short scenes. It honestly feels like they’ve dropped in a series of great characters and alluded to the fact that they are important to the narrative but in most cases, when all is said and done they actually aren’t. And then of course there’s the villain.
Since the very beginning of the Bond franchise, these films have lived and died on their villains and during the Craig era we have had Mads Mikkelsen’s brilliant Le Chiffre in Casino Royale, Javier Bardem’s ultra creepy villain in Skyfall and the forgettable one in Quantum of Solace, sorry but do you even remember the character’s name? We now get an in-between kind of villain from two time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz. Look, Christoph Waltz is a great actor but highly under utilised in this film. As a villain, there's lots of room for development and unfortunately doesn't even come to the menace of Le Chiffre or his Oscar winning role of Col. Hans Landa. This is due mostly to the fact that his whole motivation for his angst towards Bond is cliched, far-fetched and confusing when you really think about it. He’s the character that ties the three previous Bond films together but this is where the far-fetched stuff comes into play, because, if he really is the architect of all of Bond’s pain then he’s been playing the long game to the point where you almost expect him to claim responsibility for that time Bond nearly choked on a peanut.
Spectre covers some of the same old ground with regards to the "meta" question of whether Bond is actually relevant in the modern world, which is fine to a point, but considering the extent that Skyfall went in to exploring this idea and proving that he is still relevant, kind of makes it a bit repetitive here and regresses any progress the characters made in Skyfall. The film also explores themes of surveillance and data retention in the modern world which echoes many of the ideas touched on in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, however The Russo Brothers massaged these ideas far better when they tackled them. There is also a question of tone for the film. For the most part the film keep the same over serious tone that we've had throughout the Daniel Craig era but this time we get very brief and rare moments of humour that borders almost on slapstick. Some critics say that this film is more akin to the Roger Moore films but I honestly don't think there's enough of that kind humour to really make a legitimate comparison.
Overall, the film struggles to reach the lofty heights set by Skyfall. The twists can be seen a mile away so there are no real surprises, just the audience waiting for the film to acknowledge what everyone already knows. It may not be the best Bond of the series but you can’t deny that even a mediocre Bond films can easily outdo most blockbuster movies these days.
Spectre gets Double-O Three Stars
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