A British icon returns, but…
James Bond is one of those types of franchises that is credited with setting up the modern spy genre as we know it. Although I kind of liked the prior films of the series, I must admit that I never really got into the franchise until Casino Royale burst onto the scene in 2006, rebooting the story for a new age. Now, Daniel Craig is back in SPECTRE. This fourth film in the rebooted storyline seems to be the franchise’s first attempt at setting up the idea of a universe, and the result is a two-and-a-half hour film that made me zig-zag between liking it and noticing deep, deep flaws.
In case you haven’t seen it yet, this review will include spoilers. If you want the short version, it’s worth a watch, but you might want to wait until you can rent it.
The Plot
Interesting, but…
After the events of Skyfall, James Bond is on an off-the-books operation in Mexico City, but inevitably causes an international incident that leads to his suspension by M (Ralph Fiennes). Being the blunt instrument that he is, Bond ignores his suspension and investigates a lead in the form of a ring recovered from his slain adversaries, which allows him to discover the titular organization of shadowy bad guys that are led by Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz). After making a deal with Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), he also finds himself protecting Dr. Madeline Swann (Lea Seydoux) over the course of the story as they move to stop Nine Eyes, a collective intelligence agreement that will allow SPECTRE insiders to dominate the planet.
The plot is a fine theme to explore and a nice way to keep 007 relevant, but the problem is that so many other movies in the modern age have done it before and better. Contrary to what the critics would say, I would draw more of a comparison to Captain America: The Winter Soldier instead of the Jason Bourne films here. However, that film had genuinely horrific stakes where a gun was pointed at the heads of millions. SPECTRE seems to lack a sense of urgency or terror about what their evil organization is doing even though it is under the same sneaky auspices of defeating terrorism, which is a shame because it would have better utilized its’ cast.
Speaking of which…
The Cast
The performances are nice, but…
Daniel Craig and Lea Seydoux get the most screen time in this movie… and it just ends up being okay. While Craig is his usual badass self when the action picks up, he seems to counteract his usual charm and charisma by just going through the motions in between action scenes. As Doctor Swann, Seydoux does a decent job with the material that she is given, but I felt like her performance was missing something that I can’t quite put my finger on.
The bright spots in this movie involve the supporting cast. Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, and Naomie Harris are a great combination as M, Q, and Moneypenny, respectively. For what little time they have on screen, they manage to do some good things with the material and got a laugh out of me once or twice. Jesper Christensen also does a nice job of bringing Mister White full circle from Casino Royale. Dave Bautista does okay as an Oddjob-like villain called Hinx, but that leads me to the biggest issues.
Christoph Waltz, Andrew Scott and Monica Bellucci are wasted in this movie, although I would argue that Sam Mendes and the scriptwriters shot themselves in the foot with Waltz the most. It should be a criminal offense to take a two-time Oscar winner and the man responsible for one of the greatest villains in cinematic history (Hans Landa from Inglourious Basterds) and put him in a role like this. While he does his thing quite well, there is just one problem.
The Twist
Christoph Waltz is a great actor, but…
Christoph Waltz isn’t actually playing a new character, but is reintroducing Ernst Stavro Blofeld into the Bond franchise in an attempt to connect Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, and SPECTRE together in an overarching story. While Waltz is able to save some of his dialogue, his entire motivation makes him come off as a creepy child, rather than a diabolical villain. In some of the dialogue, he mentions that he has a vendetta against Bond where he ends up killing the people closest to our favorite secret agent every time he interferes with his schemes. But how did it all start?
It was because daddy didn’t love him enough.
It turns out that Blofeld is actually James’ adopted brother, so his megalomania began when he killed his father because he was attentive to Bond and felt left out. In addition, he also comes off like he was a rejected little boy because he remembered Madeline from when he visited her father and the dialogue made it seem like he liked her. It just cheapened the film and made the world of Bond feel extremely small.
That being said, I did like the way that he got his iconic scar.
The Other Downsides
You get the idea. There are a lot of waffling issues here.
The stunts are becoming a bit more outlandish like the previous films in the franchise, especially the helicopter that was doing loops in the opening sequence and the fact that he seemed to be able to do a great job at driving a half-destroyed plane on the ground. That sort of snapped me out of the film because it is a really big departure from the Craig version of Bond, which seemed to be more grounded in reality instead of camp.
How did Bond and Swann find out that the watch was actually a grenade? There seems to be a missing scene where they discuss that because all Q said was that it tells the time.
Quantum seemed to be scarier because they could have worked with any government, which added more plausibility to the earlier films that was missing here.
The opening title sequence is creepy and cool, but the theme is probably the worst one out of all of the Craig films. It doesn’t sound like a Bond theme at all compared to “You Know My Name”, “Another Way to Die”, and “Skyfall”.
Conclusion
I liked the movie, but it could have been so much better. The one thing that could elevate this film is how they make it relate to the next release, but I feel like that could lead to even more problems. The ideal scenario would be for Craig to step down as Bond and turn his name into a codename for the next actor, which would be a nice way to explain why he changes in this version of the franchise. Otherwise, another installment would likely lead to a rip-off of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and most Bond fans know that it means that Madeline is going to die.
For now, SPECTRE gets out of my line of fire with a tentative recommendation.
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