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| Directed by Sam Mendes Written by John Logan, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Jez Butterworth |
Alo Party Peoples.
I haven't loved the Craig-era James Bond movies. Don't get me wrong, Daniel Craig is great in the part, and Casino Royale is a genuinely great action film, but this incarnation of the British secret agent has been struck with an identity crisis since the beginning. The studio knew that they couldn't let the property end with Die Another Day, they knew that they could make huge amounts of money off of a reboot, but they didn't quite know what that reboot should look like, so it's changed every time.
Casino Royale is essentially a Nolan Batman-ized version of the property, Quantum of Solace is a half-rate Jason Bourne wannabe, and neither of them really feel like James Bond movies. They are movies that have a guy named James Bond in them, there's a difference. However, Skyfall is still the best one of these, managing to combine the more serious, grounded approach of the reboot with the pulp-action sensibilities of the franchise's Connery-era golden age, and promising much better things to come in the future.
Spectre, unfortunately, scuttles that promise in favor of a slow, lazy, unfocused slog of an action film that recalls the worst of the late 90s, already one of the worst periods in action movie history. Spectre is the wayward ghost of a franchise (just look at how miserable Daniel Craig is on that poster) shuffling along on its last breath, going through the motions and hoping that nobody notices the fact that this version of Bond is running out of steam.
After the events of the last film, and a pre-credits action scene that reeks with envy of Mission: Impossible, Bond is in deep shit because his antics are making the 00' program look increasingly anachronistic and dangerous, so it's being scrapped in favor of drones and a "digital ghost" to monitor the world's communications. But he decides to further endanger the program by heading off to Rome and discovers SPECTRE, a secret organization responsible for the villains of the last three movies that's using them as justification for the world's governments to sign onto sweeping surveillance measures they can tap into. (yes, exactly like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but Spectre isn't fit to shine its shoes)
After the events of the last film, and a pre-credits action scene that reeks with envy of Mission: Impossible, Bond is in deep shit because his antics are making the 00' program look increasingly anachronistic and dangerous, so it's being scrapped in favor of drones and a "digital ghost" to monitor the world's communications. But he decides to further endanger the program by heading off to Rome and discovers SPECTRE, a secret organization responsible for the villains of the last three movies that's using them as justification for the world's governments to sign onto sweeping surveillance measures they can tap into. (yes, exactly like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but Spectre isn't fit to shine its shoes)
Where films like, say, Crimson Peak or Pacific Rim embrace convention because they sincerely love their genre and want to be the purest expression the form that they can be, Spectre embraces convention because it's lazy and can't be bothered to do otherwise. It ticks off every spy movie trope and cliche in the book, soullessly moving through action scene, meeting, undercover work, action scene, action scene, bang the Bond girl, secret lair, action scene. It's "climactic" showdown hinges on not one, but two digital timers. I'd call it an Austin Powers script with all the jokes cut out, but it's so grim, joyless and self serious that it could never be mistaken for comedy.
It doesn't even have good or even memorable action scenes, the one thing that even the worst Bond films have managed to provide. The opening action scene takes a fistfight in a helicopter flying over a Day of the Dead festival and somehow makes it not exciting in the slightest. A car-chase with an airplane slowly falling apart in a mad dash down a mountain is watered down into tedium by terrible editing. A brawl on a train with Dave Bautista as a henchman (who, to be fair, is the one good thing in the movie), is wrecked by Bourne-esque shaky cam, and is immediately followed by a passionless sex scene with one of the least-interesting Bond girls ever.
Daniel Craig still has one more Bond movie on his contract, so unless Spectre absolutely tanks, which is unlikely, we're getting at least one more movie with this version of James Bond. Which is a problem, because at this point its become clear that this series just doesn't have any idea where it's going. Spectre just plain isn't a James Bond movie, it's a movie with a guy named James Bond in it.
Have a nice day.
Greg.B
FINAL RATING: 2/5
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