Spectre

I think it might be time to start up a new era in the greater James Bond saga.

Spectre, directed by Skyfall helmer Sam Mendes, is a fairly simple film at its core: as usual, a shady organization has reared its head and is hell bent on taking over the world because…well, just because they feel like it I guess. It’s not always clear as to what Spectre actually wants outside of the blanket term of “everything” but it seems to be a good excuse as any. Sure they want to control all surveillance across the globe and all of the world’s exports and trafficking and other such bad guy nonsense, but at this point that motive seems to be a bit…dated.

I choose the word dated because a running theme throughout this film is the idea that the program that gave Bond his 007 title and license to kill is becoming a relic of a bygone era. Drones and satellite intelligence rule the world and in the eyes of the new Head of the Joint Security Service, Max Denbigh a.k.a. “C” (Andrew Scott), a single agent on the ground is not only ineffective, but not worth the headache. He believes, much to the dismay of the new M (Ralph Fiennes), that MI6 is on its way out and C, who’s allegiance is fairly obvious the second we hear him speak, wants to do away with Bond and the rest of his team, Moneypenny (Naomi Harris) and Q (Ben Wishaw) included, as quickly as possible.

While the latter deals with the ever-looming threat at home, Bond is off trying to track down a man going by the name of “The Pale King” whom he believes is part of the bigger Spectre conspiracy as well as an integral part in all of Bond’s past misfortunes and superspy problems. From here until the end of the movie Bond goes on an international goose chase to find this man, leaving destruction and probably a few illegitimate babies in his wake (this is a Bond movie after all).

Being the 24^th official film in the series, one can’t really get on the filmmakers for running out of ideas, but what really irks me is that the whole point of these Daniel Craig series of films is that they proved to us that there was more to the Bond legacy than cheesy one liners and gimmicky gadgets, more than the same recycled ideas and cliché stories of past films. Bond is a person, a broken one at that, and he has flaws that define him, gloriously brought to light in Skyfall and Casino Royale. Much like my least liked entry in this generation of films, Quantum of Solace, this movie feels like it’s going through the motions, setting up and building towards something that never really comes, or rather when it does, it shows up as a disappointing whimper, never truly reaching the satisfying heights we expect in a Bond film.

Bond’s bread and butter has always been the action but for the most part, it isn’t anything super exciting or wholly original compared to previous films. The opening scene, set during a Mexico City Dia de los Muertos parade, starts the movie off on an interesting note but quickly descends into a lacking set piece that goes on for a bit too long. A mid-film car chase fares no better and ends up stalling out before it can build to anything remotely exciting. I will say that there’s a brilliant and kinetic action scene that takes place on the down slope of a snowy mountain far into the movie but by that point, I didn’t really think much of what was going on. Save for a few shimmers of hope towards the end of the film, most of the action felt dull and uninspired, regardless of the amount of bullets flying and things exploding.

Performance-wise all of the returning actors fit back into their character’s skins nicely, new Bond girl Madeline Swann (Lea Seydoux) makes a pretty good impression even though the emotional bits with her and Bond made literally no sense. I know it’s hard to resist the ol’ Bond charm but for being portrayed as such a powerful and smart woman, there are a few scenes that didn’t make sense for her character. Either way, Madeline is good addition to the Bond girl line-up.

On the villain side of things, David Bautista’s Hinx is an intriguing and downright brutal take on the typical henchman role, his sheer size and physicality bringing a much needed threat to Bond especially during an extremely well done but all too short action sequence that takes place across a few train cars. I was legit cringing in my seat as the two smashed into things and beat each other senseless, but in the end, Hinx was totally underutilized and went out in very unceremoniously way.

Which now brings me to this character, the big bad who pulls the strings, the “author” of all of Bond’s pain, the evil mastermind who is the central villain of the entire film: Franz Oberhauser. You would think that casting someone as high a caliber as Christoph Waltz would be a no-brainer and believe me I would agree, but after seeing him in this role I don’t really know what to say. Not only is he dull and bland and goofy for no real reason, but he not once helped me to understand how he could possibly be head of such an evil organization. Sure he does the torture thing, sure he has a shit-ton of evil minions to do his bidding, but I can’t for the life of me see why this dude was so feared. There are a few revelations about his character that the filmmakers try to make matter, but as with the character in general, they all fell flat. What a wasted opportunity.

Even after all of my gripes, there’s no question that Sam Mendes knows how to direct a Bond movie. The on location shoots and glorious panoramas really bring an odd sense of beauty to the film that I wasn’t expecting. That coupled with a lot of practical effects and one explosion that just broke a Guinness World record (no joke) makes the film nice to look at and enjoy in spots. That being said, he should have spent a little more time in the editing room because this film is LONG. I don’t know if cutting a few minutes would have helped the film entirely but it definitely would have picked up the pace a bit.

While nowhere near the worst James Bond film in this long running series, Spectre doesn’t do much to make me want to see another adventure with Daniel Craig in the titular role. It does it’s best to tie up some loose ends and bring Craig’s quartet of films full circle, but doesn’t really do much to make the film memorable or worthwhile. Spectre is a perfectly okay film that deserves to be better, especially if this is to be the swan song of this generation of Bond films.