Photo courtesy of IMDb
8.8/10
Don’t let all the talk of Star Wars, Avengers, or even Jurassic World fool you: 2015 has been the year of the spy movie. From box office smashes such as Kingsman: The Secret Service and Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation to Melissa McCarthy’s foulmouthed yet relentlessly hysterical Spy, the past 11 months have been jam-packed with secret agents, hi-tech gadgetry, and diabolical villains. It’s rather fitting then that this slew of espionage fiction should end with the release of the latest installment in James Bond saga: Spectre.
If you’ve read some of the reviews, you’ve probably heard that this is Daniel Craig’s worst outing as the suave British spy, harkening back to the campier days of Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan rather than the gritty “realism” of recent installments. Well, I’m here to tell you that’s wrong. This is the best, and – more importantly – the most entertaining Bond film in years.
The problem with most movie critics is that they overvalue certain elements of a film while undervaluing more critical parts, but ultimately, is the movie entertaining? Even though Skyfall was released to critical acclaim back in 2012 (a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes has to count for something), like many longtime Bond fans I walked out of the theatre feeling as if something was missing; it didn’t quite feel like a James Bond movie. In contrast, while it was a good break from tradition, Spectre is a step in the right direction for the 007 franchise.
This film sees our famed hero traveling around the globe, seducing beautiful women and uttering witty one-liners as he attempts to save the day from a shadowy organization named SPECTRE,run by the mysterious Franz Oberhauser (played by Christoph Waltz). Critics are divided over this movie because it lacks the “emotional depth” of Skyfall, but these movies aren’t about emotions: they’re about entertainment. What more could anyone want from a Bond film? Saying that Spectre returns to the Bond formula shouldn’t be a criticism. 53 years and 24 installments should be indication that the plot formula works.
We start off in Mexico City during a Day of the Dead parade, with a beautiful five-minute opening tracking shot that’ll give Birdman fans a run for their money as it pans around the parade and follows Bond into a hotel, up an elevator, into a room, and then out a window and across a roof. You have to see it to believe it. From there, Bond goes to Rome, Austria, and even Morocco. The dialog is well-written and the performances are great. Daniel Craig continues to rival Sean Connery for the title of “Best Bond,” Lea Seydoux has great chemistry as Bond girl Madeline Swann, Ralph Fiennes is solid as the new M, and Christoph Waltz is menacing as a villain. Critics have criticized Waltz’s role, claiming that his character Oberhauser is too much of a coldly-calculating sociopath, especially when compared with Javier Bardem’s rendition of Raoul Silva in Skyfall. Just because it’s different doesn’t mean it’s bad, in fact, the only complaint I had for Oberhauser was that he could have used more screen time. Nonetheless, Waltz makes a memorable impression.
For a film with a reported budget of $250-300 million, Spectre unsurprisingly has some good action scenes. There’s a very suspenseful helicopter fight, a tense scuffle on a train with a henchman played by Guardians of the Galaxy’s Dave Bautista, and a sequence in which Bond goes tobogganing down a snowy mountain in an airplane to catch some SPECTRE agents fleeing in their Land Rovers. The Rome car chase between Bond’s custom-made Aston Martin DB10 and Bautista’s character’s Jaguar C-X75 is good, but not as intense as it could have been.
Overall, the only thing I didn’t like about Spectre was its theme song, “Writing’s on the Wall” by Sam Smith. The track is sung in a whiny falsetto and can be best described as lame, especially when compared with Adele’s tune for the last movie.
If you’re expecting a dark, introspective look at James Bond’s character, go re-watch Skyfall. But if are you looking for some good quality entertainment, go see Spectre. Watch it in IMAX if you can.