Spectre Review

Spectre

 "You are a kite dancing in a hurricane, Mr Bond."  -Mr. White

  The new 007 James Bond film Spectre is directed by Sam Mendes and stars Daniel Craig as James Bond, Christoph Waltz as Franz Oberhauser, Léa Seydoux as Madeleine Swann, Ralph Fiennes as M, Dave Bautista as Hinx, Ben Wishaw as Q, and Monica Bellucci as Lucia.

  007 agent James Bond is back in what is the "last" film with Daniel Craig starring as the iconic character.

^Stop acting so serious, Daniel. It's just speculation^

  Spectre takes place only a little bit after the events of Skyfall. James is given an unofficial order from (SPOILER) the recently deceased M (Jusy Dench) to take out a man named Marco Sciarra. During his brawl with Marco, Bond takes his silver ring with an octopus emblem on it. When Bond returns to London at MI6, the current M indefinitely grounds Bond from going on the field. In true 007 fashion, Bond disobeys M's orders and goes to Rome to attend Sciarra's funeral where he investigates the mystery of the ring. He ends up finding out about the organization Spectre, led by Franz Oberhauser, which is trying to rid the world's defense organizations and force them to join Spectre. During the action-packed chase to find and kill Oberhauser, Bond discovers information that could change his life forever.

 ^Mmk.You look prepared enough to save the world^

  Like I just mentioned, Spectre had a bunch of really cool action in it. It might just be the most action based James Bond film ever. That's pretty much where the good things about this film ends. Spectre honestly disappointed me. It was just so short of being great, but it took a toll mainly because of the story. The script really could have used one more revision. Sadly, that didn't happen.

^It was you! The author of all my pain!^

  The thing I disliked the most in Spectre was the villain utilization. Notice how I didn't say just "villains". Christoph Waltz's character, Franz Oberhauser, is the main villain in here, but we really only get to see him for a total of (I want to say) 20-25 minutes. That would be acceptable if the film was 1 hour and 30 minutes long, but Spectre was a whopping 2 hours and 28 minutes long!

 ^Yeah. I want to beat someone up too, Dave^

  There was also a subplot which I didn't mention in the actual plot of Spectre. MI6 is trying to get shut down by  C, the head of the Joint Intelligence Service and also in cahoots with the Spectre organization, to create Nine Eyes, an intelligence co-operation agreement between nine countries. This is sort of necessary to the main plot overall, but it totally just feels shoehorned in. There are no real transitions to the scenes with M and C that feel smooth. There would be one scene with Bond just coming out of a fight and then it cuts to C talking with M about how eliminating the 00 program to create Nine Eyes. Again, the problem is the story.

 ^Come get me C! Whatchu gonna do?^

  Another gripe (although small) I had with Spectre was the connection between James Bond and Madeleine Swann. Their "love" for each other felt kind of forced. I say the word "forced" again because a lot of Spectre did feel really forced in order to make up for the story. I couldn't really feel the love between Madeleine and Bond as much I felt the connection between Vesper Lynd and Bond in Casino Royale. I even felt more romance between Bond and Lucia (Monica Bellucci), who was really in the movie for 10 minutes at most!

 ^Steamy, ain't it?^

  Although the story really felt subpar to Skyfall and Casino Royale, but much better than Quantum of Solace (not really saying much), I still thought Spectre was entertaining as hell. It was by no means a bad movie (even though it may seem like I think that). It was shot beautifully starting out with the rooftop scene in Mexico City.

^This picture doesn't do it justice. This one shot scene of Bond walking on a rooftop is amazing^

  Also, the action scenes, like I said, were ridiculously cool. From the beginning scene in Mexico City when Bond is hurling around in a helicopter to the (best?) train fight scene with Dave Bautista's character, Hinx, Sam Mendes really knows how to shoot a film to create intensity.

^WOW. James Bond actually looks scared...that's a first^

  Regardless of the story being kind of a flop, I can actually recommend seeing Spectre. The really cool shots and the really cool action sequences made up for only a fraction of the story. Overall, I think that this is a fun movie to see in theaters, but don't expect any nominations for best screenplay or anything. I can only think that if this were not a movie with the completely recognizable name, James Bond, then would it be worth watching?

Pro

• Intense action scenes
• Cool camera shots
• It's still a James Bond movie

Con

• ...Story...
• Underutilized villain
• Love connection between Bond girl Madeleine and Bond

3.7/5
 

Spectre is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence, some disturbing images, sensuality and language

Spectre is in theaters everywhere now

Thank you for reading everybody! Follow me on Facebook here and Twitter here to get updates on new reviews!