James Bond: Spectre: I’m a Little Shaken…

After the pretty much perfect Skyfall I was more than pumped for the next Bond film, especially as the team who made Skyfall were sticking around for it. And while the trailers for Spectre didn’t really seem to be hinting at the heights that Skyfall had accomplished I still had full faith in returning director, Sam Mendes, and team to deliver another sensational Bond; and hey Christoph Waltz’s villain was shaping up to be another terrifying shadowy figure that should be a joy to watch tear up a scene. Sadly the small nagging feeling in the back of my mind turned out to be correct and not only was this a disappointing follow up to Skyfall but a mis-shaped end to Craig’s tenure as Bond.

The story of Spectre sees Bond attempt to hunt down and eradicate the shadowy force known as Spectre, a force that seems to be the horrifying puppet master to many of not only the world’s misfortunes but many of Bond’s own personal tragedies too.

While that synopsis of the story makes this film sound like an emotionally charged conclusion to Craig’s Bond saga, surprisingly emotional impact is one of the things sorely missing from this film. While it is cool and satisfying to see the overarching plot of the film neatly bring all the threads created from the past three movies into one neat bow with even older throw backs to some of the tropes of the classic Bond adventures, the emotional core that the film tries to hinge on doesn’t seem to quite click not to mention the telegraphed twist that could be seen coming from the edge of the universe.   

One main reason for this is the romance that is surprisingly a very dominant factor in this film. While I am completely fine with its inclusion, its execution was flimsy at best, making the relationship never really feeling to be earned or worthy of any attention or care, it seems to all come about in way too fast and unjustified fashion. This not only badly effects the emotional impact of the film but it also hurts Craig’s exit as Bond as, not getting too far into spoilers, your left at the end sighing in disappointment that this is how it was decided that such a cool Bond would exit the screen.

Another reason is the completely disappointing villain. Spoken of in only scared whispers for the majority of the film not only does Waltz’s character, Oberhauser , enter way too late into the game but his connection to Bond is never really explored in any satisfying or interesting way. This is because, again without getting too far into spoilers, Bond never reacts to this villain how you’d expect him to, treating him more as an acquaintance then this heated rivalry your told it is. Overall leaving a great actor criminally mis-used as it seems the film is in a constant chase to recapture the sly and horrifying presence of Javier Bardem’s devilish Silva.  

However, thankfully, in terms of the rest of the cast their amazing talent is harnessed and utilised in a spectacular fashion. Ben Whishaw’s returns as the new Q of the modern age once again steals the show with his posh and perfect comedic timing and great dynamic with Bond that made their scenes together an absolute joy to watch. Filling the big shoes left behind by Dame Judi Dench is Ralph Fiennes’s M, who continues to be a great and excellent fit to Mi6, or as it should be known, Team Bond.

Daniel Craig also delivers stellar work here as he maintains the cool and swarve persona of Bond in almost every action he does in this film. From jumping from a collapsing building, seducing a target for vital information, or effortlessly gunning down incoming enemy soldiers, every movement and look given just oozed cool as we were shown Bond’s full assortment of talents at his disposal; cementing this Bond without question to be an undeniable badass. Also though, I found in this film Bond was injected with more personality than ever before. Instead of just being the unstoppable, unfazed spy machine that can be seen in some previous Bonds, this iteration had more substance to him and in lines or motives where many other actors would have faltered, Craig found a compelling, if not always believable, way of executing them. I got more of a sense of his charisma that really wasn’t successfully shown in previous films, how he can come out of any situation with the last laugh and that the title of Maverick really does belong to him.

However even with such a cool character at its disposal; the building shattering set pieces never really seemed to grab me or make my heart race like the tube sequence in Skyfall did. Leaving this film’s big wow moments boil down to nothing more than lacklustre in effect.

This may have been, in big part, due to the shoddy CGI on offer in Spectre. Every time it would pop up on screen I would find myself sighing at just how unfinished the final product looked as it not only took me out of the film but also grievously hurt the impact of what im sure was planned to be a jaw dropping moment.

However while the big moments continuously missed the mark, the smaller more intimate fight scenes were filled with excitement and trepidation. Every punch flown, every piece of scenery smashed, every blow taken, you could feel the impact of each one as the powerful sound effects and well-choreographed fights pulled you in as you feared for what the outcome may be.

Even with bad CGI and lacklustre set pieces one thing that saved and heightened much of this films moment to moment enjoyment was the fantastic cinematography on show here. Many of the shots used were angled beautifully as Bond could be seen heroically standing over a jaw dropping vista as its setting sun tinged the whole image an intoxicating yellow hue. Even in a considerably disappointing car chase, the way the racing cars were shown to move and drift, with their as always amazing looking chassis, through the picturesque streets of Rome made the set piece if not on-the-edge-of-your-seat exciting then definitely a joy to watch.

Overall this film was more of a let-down then a success. With a disappointing villain, not-quite-there emotional core, lacklustre set pieces and horribly executed romance this seems like an unfitting end for Craig’s Bond. However the experience is uplifted by being able to see just how immensely cool Bond is at every aspect of what he does through some amazing acting; a shining positive that can be said of all the cast members of the film as some even bring a fresh and welcomed dose of comedy to proceedings.

James Bond Spectre = 6/10

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