SPECTRE
DIRECTOR: Sam Mendes
CAST: Daniel Craig, Cristoph Waltz, Ben Walsh, Leah Seydoux, Monica Belucci, Ralph Fiennes, Naomi Harris, Rory Kinnear, Andrew Scott
CLASSIFICATION: 13 V
RUNNING TIME: 148 minutes
RATING: 3 stars (out of 5)
Theresa Smith
SPECTRE is very much a 007 movie, more so than it is a James Bond movie, thanks to Daniel Craig’s meticulous exploration of the character over his previous three films.
Craig has stripped down and rebuilt the character and the films will never be the same again.
Almost unoriginal in screenplay when compared to the preceding three films, Spectre is most like the Sean Connery and Roger Moore outings – most like the 007 of yore. Craig’s first three films deconstructed the Bond character to get him to the point where he walks confidently, albeit emotionally and physically battered, through M’s (Fiennes) door to receive a top secret assignment to save the world… and we know he can do it. Cue secret rendezvous in dark alleys, adrenaline-fuelled chase sequences and heartstopping, death defying stunts that keep going just a little too long.
Spectre has it all – a luxury car chase sequence through Rome’s deserted night streets, beautiful Bond girls with little characterisation, but plenty of bare skin to attract our hero, a small plane crashing through a wooden house in the Austrian alps, even a villain with a fluffy white cat and some funny one-liners, if you are quick.
The film gives us 007 on digital screens – the British spy who travels the world in pursuit of bad guys, never hesitates to kill when necessary and always looks good in a white tuxedo – whereas the preceding three films worked on the detailed micro level to explain James Bond the character.
Casino Royale had a lushness to it, not only in the saturation of colour but in the level of detail, watch it a second time and spot the clues. Objects, people and places all gain more detail you didn’t notice at first. Quantum of Solace in contrast was lean and our hero was hurting, but there is also lots of information about this idea of a global criminal conspiracy lurking in the shadows.
Meanwhile Skyfall was a symphony of light thanks to Roger Deakin’s cinematography, and the most personal of the Craig films since we actually got to know something about Bond, the person.
The Spectre trailer hints you will get to know even more about James Bond the child, but in the film he hems and haws and refuses to divulge details. Instead he does trust Moneypenny (Harris) enough to show her the cryptic message that sets him off chasing what turns out to be a super secret organisation of criminals. Again, this is going back to the old days of conspiracy theories and secret organisations which 007 excels at ferreting out. This time around we see M (Fiennes) and Q (Walsh) go out into the field as they, too, help their favourite spy and Christoph Waltz pops up as the ultimate conscienceless nemesis, someone who knew James Bond as a child.
The film starts off at a Mexican Day of the Dead celebration with a gorgeous tracking shot that follows him through a sea of skeletons parading down a crowded street and it never lets up. He sets off an international incident (again) thanks to some crazy stunts in a helicopter and once back on British soil, is grounded by M who can’t keep an eye on him though, what with being politically challenged by a younger, more tech-savvy Mi5 head, Max Denbigh (Scott’s smarminess being your film cue that there are shenanigans afoot) for dominance of the intelligence service.
Talk of merging intelligence streams, using drones and the obsolescence of old-school spies situates Spectre in the real world, but then the mirage in the distance resolves itself into a Rolls Royce Phantom III and we know no matter what happens next, Bond will get out of the torture chamber somehow and save the day, because he is 007.
At this point, 24 films in, a Bond film is predicated on giving you what you expect and this film does exactly that, it gives us 007.
If you liked Licence to Kill or Die Another Day, you will like this.