SPECTRE contains all the famous elements of a James Bond film - fast cars, beautiful women, explosions, dastardly villains in secret lairs. The problem seems to be that the director and writers seemed more concerned with including all these elements than creating a coherent plot or memorable characters.
The film begins with a superlative tracking shot following James Bond through downtown Mexico City during the Day of the Dead festivities. The sequence shows great technical skill but it is brought to a shuddering halt. Too often in the film, good sequences are ruined by jarring moments that don't fit. Later, a car chase in Rome, contains moments of attempted humour that jar against the overall dark tone of the film. And SPECTRE is certainly dark, almost all scenes take place at night, and often in the dark of abandoned buildings. At the same time, the car chase lacks the tension of a classic Bond chase scene, seeming more like an advert for the beauty of Rome than Bond escaping with his life.
This chase follows a largely unnecessary diversion to meet Monica Belluci's gangsters moll. Her role is completely inconsequential to the film other than to send Bond to a meeting with the films main villain, Franz Oberhauser.
Too quickly, the meeting is over, and overall, Oberhauser features far too little in the film. Of course, this could just be a set-up for appearances in later films, but it leaves SPECTRE lacking in villainy. This isn't helped by the fact that Oberhauser's dastardly plot is incoherent, and not a particularly frightening prospect. Oberhauser's plot is to take over global surveillance systems which suggests the films desperate attempt to appear relevant in a world following the revelations of the NSA and Edward Snowden. Oberhauser's plan doesn't appear any worse than the reality of what is actually going on in the world. Furthermore, Oberhauser's intentions are complicated by his seeming desire for revenge against James Bond over old family connections, a plot point borrowed from Skyfall and Silva's desire for revenge on M.
And as has become de riguer for Bond films, there is a mole within MI5 who is working for the villain, but its obvious from the start who it is so there is no surprise in the reveal.
The film borrows heavily from earlier Bond films with references to From Russia With Love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service and You Only Live Twice amongst others, as well as tying up loose ends from the previous three films.
This determination to pay homage detracts from the film as there is little original on show. Its a shame as the film has an excellent cast but in particular Christoph Waltz and Monica Bellucci are wasted. Lea Seydoux is good, but at times falls into the tropes of the Bond girls of old instead of the more nuanced female characters of the more recent films. It was nice to see more of Ben Whishaw as Q, but Ralph Fiennes is a huge step back from Judi Dench as M, while Moneypenny played by Naomie Harris fails to justify her larger than usual role in the film. Most worryingly Daniel Craig is on autopilot, seeming disinterested, no longer the perky young Bond of Casino Royale.
Overall, the film then is a disappointment. Sam Mendes brings nothing new here, hopefully the talk of him signing on for Bond 25 comes to nothing as the series needs a new direction.
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