Spectre

Skyfallen From Grace

INTRODUCTION

You know what was fantastic about Skyfall?  It didn’t feel like a Bond film.  It was just a fantastically-shot, incredibly-acted, interesting, equally mature and silly spy film.

It didn’t rely on misogyny, fast cars and one-liners to appeal to audiences.  It was an enthralling, intriguing and exciting story of betrayal, honour and retribution, focussed on three very credible actors (Daniel Craig, Judi Dench and Javier Bardem) and all thanks to one fantastic director (Sam Mendes).

Despite the fact that owning GoldenEye64 was the pinnacle of coolness growing up in North West England, the Bond films never really enthralled me as I felt they took themselves way too seriously and I couldn't really differentiate between them all.  However I saw the start of the Daniel Craig-era as the perfect time to try again.

Casino Royale grabbed my attention, Quantum of Solace nearly lost it, but Skyfall was easily one of my favourite films of 2012.  It felt like the Bond franchise had grown up.  It was ready to present itself as this new gritty entity, not reliant on campy megalomaniacal villains, silly throw-away gadgets and an overall outdated attitude.

Three years pass and here comes Bond 24, otherwise known as Spectre.  The same cast as Skyfall, the same crew as Skyfall, the same director as Skyfall.  What could go wrong?  Sigh.

PLOT

Spectre takes place in the fallout of Skyfall.  Bond is taking orders from the new M (Ralph Fiennes), trying to uncover the shady operations of the titular 'Spectre' organisation, whilst still saving damsels-in-distress, taking down world-dominating bad guys and… Wait a minute…  I thought we were past this?  I thought Skyfall showed audiences that a Bond film didn’t have to rely so much on the typical 'Bond formula' to be entertaining?

“Nope!  Instead we’re going to revert back to the old method!  Now give us your money!”

ANALYSIS

If the 'Blonde Bond' films have proven anything, it’s that inserting respectable and talented actors into these ridiculous films still achieves impressive performances.  

Mads Mikkelsen, Eva Green, Javier Bardem; all of them credible actors who gave memorable performances.  

So when I heard that Monica Bellucci, Léa Seydoux and mainly Christoph (freaking) Waltz were going to be in Spectre, my expectations rose very high!  But they are given nothing to work with! 

The script is poor, the plot twists are tired ideas that can be seen in other films and the actors are so annoyingly wasted in their roles, especially Monica Bellucci!  At least Seydoux stars in most of the film, and Waltz gets the early creepy and seemingly-omnipotent scenes under his belt before they ruin him, but the incredibly talented and beautiful Bellucci is hardly in the damn film!  

Two scenes and that’s her lot!  She’s just used by Bond for get important information (but not before he beds her first, hours after her husband’s funeral!... The husband that Bond killed by the way!)

The fantastic and versatile Léa Seydoux is unfortunately shelved and used as window-dressing.  Not to be glib but her iconic Spectre moment is walking down the middle of a train’s dinner carriage in a silver dress.  All before falling madly in love with the man who hasn't given her any reason to do so.  It’s just so flimsy.

And that leads me to the man of the hour, Christoph Waltz, the man who we all expect to be Hans Landa, but hasn’t met that standard since he broke onto the scene in Inglorious Basterds and stole our hearts.  Similar to Landa, Waltz’s villainous Franz Oberhauser successfully captivates the audience and appears very much in control of events early on, but just falls flat when it comes to providing genuine menace and a worthy adversary to the world’s number one spy.

That goes double for Dave Bautista’s Mr. Hinx.  Fresh off his amazing portrayal as Drax The Destroyer in Marvel’s off-beat gem Guardians Of The Galaxy, and being a huge WWE fan myself, I was eagerly anticipating Hinx kicking Bond’s ass all over Spectre.  

His size and surprisingly comedic timing, twinned with Hinx’s apparently-signature silver-spiked thumbnails made me excited for the possibility of Hinx going down in Bond-lore as an iconic henchman similar to Jaws or Oddjob.  

However he is given so little to do, it perfectly sums up the problems I had with the film.  There is so much potential in its components and the result is so much more disappointing because of it.

Returning to Waltz’s Oberhauser, his motive is so flimsy and stupid that it just lost all credibility for me.  His methods of torture were ineffective and pointless, his main goal is a petty and immature one; certainly one that doesn’t effectively explain the events of the three previous films and he just doesn't come across like much of an obstacle for Bond to overcome.

Oberhauser confidently explains that he is ‘the author to all [Bond’s] pain’, but it never explains this or goes into detail, and seemingly never will.  There are mentions to the plotpoints of Casino Royale and Skyfall (making sure not to mention the rather mediocre Question of Sport ... Quantum of Solace) but only as pointless nods to the audience.  I’d expect much more detail explaining just a small fraction of his actions when it is apparently Bond’s Big Bad we’re talking about.

COMPARISON

Such failure just shows how Spectre falls short in nearly every area Skyfall flourished.  It disregards all the hard work and effort spent by its previous instalments trying to present the Blonde Bond era as a gritty, realistic and Jason Bourne-like modern spy epic.  I hate to use an example from another franchise, but it felt like The Dark Knight Rises after the brilliance that was The Dark Knight.

The Dark Knight struck a certain chord due to the film’s message that sometimes an honourable lie is better than the disappointing truth, when it’s all for ‘the greater good’.  An interesting concept for a blockbuster comic-book adaptation to champion.

However during Bane’s takeover of Gotham in The Dark Knight Rises, he reveals the disappointing truth of Harvey Dent's downfall, causing outrage from the public who are not interested in why they were lied to and all the benefits gained from it.  And then they just move on to trying to defuse a nuclear bomb.  That’s it.  That’s all that’s mentioned of it.

All the good that The Dark Knight did to discuss moral ambiguity and question what is allowed for the sake of the greater good.  Nope, not for The Dark Knight Rises.  Now it’s just “Don’t tell lies! Never ever!” and the poignancy of the ethical quandary just disappears.

Whilst The Dark Knight managed to use a vigilante billionaire and a sociopathic clown to discuss questionable morality and the fairness of chaos, The Dark Knight Rises resorted unnecessary comic-book tropes like a masked maniac holding a city to ransom with a nuclear device.  Not really that ground-breaking or memorable.

WRAP IT UP

That’s how it felt watching Spectre.  Everything that Skyfall did well, Spectre threw it away.  The goodwill a non-fan like me earned, gone in a 120-minute-long instant.  I was left with a very bad taste in my mouth and felt like all my preconceptions about Bond from my youth had returned.

I understand why fans of Bond may adore Spectre and see it as a return to form, but in my opinion, Bond didn’t need to return to anything, it was doing great as it was.  However now with Spectre tying up all it's loose ends, here's hoping that this will be Daniel Craig’s final Bond film, as I feel the franchise needs to be shaken.  Not stirred.

Rating - 3/10

Until next time folks, thanks for reading!

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