26 July 2016

Spectre (Sam Mendes, 2015)

4/10
I'm not much of a Bond fan, but I did enjoy Skyfall. This is scripted by many of the same minds who wrote Skyfall, and shares a director, Sam Mendes. My feeling was they went back to the well a bit too much - is it the trend in every Bond film now where the events have to be so deeply connected to Bond's psychological profile, or his upbringing as a child? And does every gesture have to threaten the entire existence of the '00' section as we know it? What happened to Bond just trying to save the world from a bad dude in a movie that clocks in at a more reasonable, non-epic length?
These re-hashed themes feel very tired in Spectre. After a great opening sequence the movie quickly plunges into monotony. Christoph Waltz finally shows up as Blofeld about 4 hours in, but is totally wasted with a boring backstory that has him acting more like a passive aggressive math teacher who ends up with a cool scar in the end. Not only that but he's on-screen for roughly sixteen minutes of the whole thing. Why hire such a great actor only to give him such a milquetoast part and barely show him? Lea Seydoux, at least, was a pleasantly inspired and thoroughly successful choice as a Bond girl.
I don't blame Daniel Craig for wanting to be done with the franchise after this bloated, boring entry. Let's pick up some new writers and a new director to get some fresh looks all around while we're re-casting the lead role.

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