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.

Skyfall (Sam Mendes, 2012)

8/10
Action movies that aren't strong in their middle acts are a rare breed indeed, and it's Skyfall's strength to a fault. It takes a little too much time doing little in the first act, and trots out the woefully overused reluctant hero trope which, after The Amazing Spider-Man, The Avengers, and The Dark Knight Rises, needs to be murdered immediately. The title credits and opening sequence are exhilerating, but after that, some patience is tried - despite the impressively filmed Shanghai fight scene
. But the heart of the movie is when Javier Bardem shows up as Silva, in an incredible role that rivals even his Anton Chigurh in all-around creepiness and psychosis. Amazingly, the most bracing sequence in the film is not any fight or chase scene, but the first conversation between Bond and Silva.
The final act is good, but not great - while I appreciated the "personal" level the movie aims at (Silva going after M for revenge, rather than the head of some evil corporation trying to get megarich or what have you), it necessarily resulted in a somewhat underwhelming ending.
But overall, the movie does a lot of things really well, and several things exceptionally so. The much-lauded photography by Roger Deakins was good, but considering the hype, I was expecting to be a little more blown away. Same could be said for the movie as a whole, maybe.