James Bond (Daniel Craig) is on an unofficial
mission from
the previous M (Judi Dench) to kill Marco Sciarra in Mexico
City during Day of the Dead. It sets off a chain of events as he attends
the Sciarra’s funeral, saves Sciarra’s widow (Monica Belucci), and stumbles
upon the organization of Spectre where the leader (Christoph Waltz) has ties to
James Bond’s past. The British
government security council is thinking of dismantling the 00 program as MI-5
and MI-6 are merging as James Bond tries to figure out what Spectre’s big plan
is as he finds it linked back to his recent enemies including the organization
Quantum. He must protect the daughter of Mr. White as Bond will come to face
one of his most infamous enemies.
SPECTRE does get some things right as the opening
sequence
in Mexico during Day of the Dead is one of the highlights of this latest James
Bond movie before it goes into the opening credits sequence which is full of
octopus, smoke, and skull porn as it shows stuff from this movie and the past
three films to a new James Bond theme sung by Sam Smith. I like the lyrics and
music to that song, but
I wish they got someone better to sing it.
SPECTRE does a good way of tying the previous three movies into the
newest movie while playing on the theme of whether James Bond (the blunt
instrument) belongs in today’s world of terrorism, drones, and surveillance
states (aka George Orwell’s 1984).
SPECTRE does play off sometime like the greatest hits homage to other
James Bond movies of the past while trying to be in with the gritty nature of
the last three while trying to be more fun like the James Bond movies before
Daniel Craig came in to play 007.
SPECTRE isn’t the worst or the best
of Bond movies where the
best moments of SPECTRE are in the first 90 minutes. It plays like LICENSE TO
KILL which is an
entertaining and yet not as impressive follow-up to the movie that came before
it (THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS). The
expectations from SKYFALL are so high and the script is a blend of many
rewrites and so many cooks in the kitchen. The plot involving Spectre and the
reveal of a certain bad guy to be Blofeld could have used more fleshing out
since SPECTRE seems like all setup with not enough pay off by movie’s end.
I hope the next James Bond movie (the 25th
in the series) can bring out a classic James bond movie whether Daniel Craig
returns for one more movie or they cast someone new as 007. I enjoyed
SPECTRE, but I feel a little
disappointed by it even though I will see it again at some point.
This review is ©11-9-2015
David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments
to feedback@enterline-media.com
Like Enterline Media on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/enterlinemediaweb
and follow on tumblr at http://enterlinemedia.tumblr.com
