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 together 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). They also do
the Bond is being tracked thing again (Bond was implanted with a tracker in
CASINO ROYALE and he has smart
blood in this movie). Bond goes rogue is
a repeated theme used before in LICENSE TO KILL. 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.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
SPECTRE: BOND’S BIGGEST OPENING SEQUENCE-
a detailed behind-the-scenes
look at what went into prepping and shooting the Day of the Dead parade
sequence that opens up the movie
Also on the disc are the theatrical trailer teaser,
two
theatrical trailers, a photo gallery and the online video blogs (DIRECTOR- SAM MENDES, SUPERCARS, INTRODUCING LEA SEYDOUX
AND MONICA BELLUCCI, ACTION, MUSIC (the Sam Smith song), and GUINNESS WORLD RECORD for biggest cinematic explosion). Also included
in the case is a code to download and/ or stream a digital HD copy of SPECTRE.
Target offers a bonus DVD
which has a featurette FROM TITLE SONG TO TITLE SEQUENCE on the title sequence and the Sam Smith song that plays
during the title sequence (blame the Bond producers accepting sam Smith's offer wanting to do a Bond song when he approached
them), the Same Smith music video- WRITING'S ON THE WALL, and THE SHADOW OF SPECTRE featurette where SPECTRE co-writers Robert
Wade and Neal Purvis examine the history of Spectre in past Bond films).
FINAL ANALYSIS: SPECTRE is a flawed James Bond
movie with a
number of issues and disappointing climax and an opening scene which the rest
of the movie doesn’t even live up to or even top. The extras are pretty
slim and it makes think
there will be a double dip for SPECTRE in the future.
This review is ©2-19-2015
David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments
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