James Bond Movie Spectre 007

Now, let’s take a look at the James Bond Movie Spectre

An overview and its overall ability as a 007 movie. I loved this so much I went out and bought it on BluRay too.

For those of you who haven’t seen the film yet SPOILER ALERT!

The Plot-Two years after the events of Skyfall Mr. Bond has become depressed and mostly uninterested in his work for MI6. His superior M orders him out into the field again where he must travel to Rome and Mexico City. In Rome he involved with Lucia Sciarra, widow of an infamous Mafia member who is also Bond’s latest target. After, completing his assignment in Rome Bond goes to Mexico City where he must track down an organization by the name of Spectre which is run my Ernst Stavro Blofeld. But after Mr. Hinx shows up in Mexico City looking for Bond he must leave with M to go back to England and see what M knows about Spectre and why they want to kill him. Daniel Craig is an actor I do like and here plays a very good James Bond. I’ve watched Bond movies for 50+ years. As much as I like some of the Jack Reacher stuff, he’s not a patch on Bond. If there was a better choice of actor playing Reacher, then this might be a closer run battle. But with Cruise in that role, Bond is way out in front.

James Bond– Daniel Craig plays a very good James Bond in this one. He really gets into character when it comes to playing James Bond despite some issues I will talk about shortly he does play the role well. The action scenes are amazing, especially in the opening scene in Mexico city with the helicopter and the building. Love that scene a lot! Although, I would have liked to see him with the little gadget from the Skyfall where he could shoot people from his watch. But no worries there is plenty of action in this one throughout.

Spectre

Spectre- In my opinion Spectre was not a very good organization at all compared to Quantum from Casino Royale or even SPECTRE from You Only Live Twice . All they did was play poker during their meetings and tell Blofeld what they would do if they got hold of C’s technology, but when it came down to doing anything really against Bond or MI6 they failed miserably in every way possible just like in Thunderball. If you read my article about Ian Fleming being disappointed with Thunderball then you will understand what I am saying. The only way they are better than Quantum is that they have a cool HQ called The Disco Volante . It’s just, really lame how the organization has no real big plan or mission at all for Bond to take on. Not much of a challenge there guys! If you want to see him have an actual good fight against another Bond villain please watch Daniel Craig vs Mads Mikkelsen in Casino Royale .

 

Main Roles

M– Ralph Fiennes plays the M role very well in this one, but he doesn’t help James Bond as much as he should have during some of Mr. Bonds missions it seemed like. He was more of support for him then giving really solid advice until the last scene when he is in the control center with all the screens. That was fantastic! But there were times when I didn’t understand what M’s motives were or why he did certain things that hindered Bond in his missions.

Moneypenny– Naomie Harris plays a pretty good Moneypenny, but she doesn’t have much to do in this one which is disappointing. There are some good moments between her and Mr. Bond though especially towards the end of the film where they are together after she has become head of field agents again she wants to help him out because she cares for him so much. Very touching moment there!

Q– Ben Whishaw plays a very good Q in this one despite not having as much to do as the Q in Skyfall . He is a bit more of a rebel in this one it seems and doesn’t really want to help Mr. Bond at times, but he does when he needs too. Hit or miss with his decisions mostly misses though!

Hinx– Dave Bautista plays a great henchman named Hinx who is on top of everything James Bond does from beginning to end. He has some nice action scenes throughout also very brutal hand to hand combat scene near the end with Mr. Craig which was fantastic! I would say that fight between them was probably my favorite of the whole movie! They should have made him into a recurring villain because he could have been a good one if they had did that for sure.

Madeline Swann– Lea Seydoux plays a fairly good Madeline Swann in this one, but she doesn’t do much for me personally. I understand what the director was trying to do with her character bringing in M’s past into the film, but she didn’t work for me like other past Bond girls did. The scene where Mr. Craig thinks she is dead and wakes up after remembering alluding to his love for Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale was very touching though! I would have rather seen him talk about Vesper in detail then bring in this new girl who was supposed to be related to him in some way (I guess). But still good scenes throughout!

Bond Villains– Christoph Waltz plays a pretty good villain here, but it’s not one of his best films. He is a very calm and collected man who only gets upset when things don’t go as planned which I thought was a little overdone at times even though he does have a very good scene near the end where he realizes that Mr. Bond has been playing him from the beginning to get to Blofeld. Good scene there! Dave Bautista does an excellent job as Hinx playing the henchman well throughout the whole film too!

Bond Women– Lea Seydoux as Madeline Swann wasn’t anything spectacular for me personally, but she did have some nice action scenes throughout with Ms. Fields also she was fairly good with James Bond. Monica Bellucci did a good job playing Lucia Sciarra the widow of an assassin that Bond kills early on in the film it was very nice seeing her back even if she only had two scenes in the whole movie! She is such a beautiful woman and I’m glad they brought her into these last few Craig films to add some class to them for sure! Stephanie Sigman was fairly good as Estrella in this one, but not much to do. Nathalie Emmanuel also made quite an impression with what little she had in this one too. Good supporting women in this one though overall!

Villain’s Pasts– Christoph Waltz plays a pretty interesting villain here in terms of his past which we get to see the most of throughout the film. He was a doctor who lost his family in an accident and then he became obsessed with finding Blofeld that has killed many others like him before. Yet, I think they could have done more with his past because it felt kind of rushed which is one of my main problem’s with this movie. They should have focused on how he met Mr. White instead on what happened to his wife, children etc…

The Movie Breakdown

Action Sequences– There are some pretty good action sequences in this one especially towards the end which you would expect from a Craig Bond film but also the beginning of the film had some really cool chase scenes through Italy for sure! Especially when they were driving motorcycles there near the beginning which I thought was kind of cool even if it was taken from another Bond film.

Mr. Craig– Daniel Craig is one of the best Bonds for sure! He’s not trying to imitate any other actor that has played James Bond before him he does his own thing with this character which I’m very glad they did because I think it works very well for Mr. Craig personally. Good job again Mr. Craig in another great performance as our favorite British spy!

Music– Thomas Newman did a good job on the soundtrack to this movie, but honestly, I wasn’t too fond of most of his scores here especially at the beginning when it sounded kind of like Pirates Of The Caribbean to me throughout which surprisingly didn’t bother me too much since I am a fan of the Disney ride. Good job though nonetheless!

Action– There were some cool action scenes throughout this movie one’s which you would expect from a Craig Bond film, but also the beginning of the film had some very good chase scenes through Italy that I thought was pretty funny when Mr. Craig got arrested for speeding on his motorcycle there too haha.

 

James Bond Movie Spectre Overall

Overall- Overall it was an alright movie for me personally lack of depth in most areas especially on how Christoph Waltz met Blofeld and how he lost his family felt rushed to me, but still decent enough for what it is worth if you are a true Bond fan. And if you are not then maybe this isn’t the best entry in the series for you to start with. I like it because of the action, but I can understand how others might not enjoy this one as much as me though.

So that’s my review of SPECTRE! Have you seen it? If so what did you think about it? Please feel free to comment below and thanks for reading! 🙂

 

More In depth

From director Sam Mendes comes “SPECTRE,” the 24th installment in the longest-running film franchise of all time. In the film, a cryptic message from Bond’s past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organization. While M battles political forces to keep the secret service alive, Bond peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the terrible truth behind SPECTRE. The film stars Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Naomie Harris, Léa Seydoux, Monica Bellucci, Dave Bautista and Ralph Fiennes.

 

– After the re-introduction of James Bond to the big screen in 2006 with Casino Royale , I’ve been a huge fan of Daniel Craig as our favorite British spy ever since which is why even though I wasn’t too impressed by Skyfall that came out three years ago later they still had me intrigued for Sam Mendes’ Spectre ! And now that it’s here does this new film live up to its predecessors? Well… Kind of… It was okay I think But not as good as Casino Royale sadly…

Starting Out

– First of all, the opening scene to this film was pretty good! It opens in Mexico with a man who turns out to be Mr. White from Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace making an exchange for money and diamonds but we soon find out there’s more to it than meets the eye when Bond appears to stop the deal only to get captured by these mysterious men but unfortunately Mr. White isn’t there anymore and gets away leaving 007 behind and is later taken to some undisclosed location where he is interrogated by what seems like the leader of these people called SPECTRE which I found kind of cool! And then we get our first title sequence which I thought was really awesome too especially with that song playing in the background (Shanghai Nights By Loreena Mckennit) but the only thing I didn’t really like about it was when we see Mr. White’s daughter or what appeared to be his daughter leaving MI6 HQ because her face looked kind of weird and fake so that bothered me a bit… But okay…

Next Aspect

– After that we see Bond in Mexico City at this Day Of The Dead festival where he follows these two mysterious women who seem to know him or recognize him and then we get our first action scene with 007 chasing one of them through the crowded streets and trying to catch up with her until she passes through a metal detector and disappears into thin air just as she touches it which is odd, but whatever! They do show us later on that they are wearing some kind of necklace that allows them to walk through metal detectors without being detected which was pretty cool since it gave them the advantage in order to escape! But before this scene we also get our first reference to the late great actor Peter O’Toole who played Lawrence Of Arabia (1962) and is seen sitting on a bench at the festival with an elderly lady only his face isn’t shown I’m assuming it’s him but of course here he plays The Cardinal which later on comes up again in the film during an important meeting between M, Q, Moneypenny, Tanner & C. And then Bond goes back to London where he meets up with Denbigh (Andrew Scott), the new head of Joint Intelligence Service or what appears to be MI5 and he’s basically there to talk about the new program C.A.S.H which stands for Computer Aided Strategical Homeland security and it is basically a new surveillance system that will help monitor the world through satellite feeds with various amounts of data collecting on one main computer called The Nine Eyes but of course this creates an issue since every country using the C.A.S.H network has some kind of privacy laws against spying on their citizens so they need someone who can bring all nine countries together and make them agree to share vital information with each other and Bond quickly gives him an answer after hearing what Denbigh has to say: “No.” And I thought for sure we’d see another fight here like the one they had at the end of Casino Royale but instead Bond just walks away to do some things on his own…

And this leads us into another scene with Q who tells him about Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux) who happens to be Mr. White’s daughter and she’s in Austria for reasons unknown so he goes there to find her only something bad has happened since she says that he attacked her father, tried to kill him and now he’s gone missing after being taken by these men so Bond decides to help her track him down which is where we get our first action scene between 007 & Hinx (Dave Bautista) who also wants Mr. White but ends up sparing his life because of how “unprofessional” it would be to kill him in front of M at this early stage… But later on Hinx manages to get his chance with Bond but unfortunately for him he doesn’t get the job done either and they end up fighting together against them after Mr. White kills some of their men trying to escape which leads us into the second action scene (the best one in my opinion) in Mexico where Bond & Madeleine are being chased by both Mr. White’s men in a van alongside another vehicle driven by an assassin called Marco Sciarra (Alessandro Cremona) who happens to be working with these people along with Hinx, they eventually manage to shake the van off their tail only when 007 decides not to shoot it and instead push it off the road and into a cliff but not before they manage to kill Sciarra in the process and steal his ring which has some kind of symbol on it… But believe me when I say this: This scene is awesome! Even more awesome than the Olympics one because it’s so intense, so exciting, the chase sequence is incredible with James Bond doing everything he can to survive from Sciarra’s car. Plus we get some more references here with Dr. No (1962) & Spectre (2015) being shown on a TV screen while our favorite spy makes his way through Mexico City all nice and clean while avoiding traffic obstacles which made for some impressive stunts…

Following On

But once again Mr. White escapes by holding a dead gun to his daughter’s head and we get another scene with him where he meets up with M (Ralph Feinnes) & Mr. C (Andrew Scott) after which all of them end up meeting again in London where they’re given some kind of deal by Denbigh that I can’t remember because it revealed some interesting things but I’m not sure cause I was thinking about something else… But anyways, Denbigh ends up giving our villain and his daughter a new identity and the only way for Bond & MI6 to find them is by upgrading Q’s software so 007 uses this opportunity to go back home and do what he does best: Drink vodka martinis, play video games and meet/sleep with a local woman just like he does at the start of most of his films… But after visiting Q one more time he finally manages to find them and gives M all the information she needs to recover Mr. White, which leads us to another car chase (the worst one in my opinion) where 007 is forced to give him back but only if Madeleine comes with them once they reach their destination, that’s what it said on paper at least since I’m sure you remember that this was actually a trap set up by our villain for both MI6 & C (to guarantee his safety), something like “if you want your director back then bring me Max Denbigh as well” but Bond doesn’t know about this till he gets there so when they finally find them they catch a glimpse of Madeleine leaving with Mr. White and a group of men so 007 has to give him back only he manages to escape from C’s clutches by using his daughter as a human shield, which gives me some mixed feelings because I’m not sure if it was the right thing to do or not since she was doing that on her own will but thankfully she gets saved along with her father at the end… But what really bothers me about the scene is when James tries to use his gun in order to shoot Hinx but can’t bring himself to kill him so instead he decides to punch him once again, this time without any consequences because M ends up saving our beloved spy, sending Denbigh after them and we’re left with a scene where Bond is giving his report to M and she’s getting all the credit in front of Mr. C in an attempt to save her job but in reality it’s just a really bad plan that would never work…

What I liked about this movie:

I’ve got to be honest here when I say that Spectre was my favorite film in the franchise so far, even though Skyfall (2012) came pretty close because both movies were very entertaining and managed to touch upon many different aspects of 007’s life without making them feel forced, which means that they pretty much nailed every character we’ve seen up until now starting with Ralph Feinnes’ portrayal of Maggot which he nailed while also bringing some humor to the mix which worked really well with his overall personality, then we have Andrew Scott’s portrayal of Mr. C who is quite different from Silva (Skyfall) because he seemed like a much more balanced villain that knew how to act properly, I’m not saying that Javier Bardem wasn’t good enough but I’d go as far as saying that Andrew was even better since he doesn’t come off as crazy or over the top but rather someone who could easily fool everyone around him if necessary… And needless to say Daniel Craig did an amazing job once again with James Bond, I still think Roger Moore & Sean Connery were the best in their own ways but 007 actor-wise Craig is definitely giving them a run for their money…