2015: The Year in Film: "Spectre" Review

Daniel Craig's run on James Bond has been pretty darn great, guys. It includes the absolute best Bond film of all (Skyfall) and absolutely raised the bar for what the franchise could be. Combining Bond with director Sam Mendes (who's responsible for American Beauty among other terrific work) led to the triumph that was Skyfall, a film that managed to pay homage to decades of Bond films while creating a visually stunning, emotionally powerful masterpiece of the action genre. So when it was announced that the follow-up to Skyfall would return Craig, Mendes, and all of the principals responsible, expectations were sky high, along with fan anticipation.

Spectre finds agent 007 going off the books in an effort to avenge the events of the previous films in Craig's Bond run and track down the people he believes to be truly responsible for all that has happened and been done to him since Casino Royale. In typical Bond fashion, he's trotting the globe from exotic locale to exotic locale as he discovers that the plot may go far deeper, and far older, than he ever could have thought.

The Good: Craig was born to play Bond, and he slips into the role effortlessly. Even the worst Bond film imaginable would be watchable if it featured Daniel Craig in the lead. Mendes brings his trademark polish and beauty to the film, and it features a few spectacular scenes, particularly the opening 20 minutes or so in Mexico City.



The Bad: in many ways, I'm convinced that the people involved took everything good about Skyfall and drew the exact OPPOSITE conclusions that they should have from how well-received the previous film had been. Skyfall features an enemy with ties to Bond and the British secret intelligence service. So does Spectre. The previous film features threats to Bond's continued operation and the survival of his program. So does Spectre. Skyfall features a battle close to home as everything that an outgunned Bond holds dear is under siege. So does Spectre. The problem is that everything Skyfall did so well, Spectre does in a meandering, roundabout, reductive and unfortunately all-too often boring way. It's overlong, overstuffed, features needless twists and turns and features lazy and preposterous action sequences. In a lot of ways Bond is, at its heart, absurd. However, Spectre takes this absurdity and runs 1000 miles in the opposite direction from the more realistic and Bourne-esque action sequences that had characterized the best part of Craig's Bond run up to this point. JAMES BOND SHOOTS DOWN A HELICOPTER WITH HIS PISTOL. It is as stupid as it sounds. The film took the time to cast the usually outstanding Christoph Waltz as Bond's potential nemesis and he turns out to be a whiny, entitled brat. Yawn. Fresh off of a charismatic, often hilarious and star-making turn in Guardians of the Galaxy, former WWE star Dave Bautista is cast as... a wordless brute. Ultimately, the potentially exciting status quo that existed at the end of Skyfall is wasted in a rehashed snooze-fest that seeks to culminate Craig's Bond run and instead throws the whole thing into doubt.

Ultimately, what we have here is a movie that's been "mailed in" from the top on down and as a result isn't even fun to watch. Mendes, Craig, and everyone else has made a Bond movie that commits the worst of all possible movie sins: it's boring. It's time for new Bond blood. Or even better, let's just stop making Bond flicks for a while, guys.

5/10.