Spectre
Year: 2015
Rating: PG-13
Length: 148 minutes / 2.47 hours
After the practically perfect Skyfall (2012), my expectations for what a Bond film should be were considerably heightened. And while Spectre (2015) still contained some elements that made me enjoy Skyfall, it missed that small little “aha!” moment that brought everything together for me. Sure, Spectre was directed by Sam Mendes, brought back franchise-famous villain Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), and had characters with emotional connections to Bond (Daniel Craig) that spanned across movies in Craig’s tenure, but it lacked the spark to make it fully work. Perhaps it was just abiding by the idiom that lightning can’t strike twice.
That’s not to say that Spectre is a bad Bond movie, it just has a lot to compare against. The modern style and action that Craig’s Bond has are still better than some of the sillier entries in the long-running franchise. There’s a drag in the second act that probably could have been tightened up with less time in the Alps. The action doesn’t feel memorable either, which might just be because there’s so much of it—and so much of it feels repeated from previous Bond films. Chases involving cars and motorbikes are fairly common now, but at least the helicopter bits in the beginning felt new.
I appreciate that the thread of connections from all the way back in Casino Royale (2006) and Quantum of Solace (2008) is given more of a solid explanation and organization through the eponymous Spectre. That these films aren’t exclusively one-off movies with deus ex machina plots helps recommend Spectre in terms of the whole Craig set of Bond films. I’m glad that there was at least one more movie to wrap things up after this one, though.
An OK Bond film after a hard act to follow, I give Spectre 3.5 stars out of 5.
1/2
