6.5/10

Rating: 6/10 (6 November 2015)

Underwhelming. That is it. You see, it really, really pains me to write average or negative things about people that I really love and inspire me and this might be the occasion in which it will hurt the most. Just look at the people here: Christoph Waltz, Lea Seydoux, Daniel Craig, Lee Smith, Hoyte Van Hoytema, Thomas Newman, Ralph Finnes and most of all Sam Mendes! These are all people that I have followed from way, way back, they are ALL some of the most inspiring individuals in cinema to me, but their results here are across the board and most unfortunately mediocre. Wow, that was hurtful to write.
If you had to narrow down ten films of the last twenty years to teach cinematography, Skyfall would surely be in the top spots of that list. Something I noticed from frame one is how far Spectre comes from that standard. And this is coming from someone who has loved Hoytema from day one of his film fandom. Yet, this cinematography is really, really uneven. I have read people actually really digging it, so I maybe have had a badly projected screening, but man some of that CGI green screen, CGI smoke, CGI and non CGI lighting was really weird, like close to non professional weird. You would switch from amazing shots to these weirdly unclear frames that distracted me a lot. It isn't as frequent as I make it out to be, but it really shouldn't even be a problem in a dam Bond movie.
Still, by no means I say this is a bad film, as you can see by the score I gave it, it is just a disappointing film because you know what the people involved are capable of and at no point in the film they deliver as they should. So you are driven into a journey where you are grasping to little things and for the rest you are just wandering: "you know, I am not bored and at best mildly entertained, but man this could be so much better".
The story is all over the place and the characters are too. Motivations are really murky, not to mention their coherence. The performances aren't really noticeable, they aren't bad, with the obvious exception of Andrew Scott who has yet another cringe-worthy performance to add to his already busy resume. Craig is as always charming as Bond and the supporting cast does what it can with the material it is given. Waltz is a truly missed opportunity, that was a real bummer, he isn't given anything to do.
Now, the movie does have some very beautiful set pieces and scenes that I really dug. None of them are as good as the Skyfall scenes, but still that's a tall ordeal, I had my fair share of good time and enjoyable spectacle throughout. Some of the banter between characters is really good and the idea behind the plot is actually very interesting. When it unveils it definitely falls apart, but at the start it payed off in a magnificent scene in Rome. Not to mention the opening tracking shot, which pays clear homage to "Touch of Evil", and payed off incredibly.
Even though it is a big step down from Skyfall and for all of the talent involved, this Bond entry isn't in no way destructive for the franchise and still offers plenty of space to go further on.