Review of Spectre 007

Rating: 6/10 (30 December 2015)

Spectre Movie Review The 24th Bond movie in the film franchise had big aspirations when they decided to bring back the classic Bond enemy organization, known as Spectre. The opening scene, for the first 2 minutes, looked like one consecutive shot, and the visuals in Mexico City looked great. It really brings you into the movie and gives you a great set up. However, it doesn't reflect the tone of the rest of the movie.
On that note, neither does the famous Bond credits sequence. No offense to Sam Smith but the song that was chosen just doesn't work for me. It's hard to compete with Adele, but Smith's song feels a bit too similar to Skyfall, only not as great. There are a few good musical cues but overall it just a bit lack luster and doesn't really reflect the movie. The visual sequence that accompanies the song is not really any better. It hits you over the head with the octopus theme by showing multiple visuals involving an octopus figure. We get it, Spectre's logo is the octopus, we could tell from the silver ring that Bond takes at the end of the opening scene. It just feels silly and unnecessary.
When Christophe Waltz was announced to play the villain in Spectre, I thought that it was a great decision because he's played the bad guy role so well before. The problem is not with the actor but rather the character. He becomes a generic Bond villain, less engaging than Javier Bardem's Mr. Silva from Skyfall. There is no mystery with the character, even though the movie tries to make it a mystery of who he is; but it's very predictable. Speaking of villains, another under utilized villain was Dave Bautista's, Mr. Hinx, whose name is never mentioned in the movie. Mr. Hinx is a silent henchman reminiscent of Oddjob from Goldfinger. The difference is again what they gave the villain to do or in this case not do. At least Oddjob had the hat that could slice things off, Mr. Hinx seems replaceable. Another thing the movie failed at was hiring actor Andrew Scott, known for playing the villain Moriaty on BBC's Sherlock. They mine as well put a sign on his characters head. They're fooling nobody with this casting choice.
Even though there is a lot of "bad" in the movie, that doesn't mean that I thought every thing was bad. I really enjoyed Q's role in this movie, being the classic gadget giving Q as well as taking a more active role in Bond's mission. The actor Ben Wishaw, who plays Q, is great in the role, playing the nerdy scientist but bringing a new refreshing take on the character and how he interacts with Bond. Similarly I also enjoyed the new incarnation of Moneypenny, who also becomes more involved with the mission. While I will miss Judy Dench as M, I did think Ralph Fiennes did a good job in the role.
The action scenes in the movie are hit and miss, there's a few good throwbacks to some classic Bond tropes and scenes. While I do like Daniel Craig's Bond, he seems to be a bit out of it for most of this movie and it shows. The last problem I had with the movie was the main "Bond girl", I felt the two had no chemistry and it didn't make sense why she would be on the mission with him. This movie is trying to set up that Bond has moved on from his love in Casino Royale, Vesper Lynn, and that maybe he can leave his spy life behind. The message is clear; however I don't think that it was executed very well.
While I may not think that this is the best Bond movie every, and I've noted the many problems that I had with it, there is also enough good for me to enjoy it overall. Being the longest of the Bond movies probably doesn't help with the pacing, but this is not the worst Bond movie ever. I believe there is enough good in this movie that it should be seen at least once.