Unshaken... Unstirred

Rating: 9/10 (12 November 2015)

The estimated budget of $245 million is no surprise; every dollar of it shows on screen. It's simply beautiful to look at; the lighting, the shot selection, the color palette, the long cuts which allow the actors, director, and crew to show their skill and technical prowess, eschewing the common overuse of quick cut editing; it really is an oil painting in motion.
It's with all this in mind that it pains me to say, that, apart from the absolutely gorgeous-looking opening sequence, "Spectre" suffers from a serious lack of suspense. In fact I felt even the opening sequence could have been more suspenseful with a few alternate script decisions. Don't get me wrong, I still think the sequence worked, but it could have been a serious movie classic, if only they'd given us a little more information on Bond's motivation. To the sequence's detriment, the motivation was explained in a subsequent scene, which, obviously, didn't add to the experience of having watched it five minutes earlier.
The choice to go with an almost 100% Bond Point of View (meaning we, the audience, learned everything at the same time as Bond), with very few scenes straying outside his viewpoint, was definitely a very brave and artistic decision, and I'm all for it. (Normally movies like this take a more omniscient viewpoint so we can see what the antagonists are up to, and we, the audience, can experience things like dramatic irony and questions like "How is Bond going to beat this?") In "Spectre" Mendes and co took us through the experience of being Bond without the foreknowledge of what his enemies were up to.
That choice of basically seeing things as they happen through Bond's POV opens up problems with how to create suspense. You can't just suddenly have things jump out at him; even though in many situations that's how Bond would experience them. There has to be a sense of a build, a foreboding of what's about to happen, and that's what I felt this film was seriously lacking.
It's possible to still have a singular POV with suspense, but you have to employ elements which allow Bond and the audience to foresee certain antagonisms so we can watch Bond prepare, and then overcome or fail to overcome whatever is being thrown at him. The most satisfying form being for him to prepare for one thing but then the exact opposite happens and he's forced to improvise. This differs from just having things randomly jump out at him without foreknowledge, because his expectations are defined. Expectations not being met is "life", and we can all relate to that... nothing ever goes completely to plan.
For the most part the dialogue is okay, in some places even witty, but some lines like "You're a good man, James", and a few other cringe-worthy expressions just rang the cliché/hackneyed bell which left a slight taint alongside the lack of suspense. But that was indicative of the entire script: it was very uneven. The acting, directing, and cinematography were underserved by a script that seemed unfinished... not fully fleshed out.
I still love Bond, and I'd love to see the beautiful cinematography and direction achieved here, put with a great script. Unfortunately for me, I go into a Bond flick expecting to be served the movie equivalent of a vodka martini, shaken, not stirred. In "Spectre" I got a vege smoothie... and you know where you can tip that.