Spectre Review
By: Carl Cottingham
“The Dead are Alive.”
These are the first four words audiences see at the beginning of Spectre. The words are crucial: they set the tone of the story and remind the audience that this is a movie about the past, perhaps even more so then the previous entry Skyfall. Skyfall was the palate cleanser in a sense, a necessity to resurrect the stylistic James Bond encapsulated by Connery and Brosnan and veer away from, but not totally abandon, the gravitas that Daniel Craig’s run began all the way back in Casino Royale. If Skyfall was a bridge between the Bourne-esque and the stylistic, then Spectre fully embraces the type of Bond that audiences are so often familiar with, fittingly with the return of his long-running adversary. It doesn’t quite reach the heights established by Skyfall, but it is more than a worthy follow-up and a conclusion to the character arc that we’ve seen with Craig’s interpretation of the MI6 spy.
We begin in Mexico City with easily the Bond franchise’s most outstanding opening sequence: a four-minute long tracking shot during the Day of the Dead parade, following Bond as he makes his way through the crowds, into a hotel, the elevator, the suite, out the window, and aiming his sights at this target with no cut whatsoever. The subtle nods to Live and Let Die are prevalent throughout the sequence before capping off with a foot chase and an octane brawl inside a high-flying helicopter over the crowded squares of the city. It will become, without a doubt, one of the film’s most talked about scenes and a stand-out of the series, if only just the Craig era of Bond.
The plot begins in earnest with the revelation that Bond has been fulfilling a sort of “Last Will and Testament” for Judi Dench’s M: to kill a man (the villain of the Mexico City sequence) and infiltrate his funeral. From there, as Bond travels from the nighttime streets of Rome to the snow-swept Austrian mountains, he slowly discovers a vast global criminal organization unlike any he has faced before, with only a ring with an octopus insignia to guide him. All his previous adventures up until this point have inadvertently been at the hands of one man, an architect of all the pain and sorrow that he suffered during the events of Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall. The past has come for both James Bond and for a nostalgic audience eager for the return of the SPECTRE organization to cause havoc once again.
Daniel Craig once again proves that he is more than a capable Bond, capturing an older version of the character burdened by years of espionage and continuing to combat intelligence modernity dominated by computers. Léa Seydoux portrays Dr. Madeline Swann, a gifted psychologist with a past of her she must contend with. Ms. Seydoux delivers a fine performance as the principal Bond girl, proving to be more than capable of taking care of herself on occasion. The relationship between Bond and Swann offers a slight refresh of the typical Bond/Bond girl dynamic, particular a humorous scene in a Moroccan hotel, though some beats of establish formula still remain.
Much has been debated and said about Christoph Waltz’s turn as the villain Franz Obenhauser and what his motivations are. I will choose not to spoil for the sake of this review but the motivation is deeply personal then prior Bond villains. Waltz finds a balance between sinister and childish glee when he appears, sometimes appearing quite chilling such as his first appearance in the shadows. He revels in his villainy, fully embracing that he is a Bond super villain out to conquer the criminal underworld. His henchman Mr. Hinx, played by a mostly-silent Dave Bautista, is equally as threatening, frequently sparring with Bond over the course of the film. The distinct weight of Bautista, tightly wrapped in form-fitting suits, adds to his savagery when he and Bond come to blows, constantly coming back for more akin to a slasher villain. He marks the return of the iconic Bond henchman and I suspect we have not have seen the last of him.
Skyfall asked the narrative question of whether a man like James Bond could function in a world where killing a man is as simple as sending in an air drone to take him out from afar. Spectre now asks a question directly to the audience: will they accept the grandiose of the James Bond of old with the modern sensibilities developed over the course of Daniel Craig’s run? The SPECTRE has been away for over forty years and its return is fitting in this outing. Spy films have learned that audiences can have it both ways: that they both can be grandiose and realistic without one necessarily having to die at the hand of the other.
Spectre is no doubt another worthy entry into a legendary film series, but only just falls short of the levels set by Skyfall. It represents the full-fledged return of to a Bond that has been away for some time and allows the franchise to tell brand-new stories with the old toy box, no doubt paving the way for even more grand adventures.
Score: 8/10
