SPECTRE (2015) - Movie Review

Daniel Craig's era of Bond films have probably been one of the most inconsistent of the franchise's long history, kicking things off in 2006 with Casino Royale - reinventing Bond as a much grittier story, focused much more on an arc for the character. This with the return of Goldeneye's Martin Campbell provided a very entertaining and well-put together film, despite leaving most of the plot open for the sequels.

Quantum of Solace followed in 2008, continuing directly from Casino Royale but losing the style of Campbell, and resulted in a rather average action film that lacked much personality and crammed its overcomplicated plot into a 100 minute running time. Many critics and fans panned the film, and 2012's Skyfall ended up being a much more standalone instalment with the addition of Sam Mendes in the director's chair. Skyfall became the most successful British film ever made, and was met with an overwhelmingly positive critical reception. It was  a great return to form for the Bond franchise, and now with the same creative team returning for SPECTRE, anticipation is high for the 24th film in the series.

So, does SPECTRE pale in comparison to Skyfall, or is it even better?

The first thing to mention about SPECTRE is just how funny it can be. It never loses sight of how over-the-top the action set-pieces can be, and it's great to see Craig's Bond cracking quips with M and Q, so the added humour really adds something to SPECTRE that the previous three instalments lacked.

Sam Mendes also provides a truly stunning visual experience throughout the film, from the one-shot opening sequence in Mexico City to the final showdown in London - it all looks pretty amazing and I suspect looks even better in IMAX. Each location looks unique and interesting, and the wide colour palette of the film allows for each sequence to look completely different from the last. It does feel like a very wide scope, and if this truly did cost $300,000,000 then every single coin can be seen on-screen.

While none of the action sequences top Skyfall's, everything here is excellent as well. Most action films nowadays use lots of CGI in their big set-pieces, but with Bond, the extra money at hand allows for much more practical stunt work, and for any visual effects used to be polished to such a standard that you don't even notice. The helicopter scene near the beginning of the film looks completely real, even though it probably has a lot of wirework and CGI in there was well - but it's very hard to notice.

Despite its 150 minute running time, SPECTRE is constantly moving forward, always progressing the plot and characters, resulting in a film that never feels boring but never seems to frantic to get to the next scene (I'm looking at you, Quantum of Solace).

It's also worth mentioning how great Daniel Craig is in this. He gets more to work with here than he has with any other Bond film, and I do think that this is his best and most entertaining performance to date. Ben Whishaw has some great moments as Q, while Ralph Fiennes is a very worthy successor to Judi Dench as M. While it is nice to see Rory Kinnear and Naomi Harris return as Tanner and Moneypenny, they don't get a lot to do and despite featuring in the third act barely contribute or even utter a word.

Lea Seydoux is very good as the main Bond girl Madeleine, even if I was waiting for a big twist surrounding her character that never happened, and Dave Bautista makes for a very threatening presence as Mr Hinx - this guy isn't as funny as Drax from last year's Guardians of the Galaxy. Every time Bautista is on screen, you know Bond is outmatched, and it feels a little disappointing that his role in the film is rather limited.

It's also worth noting Andrew Scott as C. While Scott does his best in the role, it's very difficult to shake his Moriarty out of your head, so when it becomes clear that he is a bit dodgy, it comes as no surprise at all.

Christoph Waltz is okay as the villain Oberhauser, but alas the character himself isn't particularly interesting. I can see where the writers were trying to go with his character, but he lacks much of a presence on the screen. While Silva in Skyfall showed how threatening he was, Oberhauser just says it. There's a big twist surrounding his character that pretty much everyone has guessed already, and by the time of the third act, the film forgets SPECTRE itself is an organisation and instead seems to focus more so on Oberhauser. If the film left the fate of the other SPECTRE agents open for sequels, I could forgive this, but this is something that is just left hanging in the film.

This is a flaw particularly noticeable during the third act of the film though, where Madeleine is used as a damsel in distress for Bond to save. It's already a rather contrived plot point within the context of the film, but suddenly Bond just has to save her out of nowhere. There's no scene showing exactly how she was captured, and no guards are present at all, making it feel like a rather clichéd climax without any real reason to be so.

The entire third act of the film does feel a little flat though. The energy's still there, but the ending leaves a lot of things open and a lot of questions that the audience are left to just work out on their own. Unless this is all going to be picked up in the next film - the credits do say "James Bond will return" and rumour has it the SPECTRE writers have already written Bond 25 - it's a rather irritating end, especially given that this film feels like it has been made to resolve all of the loose threads left over from Daniel Craig's first two Bond movies.

Overall though, SPECTRE is a very difficult film to review. There is an awful lot to love about this film - from the humour, the cinematography, the score and the locations to the special effects, stunt work and make-up (look out for a particularly gruesome scar on a familiar Bond character towards the end) - but I do have my criticisms. It's not a perfect movie, and isn't nearly as brilliant as Skyfall was, but it is very, very good and I strongly recommend going to see it if you haven't already. If I wasn't writing this as a spoiler-free review, I would love to go into more depth about the film, but alas I don't want to spoil anything for those who haven't seen it yet. In conclusion though, I give SPECTRE a 9/10 - there are so many brilliant elements to the film that its flaws don't detract too much from the overall picture.

Oh, and that title sequence is pretty amazing, even if the theme isn't the best.