It been said by Daniel Craig himself that the Austin Powers franchise has single handedly ruined the Bond movie series forever. So when Daniel Craig was cast as the new James Bond back in 2006, he was meant to be a harder, grittier, more serious Bond. A far departure from the 'Moonraker,' 'Man With The Golden Gun' James Bond of the past; and more of a Sean Connery ‘From Russia With Love’ or ‘Goldfinger’ type of Bond film. Spectre takes the Bond franchise back to its roots. The more hammy Roger Moore roots that almost rendered the series completely irrelevant pre-Pierce Bronsnan.
Realistically Bond as a series is irrelevant. There are movie series like ‘The Bourne Identity,’ ‘Mission: Impossible’ or even the latest underrated ‘Man From U.N.C.L.E’ that do Bond better than Bond does Bond. This was painstakingly apparent back in 2008 with the release of ‘Quantum Of Solace’ which basically watched like a ‘Bourne’ film and even shared the same DP. So to return to the old Bond is a huge misstep and a poor choice of direction for the franchise.
With the release of ‘Casino Royale’ we had a fresh Bond recently receiving his ‘double O’ status, then ‘Quantum’ was supposed to be the first direct sequel; technically being his second outing or “mission.” Then ‘Skyfall’ he is retired and re-learning his skills- so is he starting or leaving? Is he young or old? Then Spectre comes along and attempts to bridge all of those previous movies as one consistent plot. The timeline was wonky and didn't make a whole lot of sense to begin with, it would have been better to start fresh with a new plot instead of trying to fill in whatever plot holes may be there. That was one of the strengths of ‘Casino Royale’ is that it worked as a stand alone film. Because really the writing is what makes Spectre easily one of the worst Bond films and maybe one of the worst action films of all time; and that says a lot because there are a lot of bad Bond movies. A lot.
This movie falls sadly into the boring Bond formula: opening action scene of Bond acting without the approval of MI-6. He get reprimanded, then he ignores it, ends up being right; and then the government agency backs him in the end. Without seeing this movie, if you have seen any Bond movie, you have already seen this movie. That was what was so cool about ‘Casino Royale’ and ‘Skyfall’ they were not formulaic. In Skyfall, you didn’t even see the main bad guy until about a third of the way into the movie. Why would you want to return to the boring formulaic Bond movie? Spectre was basically nothing but a fan-service Bond homage. You can tip your hat gracefully without going overboard. Skyfall did this beautifully with the inclusion of the Aston Martin in the final action set piece. There are other ways to honor the tradition but continuing to innovate; the character of ‘Le Chiffe’ in ‘Casino Royal’ achieved this by having him weap blood. Similar to the cosmetic flaws of characters of old such as Dr. No or Blofield himself.
One thing I noticed is that many people laughed during this Bond film. More laughter was had at this Bond film then the Seth Rogan movie: ‘The Interview.’ Laughing is good, if the movie is a comedy. Bond is not. Especially not Daniel Craig’s Bond. ‘Spectre’ fell into the same trap as a movie like ‘Iron Man 3’ where as soon as it started to become cool a joke would be thrown in for comedic relief and ruin the tone and mood of the scene we were watching. The same thing happened here: cool car chase, oh no there’s a fiat in the way! WACKY! This is just one example. These are the kinds of shenanigans that made the Bond movie franchise awful in the first place and Daniel Craig is not Roger Moore. There is room for humor in a Bond movie, but it is less jokey and more sarcastic quips. A good example would be ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ where Bond knocks a guy into printing press and the printing press starts printing the blood of the villain on the newspapers and then Bond, straightening out his suit jacket, says: “They’ll print anything these days.” It’s witty, very British, and cool - not mood killing, not unintentionally funny.
The movie wasn’t entirely bad. Yes, Bond does ridiculously shoot down a helicopter with a low caliber pistol, but there are less Steven Seagal-like moments that are pretty cool. Notable highlights: the first twenty or so minutes with the Day of the Dead opening sequence in Mexico, Bond’s fight on the train, and the torture scene had me wincing. But for this movie to not only be one of the most expensive Bond movies ever made, but one of the most expensive movies ever made as well; the action scenes are incredibly bland. Mainly because they are really over the top and then whatever coolness would be added to them gets ruined by some kind of hacky joke. The biggest flopped action set piece is the car chase set in the snow. Bond gets into a chase, and then somehow go-go gadgets an airplane! ‘The World Is Not Enough’ had similar action scenes set in snow, that were way better if not equally ridiculous, but made a lot more sense within the world of Bond. When something doesn’t make sense narrative wise, the answer should not be: “well, he’s James Bond.”
In closing, Quantum Of Spectre was just a waste. Great actors wasted performing a horrible script penned by a couple of writers who wrote ‘Quantum of Solace’ which is one of the worst Bond movies of all time; filmed in front of beautiful set pieces and lighting. Writing that seems so preoccupied with creating Bond’s past, that they forgot what his character was supposed to be in the present. Bond’s character is a rebel, a womanizer, a drunk, but really good at his job. He has flaws: overly confident, gambling, drinking, and womanizing. ‘Casino Royale’ put it best when Vesper Lynd leaned forward and uttered to Bond: “You strike me as a man who views women as disposable pleasures instead of meaningful pursuits.” He is not a guy that would settle down with some dumpy blonde, who, for Bond, is maybe a .007 out of 10; to stop being a superspy. So maybe instead of worrying about what race the next 007 should be, or paying homage to the past, there should be a focus on getting Bond’s core character down correctly and creating a good movie around that.
Realistically Bond as a series is irrelevant. There are movie series like ‘The Bourne Identity,’ ‘Mission: Impossible’ or even the latest underrated ‘Man From U.N.C.L.E’ that do Bond better than Bond does Bond. This was painstakingly apparent back in 2008 with the release of ‘Quantum Of Solace’ which basically watched like a ‘Bourne’ film and even shared the same DP. So to return to the old Bond is a huge misstep and a poor choice of direction for the franchise.
With the release of ‘Casino Royale’ we had a fresh Bond recently receiving his ‘double O’ status, then ‘Quantum’ was supposed to be the first direct sequel; technically being his second outing or “mission.” Then ‘Skyfall’ he is retired and re-learning his skills- so is he starting or leaving? Is he young or old? Then Spectre comes along and attempts to bridge all of those previous movies as one consistent plot. The timeline was wonky and didn't make a whole lot of sense to begin with, it would have been better to start fresh with a new plot instead of trying to fill in whatever plot holes may be there. That was one of the strengths of ‘Casino Royale’ is that it worked as a stand alone film. Because really the writing is what makes Spectre easily one of the worst Bond films and maybe one of the worst action films of all time; and that says a lot because there are a lot of bad Bond movies. A lot.
This movie falls sadly into the boring Bond formula: opening action scene of Bond acting without the approval of MI-6. He get reprimanded, then he ignores it, ends up being right; and then the government agency backs him in the end. Without seeing this movie, if you have seen any Bond movie, you have already seen this movie. That was what was so cool about ‘Casino Royale’ and ‘Skyfall’ they were not formulaic. In Skyfall, you didn’t even see the main bad guy until about a third of the way into the movie. Why would you want to return to the boring formulaic Bond movie? Spectre was basically nothing but a fan-service Bond homage. You can tip your hat gracefully without going overboard. Skyfall did this beautifully with the inclusion of the Aston Martin in the final action set piece. There are other ways to honor the tradition but continuing to innovate; the character of ‘Le Chiffe’ in ‘Casino Royal’ achieved this by having him weap blood. Similar to the cosmetic flaws of characters of old such as Dr. No or Blofield himself.
One thing I noticed is that many people laughed during this Bond film. More laughter was had at this Bond film then the Seth Rogan movie: ‘The Interview.’ Laughing is good, if the movie is a comedy. Bond is not. Especially not Daniel Craig’s Bond. ‘Spectre’ fell into the same trap as a movie like ‘Iron Man 3’ where as soon as it started to become cool a joke would be thrown in for comedic relief and ruin the tone and mood of the scene we were watching. The same thing happened here: cool car chase, oh no there’s a fiat in the way! WACKY! This is just one example. These are the kinds of shenanigans that made the Bond movie franchise awful in the first place and Daniel Craig is not Roger Moore. There is room for humor in a Bond movie, but it is less jokey and more sarcastic quips. A good example would be ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ where Bond knocks a guy into printing press and the printing press starts printing the blood of the villain on the newspapers and then Bond, straightening out his suit jacket, says: “They’ll print anything these days.” It’s witty, very British, and cool - not mood killing, not unintentionally funny.
The movie wasn’t entirely bad. Yes, Bond does ridiculously shoot down a helicopter with a low caliber pistol, but there are less Steven Seagal-like moments that are pretty cool. Notable highlights: the first twenty or so minutes with the Day of the Dead opening sequence in Mexico, Bond’s fight on the train, and the torture scene had me wincing. But for this movie to not only be one of the most expensive Bond movies ever made, but one of the most expensive movies ever made as well; the action scenes are incredibly bland. Mainly because they are really over the top and then whatever coolness would be added to them gets ruined by some kind of hacky joke. The biggest flopped action set piece is the car chase set in the snow. Bond gets into a chase, and then somehow go-go gadgets an airplane! ‘The World Is Not Enough’ had similar action scenes set in snow, that were way better if not equally ridiculous, but made a lot more sense within the world of Bond. When something doesn’t make sense narrative wise, the answer should not be: “well, he’s James Bond.”
In closing, Quantum Of Spectre was just a waste. Great actors wasted performing a horrible script penned by a couple of writers who wrote ‘Quantum of Solace’ which is one of the worst Bond movies of all time; filmed in front of beautiful set pieces and lighting. Writing that seems so preoccupied with creating Bond’s past, that they forgot what his character was supposed to be in the present. Bond’s character is a rebel, a womanizer, a drunk, but really good at his job. He has flaws: overly confident, gambling, drinking, and womanizing. ‘Casino Royale’ put it best when Vesper Lynd leaned forward and uttered to Bond: “You strike me as a man who views women as disposable pleasures instead of meaningful pursuits.” He is not a guy that would settle down with some dumpy blonde, who, for Bond, is maybe a .007 out of 10; to stop being a superspy. So maybe instead of worrying about what race the next 007 should be, or paying homage to the past, there should be a focus on getting Bond’s core character down correctly and creating a good movie around that.
