“Spectre” is the twenty-fourth James Bond movie by Eon Productions, the fourth of which to star Daniel Craig as the lead role. As someone who likes but is not a big fan of Craig’s Bond movies, I went into the theater without any expectations other than the movie would be good, which was my reaction as the credits started to roll.
In the newest installment to the franchise, Bond is up against Spectre, an organization that Bond’s previous foes were all members of. As 007 deals with the group, trying to find its leader, Christoph Waltz, a member of the Joint Intelligence Service, Max Denbigh, Andrew Scott, is trying to get the 00 program shut down and replaced by a program known as Nine Eyes.
This movie is exactly what you would expect it to be as an action spy thriller. It is another complex espionage scheme by an Euro villain that the hero has to foil. The only thing that really differs in this movie is the action sequences.
There is a wide assortment of action sequences, ranging from Bond fighting hand-to-hand with a henchman on a train to Bond racing down a snowy Austrian mountain in a shot down plane after some Spectre agents, and everything in-between. Each action sequence is different enough from the last that you are constantly watching something new.
Even with the ever changing forms of action, though, tension barely ever come along with them. Of course we know Bond is going to come out of the situation alive when the movie is only half over, but when he continuously escapes harrowing feats unscathed, there is even less to worry about. If the hero is indestructible, what is there to really worry about? Bond running from gunfire is about as tense as him sitting in an office talking to M, Ralph Fiennes.
The biggest problem with the movie, and this whole new franchise in general is, surprisingly, Bond, through no fault of Craig’s. The Bond films have been upgraded from their corny nature from the 1960’s to a darker, more realistic take in the new series that took off with “Casino Royale” in 2006, and the character of Bond along with them. It is nice that Bond now has control over his libido, but did the writers have to scrap his suaveness and charm? This new Bond barely has charm, or any personality for that matter. He is just another run-of-the-mill action hero whom the writers think is more interesting than he really is.
As I said above, the problems with Bond’s character is not Craig’s fault. Craig does a good job with the material he is given and is what saves the Bond character. Also worth mentioning is Christoph Waltz as the main antagonist of the movie. Waltz puts in another good performance and, because of his talent, he feels underused with about thirty-five minutes of screen time in a two and a half hour long movie.
There are no major surprises with “Spectre,” but there are no major letdowns in it either. It is exactly what the preview makes it look like, and it is exactly what you pay for. If you walk into the theater thinking this will be your favorite movie of the year, that may be the impression you will leave with.
