Now Showing: Spectre
November 18, 2015
Even after 25 films, seven different actors, and 53 long years, James Bond has still managed to hang on to the big screen. Although it was clear that Bond needed to retire from Hollywood several years ago, the newest film of the spy series,“Spectre,” just gave it all the more reason that the franchise was time to retire Bond from theaters.
The 2012 Bond film “Skyfall” gave me hope for its follow up. However, “Spectre” proved to be just another cliche film that follows the guide on typical spy movies.
The film follows Bond as he attempts to crack down on a malicious organization called Spectre, behind the back of the MI6, his secret service organization. He works with the daughter of a deceased Spectre member, attempting to shut down their terrorist actions. As in any Bond story, she becomes his new love interest and creates the usual complications between love and justice.
Most of my expectations came from the promising opening scene and credits, contributing to my disappointment when the end credits rolled. The title sequence was one of the most artistic and expressive scenes I’ve seen; it packed years of 007 nostalgia in just under four minutes. The eerie visuals fit perfectly in portraying Bond’s life, and Sam Smith’s delivery of the background score pulled it all together. Unfortunately, this beautiful sequence was one of the very few things that pulled on my emotions throughout the entire film.
Director Sam Mendes tried to capture the audience with plenty of action, practically abandoning the plot. This resulted in excessive gore and torture, plane crashes, explosions, train brawls, and any other cliche action sequence you can possibly think of. The plot was masked by extraneous action, and made every conversation a blurred mess of English accents and confusion. Despite my love for it, I lost interest in the chaotic fighting purely because I was trying to analyze the dialogue and gain a slight grasp at what was going on.
To put it bluntly, “Spectre” had no solid storyline and was incredibly bland in comparison to previous 007 films. Many of the scenes ended up leading to nowhere; the two-and-a-half hour running time, was loaded with excessive fillers. The characters were underdeveloped, and many of them had absolutely no significance to the plot.
Bond actor Daniel Craig said in a recent magazine interview that he would rather slash his wrists than play Bond again. Although it may be an agent’s nature to be stone cold and emotionless, his boredom toward his character shines through his acting. Whether it’s a life threatening combat scene, or seeing his lover being swept away and held hostage, his tone and face reach no emotional variety. It’s apparent that he’s had enough, and though he embodies 007 perfectly in regards to appearance, it’s clear that this fourth time is the last for Craig.
Regardless of how disappointing the film was, it seems that any reboot of a classic like James Bond is bound to have longtime fans eating it up. “Spectre” is a major step back for the 007 series, and it’s about time for the agent to be left at peace in the novels.
