James Bond, agent 007, has always given cinema goers a licence to thrill! We ourselves have been a 007 cinema regular since Licence to Kill! We had of course seen many of his previous outings on the Television prior.
Daniel Craig has really made the part his own, being a more serious Bond, more like Timothy Dalton & Sean Connery than the more fun like turns of Roger Moore & Pierce Brosnan. It’s hard to believe that when Craig was announced for the role, it was greeted with a mixed response! We, ourselves felt he could do a good job as at we had just seen him in Layer Cake.
After the last Bond outing, Skyfall broke box office records for the 007 franchise, Sam Mendes was asked to return to the franchise & direct again. We are now pleased to say Spectre is another great 007 outing, although going for a much more serious turn, the likes of Casino Royale.
As we have come to expect from a Bond film, it has a spectacular opening set at the Day of the Dead festivities in Mexico! Chases amongst the party revellers builds up to a sequence in a helicopter flying over the crowd with no control, due to 007 fighting all the crew!
Pausing for breath to give us the opening titles, set to Sam Smith’s Bond theme, the film commences with 007 back in trouble with his superior M (Ralph Fiennes)
M, is fighting a case to keep the 00 initiative in force, whereas newcomer C (Andrew Scott) prefers to scrap it, in favour of drones. C believes he has a case for the extent of damage caused by 007 in Mexico!
Bond, with the help of Q (Ben Whishaw ) & Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), is not getting involved in these in-house squabbles, he prefers to pursue a lead, found via a ring he obtained in his helicopter fight (an octopus-like logo, which we find to be the emblem of the organisation known as Spectre)
With the help of Bond girl, Lucia (Monica Bellucci) leads him to the elusive Mr White (Jesper Christensen reprising his role from Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.)
Mr White helps Bond, provided he gives his word that he will protect his daughter. The second Bond girl of the film, Madeline Swann (Lea Seydoux)
This is a great film, with the Bond franchise no longer the innuendo filled, far-fetched nonsense of dome of the previous efforts! Daniel Craig is excellent in the role, helping Bond keep up with the likes of the Bourne Franchise. However, whilst better than Solace, this in our opinion, is not as good as the 2 other Craig outings.
For all the great locations, story and action sequences including chases with high-performance cars, fights on trains etc, the film sorely misses the lead bad guy, which Javier Bardem gave Skyfall for example.
It criminally underused Two-time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz as its villain,Oberhauser, in favour of his henchman, Hinx (Dave Bautista)
Oberhauser, is mentioned throughout the film yet only really gets involved in the final third. His storyline is vastly expanded and you can’t help that this was done, to continue it on in another film.
Instead, we are left with various sequences of Hinx in the lead villain role. Whilst Bautista is clearly more of a match for Craig in the fights etc, I would prefer to have seen more of the always watchable Waltz!
If we were to rate this film, we would probably, and maybe predicatably go for 007 out of 10, with a comment of keep up the good work.
As for what happens next! The films normally end with James Bond will return, we would hope he brings Oberhauser along for his next ride again too!
What did you think of Spectre? Is Craig your favourite Bond? Who would you love as the next 007? We at BMAF would love to hear from you
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