Craig has certainly made the role his own at this point, and I really enjoyed Mendes' ability to tie the earlier entries in the reboot into the storyline. M, Q, and Moneypenny also get their chances to shine.
But it's like Sony thought that, riding on the success of Skyfall, they'd really put the pedal to the metal this time around and show all the copycats in town who the king of action thrillers is. With a reputed budget of $300 million and a running time of 2½ hrs, this is a perfect example of less being more at times. Both opening and finale are thrilling, and there's a terrific car chase and another excellent setpiece featuring a plane and a car - but really, if this had been trimmed by 20 minutes (and $50 million), I think the film would have been improved.
Really let down by this. It's slow, the music is unnecessarily dramatic most of the time, and the story I felt was weak.
Spoilers : Man this movie has so many idiotic things in it. Like when Bond has that conversation with that guy and he shoots himself, doesn't Bond notice the huge camera with the bright red light recording the whole conversation? Because that's the first thing the other assassin notices the first thing he walks in the room. Very professional, Bond.
Didn't like the chase scenes, either. And also at the end, it's very convenient for the entire gas supply of the complex to be outside and to be taken out by a single bullet. For a multi million dollar facility, that shit should have been underground.
Bond chases the villain the entire film in order to kill him. When he has his chance, he doesn't feel like doing it. Okay.
These Bond girls are seriously annoying me now.
Seriously, this film had nothing to offer, and was an hour longer than it should have been.
Overlong, weakly plotted, anticlimactic and kinda betrays the new formula by replacing it with the old one, making Bond pretty much invincible again and not the vulnerable type which made Craig's interpretation so compelling. Waltz's character was underwritten and has far too little screen time. Otherwise a solid film, which stands superior to most Bond installments.
Like its title, Spectre is a ghost of a James Bond film: It looks the part, but lacks substance.
Featuring echoes of past Bond lives in the form of beautiful women, shadowy organizations, and giant violence-oriented men that don't speak, this ghoulish film is as tedious a Bond story as its worst predecessors.
While Spectre showcases some great action sequences, the plot of the film is elusive and silly in its attempts to be mysterious, subtle and suave while remaining skin-deep and hovering around the 95 IQ mark. Bond simply skates from one locale to the next on the flimsiest of premises learning information that is irrelevant and incomprehensible and suddenly finds himself inexplicably the guardian of a helpless young woman. Somehow she stays with him long after she's outlived her usefulness, and helps Bond confront the big baddy (played by Christoph Waltz).
And while this may sound like the formula of any James Bond film, believe me that this film lacks the narrative drive and character of Skyfall or even Casino Royale. Characters have minimal or even zero motivation. Its not as bad as the turgid Quantum of Solace, but it is close. At times, Mendes seems to be purposefully frustrating us with wide shots when close-ups are more appropriate, and close-ups when we want to see more.
In the run of this film, I went from intrigued (at an excellent opening), to confused, to bored and finally angry.
Hoyte van Hoytma's cinematography is gorgeous. Of course, with the combination of him as D.P. and Lee Smith as editor, there were some definite moments of "this looks like a Christopher Nolan movie", but that's hardly a bad thing.
Ok James Bond movie. Exciting and more relaxed in tone than the previous 3 outings. Thus lacking the emotional impact but with more action and humor and influnces of the older movies.
Has some suprises, GREAT opening and fight on the train. Movie cost a fortune and it shows in the production.
Lots of fun! BUT story needs more focus, The twist between Blofeld and Bond is VERY stupid, and the final act is weak and the movie could lose 20minutes
After this 2h30m infomercial for clothes/cars/eau de toillette/tech/tourist destinations and how not to direct a movie is time for Bond to retire for a couple of years, and Sam Mendes to quit. Exit stage left.
James Bond has a soft spot in my heart, so I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy Spectre. But, with that said, I did come out of the film feeling like it had squandered a lot of good will. For one thing, it felt like there was only one really unique setpiece (Dia de los muertos in Mexico City) in a film that should be filled with interesting setpieces. So that was an obvious disappointment. Going beyond that, however, the Bond girls played by Monica Belluci and Lea Seydoux both fell flat to me. In particular, Seydoux’s character felt problematic to me given that a mere two scenes after she promises to kill Bond if he tries to step into bed with her, she ends up falling into bed with him. Seydoux is a thrilling, fun-to-watch actress who can really pull off action sequences (if you’re in doubt, check out Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) – so it seemed like a massive waste to have her here in this loser of a role.
The other major misfire of this movie for me was everything to do with Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz) – or should I say, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Even ignoring the cheat the filmmakers used to get around giving away the big “surprise” reveal of his character (and it shouldn’t have surprised anyone), let’s be honest – if Blofeld’s secret origin is that he’s just got some daddy issues, that’s kind of a major letdown. Plus, why does every Bond movie need to tie into some kind of grand overarching story? There are plenty of Bond movies that stand on their own merits (Goldfinger, anyone?) – why can’t these movies also try to do that?
So finally the rebooted shadowy organization of Spectre gets its time in the spotlight. Despite leading up to this over the past 3 movies it still felt tacked on, as if this was the re-do attempt at the concept that was Quantum in the second film. Somehow manages to not really be that interesting and Spectre's full power of an organization is more alluded to than actually shown.
Whereas the opera meeting in Quantum felt fresh and neat, it totally blows out of the water the tired and overused Spectre meeting with lackeys reporting on how they're slowly taking over the world. A major step backward.
It also features probably the least exciting car chase of any of the films, literally just Craig and Bautista tooling around Rome and grimacing at each other. By the end of the film all Bautista becomes is just a punching bag for Craig to split his knuckles on, really an insult to the rogues gallery of great henchmen that populate the Bond universe. Waltz does what he can with the role but since the character itself is a reboot it just feels so lackluster and played out.
The trademark SPECTRE scene of all the minions meeting before the shadowy "#1" was a clear callback to the Connery era. Bautista's character of Mr. Hinx shows up to jar the audience out of the moment however. This scene might have worked in the early years of Bond, but tough guys killing people is nothing special anymore. Seemed like it would have been more in line if the new SPECTRE is not impressed with blunt objects in the form of near-silent henchmen.
Also, making Blofeld releated to Bond is peak lazy writing. It's all the rage to shake up a main character nowadays by making them releated to the villain and it has already become cliché because of it. It's just pure plot contrivance, the world is a big place and the good guy/bad guy being part of the same family is preposterous.
After the controversial Quantum of solace (well, I must be the only person who hasn't entirely hated it) Skyfall tightened the focus on a sleek and readable style for action sequences, and a streamlined self contained plot.
In Spectre, this approach of returning to old school bond tropes is perhaps pushed too far for this particular era of the franchise. The villain's plot is silly (nations are just too bickering to ever approve to share all intelligence data) in a way that feels very quintessentially Bond - But I liked the unexpected betrayals, the real world parallels, the rounded approach that Casino royale and quantum of solace shared.
Well I guess i'll watch No time to Die to complete the series.
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Comments 1 - 15 of 35
God
starring christoph waltz playing the exact same character he's been playing since inglorious basterds #pleasestopterrorisingfrenchgirlsParavail
Slow and boring, with a really weak twist.Gunness
Craig has certainly made the role his own at this point, and I really enjoyed Mendes' ability to tie the earlier entries in the reboot into the storyline. M, Q, and Moneypenny also get their chances to shine.But it's like Sony thought that, riding on the success of Skyfall, they'd really put the pedal to the metal this time around and show all the copycats in town who the king of action thrillers is. With a reputed budget of $300 million and a running time of 2½ hrs, this is a perfect example of less being more at times. Both opening and finale are thrilling, and there's a terrific car chase and another excellent setpiece featuring a plane and a car - but really, if this had been trimmed by 20 minutes (and $50 million), I think the film would have been improved.
Pauljt1980
Was OK, better than Quantum Of Solace. Waltz was underused and it was quite slow at times. Worth a watchynrozturk
Really let down by this. It's slow, the music is unnecessarily dramatic most of the time, and the story I felt was weak.Spoilers : Man this movie has so many idiotic things in it. Like when Bond has that conversation with that guy and he shoots himself, doesn't Bond notice the huge camera with the bright red light recording the whole conversation? Because that's the first thing the other assassin notices the first thing he walks in the room. Very professional, Bond.
Didn't like the chase scenes, either. And also at the end, it's very convenient for the entire gas supply of the complex to be outside and to be taken out by a single bullet. For a multi million dollar facility, that shit should have been underground.
Bond chases the villain the entire film in order to kill him. When he has his chance, he doesn't feel like doing it. Okay.
These Bond girls are seriously annoying me now.
Seriously, this film had nothing to offer, and was an hour longer than it should have been.
Banjay
Overlong, weakly plotted, anticlimactic and kinda betrays the new formula by replacing it with the old one, making Bond pretty much invincible again and not the vulnerable type which made Craig's interpretation so compelling. Waltz's character was underwritten and has far too little screen time. Otherwise a solid film, which stands superior to most Bond installments.chryzsh
I could write a thousand words about why I didn't like this, but "terrible" should do just fine.frankqb
Like its title, Spectre is a ghost of a James Bond film: It looks the part, but lacks substance.Featuring echoes of past Bond lives in the form of beautiful women, shadowy organizations, and giant violence-oriented men that don't speak, this ghoulish film is as tedious a Bond story as its worst predecessors.
While Spectre showcases some great action sequences, the plot of the film is elusive and silly in its attempts to be mysterious, subtle and suave while remaining skin-deep and hovering around the 95 IQ mark. Bond simply skates from one locale to the next on the flimsiest of premises learning information that is irrelevant and incomprehensible and suddenly finds himself inexplicably the guardian of a helpless young woman. Somehow she stays with him long after she's outlived her usefulness, and helps Bond confront the big baddy (played by Christoph Waltz).
And while this may sound like the formula of any James Bond film, believe me that this film lacks the narrative drive and character of Skyfall or even Casino Royale. Characters have minimal or even zero motivation. Its not as bad as the turgid Quantum of Solace, but it is close. At times, Mendes seems to be purposefully frustrating us with wide shots when close-ups are more appropriate, and close-ups when we want to see more.
In the run of this film, I went from intrigued (at an excellent opening), to confused, to bored and finally angry.
2 stars out of 5
dorkusmalorkus
Hoyte van Hoytma's cinematography is gorgeous. Of course, with the combination of him as D.P. and Lee Smith as editor, there were some definite moments of "this looks like a Christopher Nolan movie", but that's hardly a bad thing.Earring72
Ok James Bond movie. Exciting and more relaxed in tone than the previous 3 outings. Thus lacking the emotional impact but with more action and humor and influnces of the older movies.Has some suprises, GREAT opening and fight on the train. Movie cost a fortune and it shows in the production.
Lots of fun! BUT story needs more focus, The twist between Blofeld and Bond is VERY stupid, and the final act is weak and the movie could lose 20minutes
Dawizz
After this 2h30m infomercial for clothes/cars/eau de toillette/tech/tourist destinations and how not to direct a movie is time for Bond to retire for a couple of years, and Sam Mendes to quit. Exit stage left.nymusix
James Bond has a soft spot in my heart, so I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy Spectre. But, with that said, I did come out of the film feeling like it had squandered a lot of good will. For one thing, it felt like there was only one really unique setpiece (Dia de los muertos in Mexico City) in a film that should be filled with interesting setpieces. So that was an obvious disappointment. Going beyond that, however, the Bond girls played by Monica Belluci and Lea Seydoux both fell flat to me. In particular, Seydoux’s character felt problematic to me given that a mere two scenes after she promises to kill Bond if he tries to step into bed with her, she ends up falling into bed with him. Seydoux is a thrilling, fun-to-watch actress who can really pull off action sequences (if you’re in doubt, check out Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) – so it seemed like a massive waste to have her here in this loser of a role.The other major misfire of this movie for me was everything to do with Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz) – or should I say, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Even ignoring the cheat the filmmakers used to get around giving away the big “surprise” reveal of his character (and it shouldn’t have surprised anyone), let’s be honest – if Blofeld’s secret origin is that he’s just got some daddy issues, that’s kind of a major letdown. Plus, why does every Bond movie need to tie into some kind of grand overarching story? There are plenty of Bond movies that stand on their own merits (Goldfinger, anyone?) – why can’t these movies also try to do that?
tommy_leazaq
Mission Impossible series are better James Bond movies these days.DisneyStitch
So finally the rebooted shadowy organization of Spectre gets its time in the spotlight. Despite leading up to this over the past 3 movies it still felt tacked on, as if this was the re-do attempt at the concept that was Quantum in the second film. Somehow manages to not really be that interesting and Spectre's full power of an organization is more alluded to than actually shown.It also features probably the least exciting car chase of any of the films, literally just Craig and Bautista tooling around Rome and grimacing at each other. By the end of the film all Bautista becomes is just a punching bag for Craig to split his knuckles on, really an insult to the rogues gallery of great henchmen that populate the Bond universe. Waltz does what he can with the role but since the character itself is a reboot it just feels so lackluster and played out.
Also, making Blofeld releated to Bond is peak lazy writing. It's all the rage to shake up a main character nowadays by making them releated to the villain and it has already become cliché because of it. It's just pure plot contrivance, the world is a big place and the good guy/bad guy being part of the same family is preposterous.
Hasturion
After the controversial Quantum of solace (well, I must be the only person who hasn't entirely hated it) Skyfall tightened the focus on a sleek and readable style for action sequences, and a streamlined self contained plot.In Spectre, this approach of returning to old school bond tropes is perhaps pushed too far for this particular era of the franchise. The villain's plot is silly (nations are just too bickering to ever approve to share all intelligence data) in a way that feels very quintessentially Bond - But I liked the unexpected betrayals, the real world parallels, the rounded approach that Casino royale and quantum of solace shared.
Well I guess i'll watch No time to Die to complete the series.
Showing items 1 – 15 of 35