007: Spectre - Review

Spectre. 

Spectre is the 24th film in the James Bond franchise and the 4th starring Daniel Craig. Spectre serves as the film that ties the other Craig films together. While it is nice to have all of the films to become intertwined, some of the references and ties seem a little forced and awkward. 

The opening sequence of the film takes place during Mexico's Day of the Dead celebration and lends itself to really nice costume design and a phenomenal opening sequence that we've grown used to in this era of Bond. The movie opens with a magnificent tracking shot that follows Bond around and really shows of Sam Mendes' direction. 

As per usual all of the performances are top notch, Craig can play Bond practically in his sleep and has really nailed the character. Ralph Fiennes does a great job as M and as a successor to Judi Dench. Dave Bautista of Guardians of the Galaxy and WWE fame is good in the movie but literally has 1 line, not an exaggeration, 1 damn line. 

2-time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz who no longer needs an introduction was his usual brilliant self. Unfortunately he has started to become typecast as the conniving and smart villain who he again plays in Spectre. His role while good could've been much better had the seeds of his plan been planted in the previous movies a la the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He is the self proclaimed "author of Bond's pain" yet the revelations he shows do not hit hard enough due to the fact that we were just introduced to him in this film. Waltz does the best he can with the character and is the thing that keeps this villain from being a run of the mill villain. He doesn't come close to Skyfall's Raoul Silva played by Javier Bardem.

A lot of this movie seemed unnecessary, at 2.5 hours, I think more could've been left out. It's hard to explain, especially without revealing information but there were scenes and storylines that could've either been left out or taken care of much quicker. 

It's hard to judge this movie, do we judge it as an action movie, a James Bond movie or as a Daniel Craig-Bond movie? To keep it simple, I'm going to compare it to Craig's other films because the other incarnations of Bond differ too much to adequately compare to. Spectre is the 3rd best of the 4 Craig films. That seems bad but to be fair Skyfall's and Casino Royale are among my favorite Bond movies ever with Skyfall being one of my favorite movies of the last 5 years. Spectre was destined to be a let down, Skyfall was too good of a film to be followed up by a movie of the same quality but nonetheless Spectre is a good movie. 

Rewatchability: 3/5, I'm always down to watch a good Bond movie but this won't be the first one I grab for in the collection. 

Rating: 3.5/5, a quality addition to the Bond franchise that I think will be remembered better over time as opposed to off the heels of Skyfall. I walked away happy with the film and would definitely recommend it to any Bond or action movie fan.