Spectre (2015)

[MrPink]

Weirdly enough, I think I liked the song less over the credits than on standalone. Not sure why that is.

[AniNate]

There were things I liked about this: The generally lighter, sillier tone they were going for and the bigger roles for Moneypenny and Q. But I really hated how Lea Seydoux's character was written and Waltz was grossly underused. The action sequences got less thrilling as the film got longer.

[Goffe]

Personally, I can't understand anyone who prefers the hopelessly incompetent Quantum over this. Spectre looks, sounds and is cut just about a million times better. It's objectively better.

 

I don't hate QoS or anything, I just think it doesn't do anything particularly well, but to think that QoS is better than Spectre is kind of a cinematic blasphemy.

I thought the movie had a fantastic beginning, slow and unfocused middle and a refreshing third act almost ruined by a bad twist. The romance didn't click with me, so that part didn't work either.

Thomas Newman work is marvelous, the best score in the series since John Barry days. And oh boy, how I was wrong about Hoyte van Hoytema, I simply couldn't believe someone could do a better job than Deakins, and he surprisingly did after all the flack I gave him, as I watching the film my jaw was on the floor with the breathtaking visuals, that scene in the bridge had me squirming. The power of film over digital.

 

Waltz is doing another (sigh) impersonation of Hans Landa, but his last moments on screen, when JB resists the urge to kill him, he delivers a powerful moment that redeems his performance.

As someone who didn't care for the song when I first heard it, I thought it fitted in the intro super well, setting a different (a welcome change) tone to the stylized initial credits

And once again, Mendes rock solid direction saves a movie that could have been such a big trainwreck in the hands of other directors, due to production problems and all that. 70/100

 

Edited November 12, 2015 by Goffe

[IndustriousAngel]

B, 7/10

 

Letdown: The silliness factor - always there in action Spy thrillers - was a bit high for my taste, and the music didn't click with me. The story was just ok, with too much relying on two weak villains. btw, that torture device was one of the stupidest ideas in recent movie history, the Bond franchise is always walking dangerously on the brink of self-parody which it crossed in this scene (also in the kissing scene after the train fight, and the moral-dilemma-bomb-device at the end).

 

Pros: Some good old-fashioned hand-to-hand combat scenes (liked Bautista), gun action and, of course, the trademark big-scale action pieces where we cheer at the silliness. Also, I liked how Q and M got involved. And, with Bond, they always go that extra mile to give you your ticket's worth - exotic outdoor locations, expensive cars, crazy stunts - here, there was also some very good dim-light-photography, especially the Rome and Tanger scenes - some of it positively reminding me of "Barry Lyndon".

 

btw I watched this back-to-back with Mission Impossible Rogue Nation and it was just uncanny how close those two productions were - the same plot concept (agents dismissed by own agency), the same shooting locations (London, Austria, Morocco), the car chase ...

[lab276]

Great fun, A

 

The MI5 similarities were pretty amazing, but this is the better film.

Edited November 13, 2015 by lab276

[ladyevenstar22]

meh  was debating giving this a C but i'll settle for a B-

 

dunno what it is but between daniel craig's BOND who i find as appetizing as a cold fish and the script that is devoid of life this movie left me feeling absolutely detached at no moment did i feel connected heck there were sequences my eyes were actually drooping , movie felt like it would never end !

 

i'll say this though the action scenes were good , although i was wondering why the heck was he trying to kill the helicopter pilot in opening scene over a plaza filled with people ,yeah its dramatic but callous and careless really  james.? ehhh

oh and batista , must be cool to get paid to play in a james bond scenes with one line  "shit"  oscar worthy supporting actor nod lol

 

as for the ladies  what a waste of monica belucci talent , everyone felt like they were going through the motions of what their bond archetype was suppose to do , esp the ladies , for a second i though hmm is james falling for the older woman this time a real connection nope it was his signature bed them and leave them routine during a moment fo vulnerability 

but lea seydoux takes the cake , as soon as i saw her i was like oh boy here we go she's the main chick but then she blows him off and i'm like huh could it be a woman who won't succomb to his bond'ish charm coo-coo-cool but ehh of course it was too much to hope for thus she falls for him sigh and the very next day she tells him i love you (i said out loud "overnight!!! pfff" my immediate neighbours watched me mix between i'm bothering them and oh an engllish speaking person usually reason why i look for a seat with no one around me i tend to comment now and then but i try to keep a lid on it  ) from there on she lost me , also she's way too young next to daniel craig 

 

i refrained myself from saying out loud that james bond must have some MST by now with all the women he beds ...

 

as for the villain  i've seen better from waltz but eh an actor does what they can with the script given!

funny but after seeeing ralph fiennes for so long with no hair as voldermort i find crazy weird to see him with any ...

 

the song i thought i recognized sam smith voice it was ok not dramatic enough i wonder if there's a top 10 of bond theme songs still remember tina turner's

 

anyhooo to conclude this felt like a check the boxes list instead of an organic entity 

[ladyevenstar22]

read all the comments and i realized i have no recollection of daniel craig's previous bond film which i've probably seen once at the cinema positive i haven't rewatch any of them since....

[Olive]

Yeah, a big step aown from SKYfall..

SKYFALL 9.0/10

SPECTRE 6.0/10

[solaris]

Yeah anyone who says that QoS is better than this needs their head examined. QoS is just a dull, tired, death march of a film. Spectre is a mess, I grant you, but it's a curious mess with lots of good stuff. And it's at least trying to have some fun.

 

Hopefully Craig gets one more Bond, and hopefully it can be a lower key stand alone story. I'd love to see a Craig Bond take on a gritty, License to Kill type story.

[Joel M]

It felt like the first by the numbers Bond of the Craig era. This doesn't mean it's bad. Casino Royale and Skyfall were "different" and they were great, Quantum was also "different" and it was a creative disaster from start to finish. Spectre is decent if not a little unremarkable. I think after the bad rep the movie is getting from many places dies down, it will end up like maybe half of the franchise entries reputation-wise. Nothing bad sticks out much to make it a franchise punching bag like QOS but also not that many things to remember (the day of the dead opening, maybe the villain). Pretty much like all post-Goldfinger Connery movies, the middle Brosnan movies and like half of Roger Moore's era. It's definately a letdown after Skyfall but a pretty standard entry for the franchise.

 

B-.

[jb007]

Spectre is a complete waste. They have turned the greatest villain from Sean Connery era, Blofeld, into a joke. Ben Winshaw and the score are the only saving grace. The song is pathetic. I cringed when Madeline tells Bond that she loves him. The romance has no context and is not believable.The romance was handled very well in Casino Royale. The movie lost a lot of credibility by making these Craig Bond movies personal vide Blofeld. They might as well make Mallory Bond's uncle, M his aunt and Moneypenney his African cousin. This shit stinks to high heaven.

 

I loved Casino Royale among Craig's bond movies. The remaining three i.e. QoS, Skyfall & Spectre,  have disappointed me to varying degrees. They have carried the ridiculous "Brooding" Bond Shtick too long. Time for a fun and entertaining bond.  

 

B-/C+

 

[mepal1]

3 hours ago, jb007 said:

Spectre is a complete waste. They have turned the greatest villain from Sean Connery era, Blofeld, into a joke. Ben Winshaw and the score are the only saving grace. The song is pathetic. I cringed when Madeline tells Bond that she loves him. The romance has no context and is not believable.The romance was handled very well in Casino Royale. The movie lost a lot of credibility by making these Craig Bond movies personal vide Blofeld. They might as well make Mallory Bond's uncle, M his aunt and Moneypenney his African cousin. This shit stinks to high heaven.

 

I loved Casino Royale among Craig's bond movies. The remaining three i.e. QoS, Skyfall & Spectre,  have disappointed me to varying degrees. They have carried the ridiculous "Brooding" Bond Shtick too long. Time for a fun and entertaining bond.  

 

B-/C+

 

I was glued to my seat reading your review...............if i hadn't of been, i would of stood up and walked away.

[Webslinger]

Despite all the grousing from the fanboys, I actually enjoyed Spectre quite a bit. Perhaps it's the fact that I had been resigned to an inferior follow-up since the minute that I emerged from an opening weekend screening of Skyfall, but I can easily forgive Spectre for not scaling the heights of that film simply for the fact that it's deliriously entertaining through most of its admittedly-protracted two-and-a-half-hour running time. Like this summer's Mission: Impossible installment, it's a spy film that gets by largely on the strength of its star and enormously impressive setpieces. Even though Daniel Craig doesn't plumb the same depths that he did in Skyfall, he's still a remarkably-assured Bond; any boredom that he has with playing this role doesn't detract from the seemingly-effortless swagger that he continues to display as 007. I also enjoyed his playful chemistry with Lea Seydoux, who registers strongly enough that she easily surpasses all except for Eva Green as the best Bond girl of the Brosnan and Craig eras. Moreover, the film benefits from the return of director Sam Mendes behind the camera. While I certainly would not have thought of Mendes as a strong action director prior to Skyfall, he brings the same dynamic and playful energy to this film's setpieces as he did in Skyfall, and Hoyte von Hoytema - while not quite as accomplished as Roger Deakins - complements that energy with consistently strong composition that plays especially well on large screens (if only he'd had the opened 1.90:1 ratio that the previous film received in its IMAX screenings). If there's a significant weakness in the film, it lies with the filmmakers' (predictable) decision to integrate Blofeld into the Bond universe in the fashion that they do here. As great as the prospect of Christoph Waltz in the iconic role may sound on paper, it comes up short of expectations on film because of how little screen time the character is given. While waiting for about half of the running time to elapse before introducing Javier Bardem's character in Skyfall does nothing to damage that film, the decision to give Waltz so little to do in a role that has such great meaning to 007 lore is a disservice to both actor and character. All said, Spectre does fall short of its immediate predecessor, but it still succeeds as a consistently and highly entertaining action film.

 

B+

[Thomas86]

I have always loved James Bond but this movie disappointed me. It was so boring towards the end that my eyes kept closing. I was mesmerized by the clothes they wore in the film. I heard it costed a fortune. It was the most anyone spent on a Bond Film

[Hatebox]

If Skyfall was Bond's TDK, this is surely its TDKR - some great scenes but overall a mess. Absolutely no need for it to be that long, and far too much time passes before we get to the meat of the villain. The 'lighter' moments don't really work either: Craig flourishes as a serious Bond but the one-liners, such as they are, are best left to other actors. Mendes can still bring it with the action and it all looks great, but boy was that lack of post-production time felt.

 

PS: no  way is this worse than QoS, a film to my mind that has almost no merit whatsoever.

Edited November 29, 2015 by Hatebox

[Jay Beezy]

One little bone to pick (out of multiple): While I don't mind the idea of tying the movies together, they do little to no explaining of how Silva from Skyfall is connected with the Spectre organization. And if he was just a Spectre agent, it completely negates his motivations from the previous film.

 

The Blofield name reveal didn't bother me as much as the Khan reveal in STID. Blofield at least has motivations behind the name change, i.e. adopting his mother's maiden name to shun his neglectful father. Although the idea of him being Bond's step brother and growing up to be the mastermind of a very intricate crime syndicate was very far-fetched.

Edited February 4, 2016 by Jay Beezy

[MrFanaticGuy34]

I think the movie was pretty enjoyable for me.

 

Sure it may not be as amazing as say.....Casino Royale & Skyfall.....but I really liked it as much as did for Quantum of Solace. (Another Craig-James Bond-flick that mad average to OK-reception.)

 

A-