Official Australian release date: 12/11/15. Viewed: 13/11/15.
Director: Sam Mendes
Actors: Daniel Craig, Lea
Seydoux, Christoph Waltz, Ralph Fiennes
Genre: Action
Rating:
M
‘Spectre’ is the 24th Bond
film and Daniel Craig’s fourth – and final – outing as 007. Is not the best Bond,
but nor is it the worst. It does play a lot on nostalgia and the villains/plots
(Spectre) of the Moore/Connery eras. It has a lot of classic Bond attributes
going for it: worldwide locations (Mexico, Italy, Austria, Morocco), great cars
& car chases, plane/helicopter stunts, some sly humour, martinis,
explosions and disobeying orders, but it also feels a little tired in places.
The plot does well to link in aspects
of ‘Casino Royale’, ‘Quantum of Solace’ and ‘Skyfall’, but doesn’t really offer
much of a driving force, as does Blofeld (Waltz)’s motive as the villain – it’s
there, but poorly articulated and Waltz is not fully utilised as well as he could
be, which is a shame, since we know he can be a great bad guy (‘Inglorious
Basterds’ & ‘Django Unchained’). Swann (Seydoux) is also adequate, but
never 100% convincing.
There’s probably too many “down”/slow
moments in a 2 & a half hour film, but at times the score – or lack of,
before it kicks back in – is excellent. Q (Whishaw) and M (Fiennes) are both
good and get a bit more screen time than usual. The fight scenes are well done and
there’s plenty of action, but I’m interested to see who the next Bond is – and hope
they give us four or five years to anticipate it.
Overall: Does what a Bond film
should.
Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.
