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SPECTRE - Not Quite Top Level


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#1 B5Erik

B5Erik

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Posted 28 November 2015 - 05:27 PM

Skyfall was my favorite Daniel Craig Bond movie.  It wasn't perfect, but it really hit a lot of the right notes to make for an extremely enjoyable movie.  And it looked gorgeous.

 

And yet I really wanted to finally see some of the familiar James Bond stuff.  I was ready for a Bond movie that was just a little more fun.  I wanted to see Daniel Craig's Bond become the JAMES BOND that we've all known and loved for decades.

 

In SPECTRE we get some of those classic Bond elements while remaining firmly rooted in Daniel Craig's era.  It feels more like a Bond movie than the last three did.  So why is it just a little disappointing?

 

It's got some really good action sequences.  It's got the gunbarrel at the beginning.  It's got some humor and more fun while still remaining serious.

 

So what is it that brings SPECTRE down a notch?

 

Well, first off it doesn't look right.  The desaturated colors in the movie just makes it look drab where Skyfall looked breathtaking.  That was a horrible decision.

 

Second, it is about 15 minutes too long.  The movie drags just a little.  I like the more British approach to spy movies (more deliberate, not rushing headlong throughout the movie), but this just had some moments that needed tightening.  Literally a second here, three seconds there taken out of some shots would have made a difference in the feel of the movie.  Some scenes needed more like 20 or 30 seconds trimmed here and there, but it needed tightening.

 

And finally, the villain and his organization are not as good as they could have been.  Chrisoph Waltz was fantastic as Oberhauser/Blofeld, but he needed at least one more scene in the movie.  And what was SPECTRE's goal, anyway?  Manipulation of world events?  They didn't make it clear enough what SPECTRE was going to gain by manipulating world events.  They almost let it seem like SPECTRE thought they were doing the world a favor by ultimately creating more order out of the chaos.  Kind of like HYDRA in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  That's not what SPECTRE is all about.  They should have made it clear that SPECTRE was planning on always being a step ahead of the world's intelligenge agencies and would manipulate events in order to sell arms, drugs, whatever - and make trillions of dollars/pounds/euros.  Ultimately, SPECTRE was always about money, and had they made that clear in this movie - and given the evil organization more screen time explaining that - SPECTRE (the movie) would have been better. 

 

They don't want order -they want controlled chaos allowing them to make money.

 

Still, even with those gripes I still really enjoyed the movie - they got more right than they got wrong.  It does have more of the classic Bond feel, and the nods to previous Bond movies were nice touches.  And as I mentioned, the action scenes are very good.  

 

I would definitely like to see one more with Daniel Craig.


Edited by B5Erik, 28 November 2015 - 05:55 PM.