The James Bond series has come a long way from its first debut with Sean Connery in 1962. Ian Flemings’ 50-year running action films just keep coming, and it seems they will never go out of style. This year’s James Bond film, Spectre, is the latest film in Daniel Craig’s reexamination of the classy 007 character.
Spectre is the fourth installment in the Craig reboot of the iconic James Bond 007 Agent. Though Craig is the smallest 007 Agent in Bond history, standing at a mere 5’10”, it does not take away from his ability to portray the Bond agent all fans have come to know and love.
What appears to possibly be Craig’s last James Bond film starts out as the other films in the series have: a woman following in toe behind Bond, and he does his classic “cool guy” saunter across rooftops as he prowls toward an assassin he is prepared to kill.
While the movie delivers everything from bullets, car chases, explosions and Bond narrowly escaping every situation he is placed in, the film is not everything you would hope for in a Bond movie.
The film’s villain, Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz), makes many claims, which tie the past three films together, but as a villain, the character leaves something to be desired.
Oberhauser, it would seem, is little more than a grown man having a temper-tantrum, driven by what boils down to childhood jealousy. Of course this is only revealed when Oberhauser has Bond in a tight spot and goes into his monologue. This moment, when the villain justifies his actions, was a big letdown because it is a cliché one would hope not to find in a Bond film.
The film has no shortage of giant fiery explosions and intense chase scenes, and some may have flash backs to past Bond movies. As Bond pulls off the impossible, there are many moments that have been seen before. Tying in these classic moments was a nice choice by the director. Some of these moments are the fight inside a flying helicopter, a hand-to-hand fight ending with the one opposing Bond falling backward off a ledge—matching what happened to Sean Bean’s character in Golden Eye—and an old classic with a plane chasing after a car, only this time Bond is the one in the plane.
The end of the film tied in nicely to what ‘M’, played by Ralph Fiennes, said about Bond’s license to kill and the strength it takes to decide when to pull the trigger. This exchange, however, made the end of the movie incredibly predictable.
This particular Bond could have been cut down to less than two hours. While there are several action scenes where Bond manages to pull off impossible feats, there are several lulls to the film that could have been shortened or cut out altogether. If you are prepared to bunker down for the entire two hour and 28 minute run time, be prepared to be a bit bored at times.
