At the very beginning of Spectre, the words ‘the dead are alive’ appear on the screen. It’s a reference to the Day of the Dead festival in Mexico, but this phrase could be a metaphor for both this film and the entire Daniel Craig Bond era. Casino Royale breathed new life into the flagging screen adventures of 007. With a new, darker, more brutal direction, stripped of the fancy gadgets and over-the-top villainy, it reinvented the world’s greatest secret agent for modern audiences, and set a tone for a grittier, darker take on Bond. Over time, this franchise has been slowly heading back towards its classic escapist roots, with 2012’s Skyfall serving as a bridge between the meaner, darker Bond set up in CS and QOS and the flamboyant, stylish era of Bond’s past. With Spectre, we’re now firmly back in classic Bond territory, with Q, Miss Moneypenny, gadgets and Bond’s old adversary SPECTRE all having been raised from the dead. And it’s awesome.
The movie kicks off in Mexico City, with Bond on a posthumous assignment from Judi Dench’s M to track down and kill Italian gangster Marco Sciarra. The opening shot is a seamlessly executed 5-minute long tracking shot that showcases the awesome talents of cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, and coupled with the thrilling chase sequence and helicopter battle that ensues should go down as one of the best Bond intros of all time. But M, played by Ralph Fiennes, is less thrilled by this, as the carnage Bond unleashed in Mexico puts him in a tricky position with C, played by Sherlock’s Andrew Scott, the new head of MI5 who’s campaigning to scrap the double 0 program and replace it with a new global intelligence sharing program called Nine Eyes.
Bond is none too happy about the prospect of losing his job to a man whose codename becomes a recurring gag, and, assisted by Ben Whishaw’s Q and Naomie Harris’ Miss Moneypenny, goes under the radar, following a trail of breadcrumbs left by M to uncover a mysterious organisation. This journey takes him to Rome, where he witnesses the world’s deadliest boardroom meeting, to Austria, where he meets an old enemy and a new paramour, to Morocco, where a figure from his past emerges with sinister intentions, and finally back to London, where Bond’s past finally catches up with him and he’s forced to face his deadliest enemy yet.
The first thing to note about this movie is the cast. Director Sam Mendes has assembled a group of world-class performers, and everyone is on top form. Daniel Craig himself has never seemed more fitting to the role of Bond- he’s smooth, lethal, skilled and charming, but also gets to display more of the emotional vulnerability that made this version of the character resonate with audiences. Harris, Fiennes and Whishaw return from Skyfall and get much more to do this time round, with Moneypenny helping Bond out on his mission, Q getting to travel to Austria and M fighting off C and the rising tide of surveillance, which leads to some interesting social commentary.
Newcomer Bond girls Monica Bellucci and Lea Seydoux are both great. Bellucci gets a disappointingly small part (she’s only in the movie for about five minutes), but Seydoux’s Madeleine Swann is arguably the best Bond girl yet- certainly the best from the Daniel Craig era, and proves herself more than a match for 007. Christoph Waltz’s Oberhauser (but we all know that’s not his real name) may lack the gleeful insanity of Silva from Skyfall, but he more than makes up for it with a calm, calculated menace befitting of his talents, which he gets to flaunt in what is sure to become a classic torture scene. My personal favourite character is Q, but that’s probably because I can relate more to the character who does all the research and thinking while Bond does the punching and shooting.
Anyone who read the leaked script at the end of last year and worried about the plot can rest easy- the final version is far superior to that. The script, written by Skyfall team Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, with the addition of American John Logan, neatly ties together many loose plot threads and characters from past Craig films to create a compelling mystery. This wouldn’t be a Bond film without some globetrotting, and Spectre more than delivers. The story takes Bond to Mexico, Italy, Austria and Morocco, all of which are used superbly. My favourite is Austria- the snowy landscapes of the Alps provide a perfect backdrop and accessory to a high-speed car/plane chase.
Many people took issue with the way Skyfall picked and dropped plot threads the way Bond does women, but I’m happy to report that the narrative is a lot more consistent here. The script juggles numerous plot threads and manages to maintain interest in all of them throughout, which is a considerable achievement. The themes of Bond’s relevance in a changing world are picked up from Skyfall, but this movie handles it much better than that one did, with M providing a nice summary of why he thinks the world still needs people like James Bond.
The technical aspects of the film are also spectacular, with a finesse and craftsmanship that Q would be proud of. I’ve already praised the cinematography of Interstellar cameraman Hoyte Van Hoymena, but it warrants another mention- it’s simply Spectre-cular (pardon the pun), perfectly showing of all the locales and scenery Bond visits and making the action seem tense, pacy and believable. The lighting also warrants a mention, if only for the spectacular boardroom scene in Rome, with the dark mood lighting creating a brilliant atmosphere. This is also done well with the introduction of Blo- sorry, Oberhauser, with the spotlight making him seem all the more threatening.
Composer Thomas Newman returns from Skyfall, and the score hits a lot of similar beats. You’ll recognise the Bond theme, of course (the gunbarrel sequence makes its return), but you may also recognise some of the score as repeated from Skyfall. This isn’t a bad thing though, as it works really well in the film, and there are some nice new beats present also.
Having said all of that, this film isn’t perfect. My main issue is the underuse of some characters. I already mentioned Monica Bellucci’s Lucia Sciarra, but Miss Moneypenny and, to a lesser extent, Oberhauser all could have done with a little more screen time. My other issue is the film’s official song, ‘Writing’s on the Wall’ by Sam Smith. It’s far too romancey and not actiony enough for Bond. I can accept that there will obviously be a romantic undertone, but that’s the main focus of the song, and it doesn’t really work with the rest of the film.
But these are relatively minor complaints, and didn’t distract from my overall enjoyment of the film. Spectre is outstanding- superbly well written, terrifically acted, intricately plotted and with an astoundingly talented crew behind the camera. It’s got everything you could want in a Bond film- beautiful women, high-tech gadgets, diabolical villains and edge-of-your-seat action. This is the best Daniel Craig Bond yet, and I give it 4 and a half stars out of 5. If you haven’t seen it yet, I do highly recommend you do- unless you’re an American, in which case you have to wait another week. HA!