More Dead than Alive
A message from beyond the grave has seen Bond (Daniel Craig) going rogue, taking matters in to his own hands whilst down in Mexico. With M (Ralph Fiennes) already dealing with a threat to the 00 system from C (Andrew Scott) the new head of the Centre of National Security the last thing he needs is for 007 to be doing his own thing. But with help from a few allies that is what Bond does as he ends up going across the globe on the trail of a man called Mr. White which in turn leads to him coming face to face with someone from his past when he goes looking for an organization called SPECTRE, which turns out to be much more connected than he feared.
I didn't like "Spectre" and found it bloated, slow, ponderous and to be honest it felt like it wasn't entirely sure of what it wanted to be. But whilst I didn't like this James Bond movie it wasn't bad and in fact if you can endure the first 90 minutes the last 60 is alright although it is still hit and miss. The thing is that the storyline itself to "Spectre" is not bad as first we have that message from beyond the grave which leads to Bond going rogue, we have trouble at MI6 with new bosses, we have the mystery surrounding what Bond is up to and on top of that a photo salvaged from the wreckage of his former Scottish home adds more intrigue. And all of the bits end up connecting even though it feels like it takes for ever to connect the dots.
The trouble is that "Spectre" doesn't seem to know what it is as firstly the James Bond in this turns in to a bit of a Roger Moore version of 007 with his flirtations and his ability to conjure up a white tuxedo out of nowhere to wear on a train. Thankfully the writers didn't try and get Daniel Craig saying the sort of corny dialogue which came to dominate Moore's tenure as 007. But then for some reason those behind "Spectre" have gone all artsy on us with scenes of vehicles kicking up dust as they drive across the desert and Bond striking a pose in a doorway which seem unnecessary and more often than not they end up going on too long giving "Spectre" its bloated nature.
But as I said, "Spectre" does kind of come good and that basically comes from after what feels for ever we have Bond coming face to face with Blofeld who is brilliantly played by Christoph Waltz. In fact whilst Daniel Craig delivers a solid performance as Bond it is Waltz who saves the movie with his wonderfully controlled but still psychotic performance of the head of SPECTRE.
What this all boils down to is that "Spectre" was a disappointment and almost felt at times like it was trying to be more like the Roger Moore Bond movies with ridiculous action and Bond being a womaniser. But the worst thing about it is that it ends up too artsy with too many scenes which add noting to the movie other than some ponderous cinematography.
