Review of Spectre (2015) by Mazmorrero47 — 06 Nov 2015

SPECTRE grabs everything Casino Royale did to get 007 back on track and flushes it down the toilet. It's the Diamonds are Forever of the Daniel Craig era in the way that it's a Roger Moore era movie but with a different actor. So long for the days when Bond had development and complexity.

The paper-thin story is basically a poor man's Captain America: The Winter Soldier (it revolves around privacy invasion to defend security), and it keeps with the Skyfall tradition of insisting that James Bond is still super relevant in the internet era despite relying on pandering throwbacks to the previous films to drive the point home. Ironically, it makes you wonder if Bond still has a place in the contemporary world.

We're back to the old days when women are one-dimensional plot devices and sexual interests rather than actual characters with personalities and arcs. Daniel Craig and Lea Seydoux have to go through a forced and chemistry-free romantic subplot that adds nothing to the picture. All while Seydoux tries too hard to be sexy and cool, and I'm sorry, but she's no Eva Green or Honor Blackman. More like a female Jai Courtney.

Christoph Waltz is the same over-the-top cartoonish villain he plays in most of his films, and his motivations are pretty silly. How are we supposed to take him seriously when his catchphrase is "cuckoo"? Not to mention his twists are insulting to the audience's intelligence and seem taken from Austin Powers in Goldmember.

Most shockingly, it's not even an interesting movie in the visual departments. The action scenes are a snoozefest due to poor editing and low stakes, and the monochromatic cinematography makes every location look the same (except for the opening sequence in Mexico, the only one with a wide color palette).