Review of Spectre (2015) by Randolph B — 06 May 2016

I'm just kind of reviewing the role of Craig as Bond rather than Spectre at whole. He's had more cameos than most people who've put on the 007 cape. People are speculating that he's done now as Bond and they are in the process of picking a new one. I think it might make or break the series if they really screw up and pick someone who doesn't fit the role. Craig was kind of up and down as Bond. They always kind of make the movies unpredictable and don't even really care so much about the fans who watch them. They have their own agenda.

I really loved the opening of this movie. It had great music, a festival, and Day of the Dead parade. Then Bond was on a mission. It had classic Bond written all over it. Just a couple of scenes were very memorable. One where he was about to assassinate Mr. White. He was offered to play a chess game, questioned his choice of career as an assassin but defended himself, then went on to find the guys daughter. Bond is always unapologetic as the gun-for-hire and has many great lines such as his interaction with Trevelyan on the satellite about being an instrument of the Queen. Maybe this scene just solidifies that.

Of course, the villain in every Bond film is just as important as the Bond girls. He just kind of seemed like a regular guy. It was almost too emotional of a connection with 007. He claimed to be his adopted brother, and that he hated the idea that he had to share a roof with him, calling Bond the cuckoo bird. This made the tension between Bond and the villain very weird, probably too personal for the audience to be comfortable. Next are they going to have a former scorned gay lover be the villain? At the end where he chooses not to kill Blofeld. I feel like this is a sin against the Bond films. You're supposed to kill the main villain and have a cool fight scene, plus a great darkly humorous line as Bond lands the finishing blow.

Has Bond gotten extremely soft? Craig's 007 is more down to Earth. They aren't doing unbelievable stunts like fighting in spaceships on the moon, or using CGI where it isn't necessary making the film spectacular, but at the same time fans are left feeling like idiots for believing Bond could really surf on a tsunami. There's even a pretty great fight scene on the train in this movie, but I just wasn't happy with the ending. It's like 007 is going against his roots.

Craig's 007 and the production company behind Bond has seemed to ignore the fact that the world is against Islamic terrorism at the moment. These films they all started out in the Cold War and every villain was practically a Russian guy. I'm extremely surprised that they haven't made the villain an extremist Muslim Arabic guy. Maybe too many people just hate this idea of war with the Middle-East and Bond is ok being the escapist guy away from real war and conflict, or they just have such a loyal fan base they are ok being like cotton candy away from foreign affairs. But 4 films and no extremist Muslim terrorist dude? That really surprised me. You'd think that 1 of the films would approach the subject. Clearly they put a lot of effort into NOT producing a film like this. It would be a lot of easier to follow a film like this, one that kept up with current affairs. I think a lot of people would be into watching this even if some people are against the war with ISIS and just all war in general.