Review of Spectre (2015) by Taylor G — 05 Apr 2016

Plot and pacing were a mess with a forced villain whose arch fails to live up to the last films. Where as Skyfall seemed to leave behind the hokey stunt work that lead the franchise to it's critic doom; this film definitely embraces the improbable and has some very cartoonish action sequences- one of which would require Bond's new leading lady to be invincible.

You'll have to suspend some disbelief and not compare it to skyfall's cleverness if you want to get through this without a bad taste in your mouth. While the first half of the film is misleadingly entertaining, the 3rd act completely falls apart in almost every way.

The villains motivation doesn't work, Bond's chemistry with the lead female doesn't work and overall the entire film can be described as "forced." There are some good ideas floating around in this film and some good build up but unsatisfying delivery and sloppily tied up lose ends.

There are lots of specifics I could get into but without spoiling it I'll just say this: if you love Daniel Craig's Bond you may be left unsatisfied with this closing chapter. Its well shot with interesting locations but with how many movies came out this past year I have to ask "is mexico constantly celebrating day of dead?" I feel like I've seen 4 blockbuster movies recently that all utilize that same setting, each worse than the last.