Friday, November 6, 2015

Spectre

Despite the amount of skepticism that followed his initial casting, Daniel Craig actually wound up having a really nice run as the iconic James Bond for the past decade. Much of that was due to the writing and the directing of Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) and Sam Mendes (Skyfall) but old man Craig deserves quite a bit of credit for balancing the newfound seriousness of the role with the usual cheekiness we've come to associate with the lady bagging secret agent.

But the big question in everyone's minds as we watched this obvious farewell to his turn as Bond was, who will be next to take over the reigns? The obvious choice is Idris Elba (Luther, The Wire) but there's no way to be sure if the eccentric Barbara Broccoli, the woman who has the keys to the franchise, will actually sign off on the casting a Black Bond? And if she actually does so, will they completely thug out and have Young Jeezy do the next Bond song as well or will they go more conservative and simply give it to Outkast? I guess it all comes down to whether or not she gets Jungle Fever before she dies but that's another rumor to discuss for another time.

In Spectre, James finds himself in Mexico City ostensibly celebrating the Day of the Dead, but we soon find out that he's really on a secret mission that the now dead M sent him on as her dying wish. His job is to track down the man behind the mysterious but powerful evil organization called Spectre and he must find out what their next move is before they have complete control over what's happening in our world today. But he's not only facing obstacles from outside forces, he's also attempting to do his job while his agency's coming under fire from their new department head C. C believes that the double O agency is prehistoric and should be shut down, so his every move is being monitored and scrutinized as he once again tries to save the world.

Now since everyone on the planet knows this is Craig's last ride as Bond, both the writers and the director (Mendes) did an excellent job of throwing in numerous references to his past 007 films as a sort of unofficial farewell to him. But they also threw in a number of scenes that were odes to some of his predecessors. I won't ruin them for you but look for scenes that remind of Moonraker, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Diamonds Are Forever; the last of which was just as cheesy as the scenes from the original movie but for the most part it wasn't too distracting. They may have been subtle but cool none the less for the die hard Bond fans.

It was great to see Monica Bellucci get thrown a bone in this film, as older actresses typical get thrown to the side of the road in Hollywood. But if anyone ever deserved to be a Bond girl, it was definitely this lovely and talented beauty. But Lea' Seadoux, oh my! She definitely steals every scene she's in with her French elegance. And thankfully for her, the writers decided to give her an actual brain. This is something they attempted to do with Denise Richard's Christmas Jones but we all know that Richards is a moron, so casting her as a rocket scientist was an epic failure on the casting team's part.

In the end, this movie had enough explosions, car chase scenes, and beautiful women in it supply Bond fans with everything they were hoping for. But ultimately it simply felt like a lazy effort on everyone's part as there never was that seminal moment in this film like there was in Casino Royale or Skyfall.

I rate this movie as WEAK but it is a Bond film after all and that shouldn't keep you from seeing it.

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