A Passive Thrill Ride That Fails To Live Up To SkyFall ~ Clayton Berry
Story – 6/10
Spectre’s story is misleading. What starts as a fabulous opening diminishes into a passive joyride. What I mean by passive is that the filmmakers seem to think that controlling the top 9 countries intelligence gathering into one hub is high stakes. I call it passive. Skyfall wins because the stakes of the movie were one man’s mission to exact revenge on his previous employer. Bond was constantly trying to stay one step ahead of this man. There was a constant give and take all the way through the film. However, what we’re treated to with Spectre, is a fabulous opening scene, followed by a malaise of philosophy on why you kill for twenty minutes with a grand action sequence that lasts five minutes. Not really enough to quench the thirst. I give the story a 6/10.
Characters 6/10
Daniel Craig is Bond. He’s firmly established that by now but he’s been heavily reduced to one-liners or even just one words. Everyone around him doesn’t seem to believe in themselves and its probably because the script focuses way too much on leading Bond in one way. One of the things that happens in the movie is Naomi Harris’s Moneypenny asks Bond why he thinks he can trust her and he replies with instinct. Well, if anyone can remember Skyfall, she also shot Bond and she was fret with grief from this. He could have at least rubbed a little salt in the wound and said something along the lines of You shot me. Dave Bautista’s Hinx is without a doubt one of the most memorable henchmen to come along since Jaws and I kept thinking how the brutal train fight scene almost reminisces Roger Moore’s Jaws train fight. This fight scene was on steroids though. And at last we get a very weak Christoph Waltz. I was hoping for a villian that Waltz provided from Water from Elephants but the script wouldn’t push him that far. Instead we get a villian that reflects just how passive information gathering scheme is. To tell you the truth, the movie would have been far much interesting if Hinx was the main bad guy and the story revolved around just saving a girl from being killed. Characters 6/10
Editing 9/10
The first shot is a long take that lasts about 5 minutes until we get the first cut. Right away I loved it. I felt cheated the rest of the movie after something like this. I kept on thinking through the rest of the movie how I wish this movie gave me a little more of a long take like that. Maybe set up another action sequence. If any Bond filmmakers read this review, the perfect bond movie could use a formula of long take setup, action sequence, exposition, long take setup, action sequence, exposition and so on. The long take sequence at the beginning instantly gives you a spy like feel, probably because the camera gives the audience the idea they are everywhere watching everything.
Music 4/10
The music is the most disappointing aspect of this movie. The song doesn’t bring anything new to the film. It sounds like the music from the first four Bond films. Maybe thats where they wanted to go but their were times in this movie where Bond would show up unexpectedly that just demanded the Bond theme and we didn’t get it.
Cinematography 9/10
Like the editing, the Broccoli producers have some of the best cinematographers in the world.
Sets 9/10
We go to some great places, blow up some cool buildings.
Overall 7/10
I enjoyed the film but felt it lacking. Alot of times I felt the movie could have added more, especially during the rome car chase.