Don Malvasi
Rampant plot shortcuts, large stretches of filler, and a Daniel Craig so laid back this time out he actually seems anesthetized–all add up to a dry-martini-sipping James Bond caught in a movie that’s mostly all wet.
The Bond franchise made strides toward reclaiming the high standing of the Sean Connery era with the advent of Daniel Craig as the newest Agent007 in Casino Royale. Three films later in Craig’s presumptive final go, the result is largely an overblown two hours, 20 minutes with only intermittent excitement and thrills far more predominately displayed in Craig’s first film as Bond and in the prior Skyfall.
With the daunting Spectre organization up his ass once again, Bond goes after a nemesis, Oberhauser(Christopher Waltz on autopilot), who may have a personal tie to Bond. The uncovering of this riveting information, rather than reach its dramatic potential, is treated more like an insignificant subplot that has little impact on Bond or anyone else. Ralph Fiennes is along as the new M. Together he and Bond fight against Spectre’s newly found ability to place surveillance on anyone at anytime. The film carefully avoids chastising any particular government as the peeping tom, preferring to safely portray its villains as private citizens. M’s new boss C also wishes to replace 00 agents with drones.
There’s a dilly of a scene where Bond puts the make on the widow (Monica Bellucci) of a Mafia hitman he just killed. That he does so at her husband’s funeral is engrossingly preposterous. Spectre is also the type of film where both Waltz and heavy Dave Bautista die multiple times only to somehow come to life again. Waltz also seems capable of showing up anywhere at anytime with little explanation.
If it wasn’t for Craig, who despite seeming half asleep, does his best to try to save the movie from completely going up the Genre Action Film fork in the road, and for the talented and beautiful French actress Lea Seydoux, we’d probably be talking total bomb here. The film pays ho-hum homage to previous installments on the Bond franchise. So unless you’re a forgiving Bond geek, you may as well wait for the home version. That way you can watch the riveting opening sequence, shot in one long take during a Day of the Dead celebration in Mexico City, and skip the rest (although you’d miss Seydoux).
What’s next for Bond movies? Unless Craig re-ups, they may as well sign on Liam Neeson. He’s a little old for the role but after Spectre, the Craig era has unfortunately become old-hat.
