"It's called life James, you should try it sometime"
- Moneypenny
With Spectre being the 24th James Bond film, and the 4th to feature Daniel Craig. There was certainly a lot of expectations after the immense success of Skyfall. While it falters in some regards, it's still one of Bond's best and ties the Craig era together rather well.
**FULL SPOILERS FOLLOW**
I remember being fully blown away by Skyfall and liked the way it handled series nostalgia and new elements to create something new and sticking to the heritage. In that sense Spectre works in a similar fashion, the organization SPECTRE has been around since the series debut with Dr. No but obviously the films back then portrayed the organization is simply being 'Evil'. There wasn't much attached to the organization outside of some Cold War-era distrust.
SPECTRE and their leader, Blofeld (Yes, Waltz is Blofeld) get the Skyfall treatment. They are still an evil organization but they're modernized, and their reasons for making Bond and MI6's lives so difficult is a personal one. While there's still the old 'taking over the world' schtick; it feels more revitalized by giving Blofeld and SPECTRE more reasons to distaste Bond and MI6. I kept thinking, after the Austin Power films made fun of Blofeld with Dr. Evil, they couldn't do him the same way again.
The action set-pieces are as alwaus, top-class. I always enjoy Bond for the action, but once again as was the case with the last three films; most of the action is achieved with physical effects and it shows. Thank goodness there's no makeshift Para Surfing segment here.
While action is one notable part of the franchise, there's also the Bond girls. Both Monica Belushi and Lea Seydoux do great jobs. I wish Monica Belushi had more screen time. The promotional materials seemed to giver her more of a prescense in this film than what was provided. Lea turns in a good performance as Mr. White's daughter. My issue with her comes down to the writing, she denies Bond at first and then days later accepts his advances. While I understand this is a uninstentional staple of Bond, it feels that for all the modernizing, they could've written a better romance subplot.
Aside from the women, there are a lot of other supporting characters. Mr. White makes a return after his absence in Skyfall and Dave Bautista joins as Mr. Hinx. While I was satisfied with Hinx, I would've preferred some sort of angle to him. Something that seperated him apart from the other henchman. He did do a good job of impersonating The Mountain killing Oberyn.
My problem with the film stems from Craig himself. While I enjoy the shot-in-the-arm that the actor has provided the series; he hasn't quite evolved in a way that I'd expect. Throughout the four films he is still the troubled soul, and that works until tou realize that eventually he should become fixed, he should overcome his issues to become the man he ought to be. While I always appreciated the darker, grittier Bond; I also respected a Bond who had his demons, overcame them, and proceeded with not only his job, but his life. Craig's Bond has proceeded with his job but not his life. He plays bond conctantly as the broken man and it's starting to wear thin.
The good news here is that this series places Blofeld as the mastermind behind Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall; so this four film arc is basically wrapped up. I hope that with the 25th film, IF Craig comes back, we get a more basic Bond who has a job, a villain, and a girl -- not the other baggage.
I think the best way to summarize is that when the film is an action film you see the best version of THAT James Bond. When you introduce characterization, romance, and other more personal elements it feels awkward; and not in a good way. This Bond knows how to shoot and kill, but can't lay a girl or give himself a proper story. Some will say that Bond movies aren't about these things but I disagree. To a certain extent, Bond needs to be just as much a social beast as he needs to be a mass-murderer and not having that balance is what throws me off from Craigs performance and this film.
100,000 Uncle Joeys out of 1,000,000