There is a sequence near the end of the 24th official James Bond cinematic outing in which 007 flees the imploding remains of the MI6 headquarters (bombed beyond use in the last Bond film SKYFALL) in a speedboat with a beautiful woman whom he’s just rescued at his side. In his fourth time as the character, Daniel Craig in this moment is literally riding from the ashes of the old way of spying, toward the new way of intelligence gathering (it sounds less criminal when you put it that way). This new guard is embodied in a the new MI5 building being erected across the Thames River, an organization now being overseen by new head of the Centre of National Security Max Denbigh (Andrew Scott), also known as “C,” who believes the old ways—in particular, the double-0 program—are done and that information collection should be a more transparent process and that MI5 and MI6 should be combined and shares resources and office space.
So we know immediately that James Bond will be spending the entirely of the new film SPECTRE not just attempting to find the organization and its shadowy leader that have been plaguing him for the previous three movies, but also justifying his very existence. There’s nothing like a little job insecurity to light a fire under a person’s ass.
After yet another stellar opening sequence set during Mexico City’s Day of the Dead celebration, involving buildings falling, a foot chase, gun play, and a barrel-rolling helicopter stunt, Bond manages to pull a ring off the finger of his now-dead target. The evidence leads to the discovery that the many villains of CASINO ROYALE, QUANTUM OF SOLACE, and SKYFALL (also directed by SPECTRE helmer Sam Mendes), as well as the death of loved ones during those missions, have all been the result of one shadow organization known as SPECTRE, led by a man named Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz), who has ties to Bond that are so deep, they help explain the rather personal nature of the pain being inflicted on James in recent missions. And that’s as much as I’ll say about that.
After enlisting the daughter of Bond’s most nagging pain in the ass nemesis of late, Mister White (Jesper Christensen), he embarks on an off-the-books mission to shut down SPECTRE and end Oberhauser’s reign of terror for good. The daughter is Dr. Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux of BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE–GHOST PROTOCOL), and she’s a worthy match for Bond both intellectually and aesthetically, although she wants nothing to do with him physically, which makes for a nice change…for a while.
Although MI6 is effectively shutdown, that doesn’t stop its remaining personnel from assisting Bond under the table, hopefully away from C’s prying eyes. Not surprisingly, Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and Q (Ben Whishaw) are more than willing to sidestep protocol to syphon information to Bond and keep him hidden. There are even points where the new M (Ralph Fiennes) and his right-hand, Tanner (Rory Kinnear), lend a hand.
At this point, I should add a note about casting in SPECTRE. Bringing Waltz in to play this character (and let’s just say, we find out Oberhauser has a new name now from when Bond originally knew him) is a bit on the nose. Granted, the film never tries to pass him off as anything other than the bad guy, but there’s so little variation between what Waltz did in, say, THE GREEN HORNET, and his role in SPECTRE, it’s a little disappointing that the casting director didn’t have more imagination in selecting the actor to play the dominating negative force in Bond’s life of late. More to the point, when you select the actor who plays Moriarty in “Sherlock Holmes” to play a major role in a James Bond movie, that doesn’t exactly steer suspicion away from him as a potential turncoat. The fact that C and Oberhauser are essentially spouting interchangeable dialogue about world security and global surveillance is also a dead giveaway about alliances and such. At least give us a few surprises in your two-and-a-half-hour running time.
And speaking of surprises, the big reveal of the link between Bond and Oberhauser is so unforgivably dull that it lands in the story with a resounding lack of even a thud in terms of significance. We already know they have a history, so when the specifics are revealed, they mean absolutely nothing. And dragging out these details until close to the end of the film…well, I used the word “dragging” intentionally.
I was a bit stunned to see four names listed as screenwriters for SPECTRE (John Logan, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Jez Butterworth) since so much of the plot relies on the previous three films, to the point where photos of actors like Mads Mikkelsen, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Eva Green, and Mathieu Amalric appear throughout the film, often several times to remind us that everything is connected. I’m pretty sure Mikkelsen has more screen time than the all-too-brief, much-touted appearance of age-equivalent Monica Bullucci, popping up early on as the sexy widow of Bond’s first kill of the film; she’s so distraught over her husband’s death that she sleeps with his assassin. Throughout the film, there is a constant string of clues that never stop refreshing our memory that SPECTRE has been behind all of the major chaos in the world of late, and has also taken a personal interest in made James Bond sad. Animals!
The film perks up considerably every time GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY star Dave Bautista shows us as the essentially mute assassin Hinx, working for SPECTRE to eliminate Bond. Lord know, he gives it a better shot than most in this film, which never really convinced me outside of the Hinx scenes that Bond’s life was in any real danger. Speaking of which, I was confused why Oberhauser spent the majority of the epic running time trying to have Bond killed, only to resort to torturing him by poking needles in his brain once he actually had him in his clutches, making it absolutely clear that he did not want him dead. Consistency is so overrated.
Yes, the action sequences are second to none, but that’s to be expected in a James Bond film, not that that’s any reason to discount them. They are grand in scale, suitably dangerous looking, and a hoot to watch. But these films depend on strongly written characters and a clever plot toward world domination, and SPECTRE has neither. When I say strongly written characters, I don’t mean they need to have reams of backstory and motivation; I just want them to be interesting and evil in a somewhat clever manner. Oberhauser is a cookie-cutter baddie. Without giving away the whole package, I understand that the character has a template in the Bond canon, but the Craig films have done such a strong job of subverting and bringing certain staples of these films into the modern world, I thought they might succeed in doing so with Waltz’s character as well.
If all you care about is destruction, Aston-Martins and pretty ladies, then your standards have been ground down to a nub, and you’ll be in heaven watching SPECTRE. But if the recent Bond entries have raised you expectations a bit, I don’t see how you can be anything but disappointed. The performances and directing are are still solid, so this is far from the complete failure. But the committee-style screenwriting team has a lot to answer for.
