James Bond: Spectre review

(No spoilers were harmed in the making of this review)

I’m just going to clear it up now – I didn’t think Skyfall was all that good. I liked the bits of humour that were thrown in, and some of the action scenes were pretty cool, but on a whole it was too drawn out. And don’t get me started on the Home Alone BS at the end.

Spectre is in a similar vein, but less ridiculous. The humour is present and genuinely brought some giggles to the theatre and while the action is a little on the overdrive side, it’s ultimately entertaining. There are some good characters outside of Bond, and then there are some convenient characters to get things moving. And then bits where you really have to remember it’s a film and it needs to be taken as such. 

Suspend that disbelief of yours.

Without ruining it for those of you out there who haven't seen it, Spectre does what Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises did – it ties up loose ends. The plots of Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall are integral to Spectre. The story is not as contrived as Skyfall though, and the evil scheme of the villain is not as meticulous as knowing you’d be running from Bond in the Underground and setting an explosive on a particular wall to try and hit him with a conveniently timed train. I know the Underground is fairly regular, but really?

Spectre is a continuation on the idea that surveillance is of great power, but one that should not be relied on over the advice of people in the thick of it. We’ve been seeing this metaphor in films a lot lately, which is funny considering the likes of Theresa May and her cronies are all pushing for greater surveillance powers – seems we haven’t got the message yet. Maybe next time...

Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, and Ben Whishaw reprise their roles as M, Moneypenny, and Q respectively, being of importance to the plot and helping to keep things moving. Bond can’t do all the work, can he? Much was stated on the ‘forward thinking’ of bringing a woman closer to Bond’s age in as a love interest, but Monica Bellucci’s screen time is all too brief, and is literally used to move Bond from her house (bed) to a location that he needs to find. Missed opportunities, but at least we’re getting a little bit of a break in the norm there. Léa Seydoux’s introduction is pretty sudden, and at first we see a strong bad-ass woman who don’t take no crap from nobody (thanks, Cool Runnings!) but she unfortunately does fall into a bit of the stereotypical Bond girl towards the end.

Speaking of which, this Bond is quite long. Clocking in at two hours and twenty-eight minutes, it’s actually the longest of all the Bond’s, beating Casino Royale by four minutes. On the plus side, you don’t notice the time. The film has enough action to keep you occupied and not wondering how long until you can finally get to the loo. A stand-out is the particularly great chase scene about halfway, which is very different for a Bond film, as there is no shooting - just great driving.

As for the suspension of disbelief, there are a few moments where you’ll be asking yourself, “Ummm, why is no one concerned about that?” A particular scene that springs to mind (no spoilers, promise) is where Bond and the main henchman are in a fight. It’s a crowded location, with other people and staff members around in a situation where it’s hard to get away. The fight happens, and a lot of stuff is broken. After said fight, things seem to just carry on as normal. No questions, no concerns about so much damage, nothing. There are quite a few more, but I’ll leave them for you to sit there and say, “wait, what?”

On to the more technical things, this is a solidly shot and edited Bond film. The lighting and tone of the scenes are spot on, with no jolting cuts or obvious hacks to make a scene work in post production. The visual effects are of the high quality we’ve come to expect (not to be a dick, but Skyfall’s Komodo Dragon? Who let that through?) and the sound is well balanced, with the action scenes and dialogue not being drowned out by the music. And the music itself is classic Bond.

Except that horrid Sam Smith song. That was awful.

All in all, this Bond film is at its core a Bond film – The man is still a misogynistic alcoholic who has trust issues and a massive chip on his shoulder, and women still throw themselves at him, but I doubt we’re going to be seeing any progressive steps to move away from a tried and true model. At least, not yet. But it is also an entertaining and easy to watch film, and a good addition to the Bond line-up. Should you watch it? Yes. Should you see it at the cinema? That depends on how much you like Bond, I guess. Though I will say, it's best to find a reason not to be in the room during the Sam Smith intro song. Honestly, you're not missing anything.