New to On Demand: Spectre - Channel Guide Magazine

Spectre, the 24th entry in the official James Bond feature film franchise that has spanned over 50 years and counting, closes its end credits with the line familiar to fans over many years: “James Bond Will Return.” Normally, this would leave us with a sense of excitement and anticipation over what Bond’s next film adventure would be, but as I read this just before leaving the theater, after watching the fairly rote film before it, I just had a sense of weariness and even wondered whether James Bond should return.

The Bond films will go on, of course, if only for financial reasons. And star Daniel Craig even recently told Time Out London that if he continues in the lead role, it would only be for financial reasons himself. Craig, at least right now, clearly feels burned out (“I’d rather break [a] glass and slash my wrists” than play Bond again, he also told Time Out London), and I got the vibe from Spectre that the filmmakers themselves have gotten creatively burned out. If Spectre does prove to be Craig’s last appearance as James Bond, it is a very uneven sendoff.

Although helmed by Sam Mendes, who also directed the last Bond outing, the superior Skyfall, Spectre is a strange deviation in the Craig era of Bond films. The previous ones, even the pretty lousy Quantum of Solace, at least tried different things both stylistically and thematically, especially as related to Bond’s history and psychological makeup. Spectre does, ostensibly, try some of this as well, tying together all of the Craig Bond’s old foes (including Jesper Christensen’s Mr. White character, who plays a key role), old lovers and his old boss into a mystery involving the shadowy criminal organization that gives the film its title, and which ultimately seems to stem from a bitter sibling rivalry. Beyond this, though, the film also seems to want to finally, truly link itself to the other 007 films that came before it over the past few decades by giving us most of what we might expect from a Bond film.

This starts by featuring Craig’s first appearance in the iconic gun barrel opening, the first time this has been used to start a Craig Bond film. From there, we also have M (Ralph Fiennes), Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and Q (Ben Whishaw) well established (and all three get some nice fieldwork in here, as well); there is a hulking, nearly unstoppable henchman in the nearly completely silent Hinx (Dave Bautista), who recalls previous flunkies like Oddjob and Jaws but is not nearly as memorable; and we have Bond’s quips, which Craig seems to feel uncomfortable uttering. And honestly, the quips and some of the other Bond staples seen here, including some visual jokes, do feel out of sorts in a Craig film, especially given their relative scarcity in the previous three. For a little while, it does work in a kind of “what’s old is new again” sort of way, but after a while (a long while; the film is overlong at nearly two and a half hours), it begins to feel almost like a parody of a Bond film. It reminded me of how the Pierce Brosnan Bond films got near the end of his stint in the role.

Speaking of 007 staples, there are Bond girls in the film, of course, and the two featured here represent one step forward, and one step back. Bond’s first encounter is with Lucia (Monica Bellucci), the not-so-grieving widow of a man killed by 007. Although Bellucci is not onscreen for very long, she is memorable and does represent the oldest love interest for Bond (Bellucci, who filmed the role at age 50 and who is nearly four years older than Craig, prefers to be known as a “Bond woman” versus “Bond girl”). Later, Bond’s main love interest, Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux), tends to fall back into the standard Bond girl trope of looking great, usually needing rescuing by Bond (although she can handle herself with a gun when needed) and eventually succumbing to Bond’s charms despite initially despising him.

The film itself does look great, too. It has a cool, almost timeless look that makes it seem like you are simultaneously watching a ’60s film set in the modern era. This retro look and feel is clearly purposeful, even starting with SPECTRE itself. The group and its leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, have not been seen on the big screen, at least in the official franchise, since 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever (legal entanglements kept filmmakers from using the characters for decades). SPECTRE was Bond’s primary antagonist in the ’60s films, and Spectre nicely gives a callback to Thunderball in its depiction of the secret meeting the group has, detailing with a an accountant’s calm efficiency how their deadly enterprises have been enriching them, and with Blofeld (Christoph Waltz, who is a natural as a Bond villain, with an exterior calmness barely concealing the madness underneath) watching the proceedings from the shadows. There is also a fun reference to Donald Pleasence’s physical appearance as Blofeld in You Only Live Twice.

SPECTRE has moved on from the old days of holding the world to nuclear ransom. What they are up to now is perhaps more insidious — stockpiling information. Here, they are the secret backers behind a huge global surveillance system that would allow them access to intelligence gathered by the major world powers. In Bond’s case, he will literally have Big Brother watching him. The system is run, and being pushed to replace the British Secret Service, by Max Denbigh (Andrew Scott), whose allegiances are dubious, at best.

The surveillance system plot point, despite reminding me too much of what HYDRA was up to in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, gives the film the chance to touch on modern concerns like privacy, drone warfare and the like. Bond’s 00 branch is threatened with extinction given the new technology that can do his job, and it is argued by M that men in the field like Bond can bring emotion to the job that drones cannot — they have the license to kill, or not to kill, based on looking into a person’s eyes.

But ironically, that emotion is not necessarily found in Spectre, either in its action scenes or even its love scenes. Aside from a few highlights, like a striking opening chase and eventual fight in a helicopter over Mexico City during the Day of the Dead celebration, and a nighttime car chase through the streets of Rome, the action scenes are fairly lackluster. Craig and Bellucci have good chemistry in their love scene, but when Craig and Seydoux eventually get together, it feels almost perfunctory.

Spectre’s theme song, Sam Smith’s unmemorable “Writing’s on the Wall” (I truly believe Smith’s claim that he wrote the song in only 20 minutes), along with having something to say about the film, might also have something to say about the franchise itself. Watching this film, while entertained at times, I saw the writing on the wall that, just as number-crunchers in the Bond universe may think the 00 branch is obsolete, the Bond film franchise itself may be going the way of the dinosaur, unless another unique reboot — like the fantastic Casino Royale that launched the Craig era — can be brought about.

Spectre is available beginning Feb. 9 on Video On Demand. Check your cable system for availability.