Spectre came out in theatres in November 2015, when I was just barely into this project of reading all the Bond novels and watching their accompanying films; at the time, I had just made it up to book #3, Moonraker, and hadn't even watched the film of it yet. So my primary Bond reference point when I saw it was the three previous Daniel Craig films, each of which I'd seen in theatres as they came out, as they were the only Bond films I'd seen for over a decade. I remember not liking Spectre, finding it goofy and somewhat contrived.
But this time watching Spectre, my context isn't three gritty films featuring Daniel Craig, but the past five years of working my way through the entire Bond canon. Goofy and contrived? Even the good James Bond movies are usually goofy and contrived. I remember, for example, not being a fan of the car chase in Rome, but this time I enjoyed it, down to the bits where Bond gets stuck behind an old Italian man's tiny car, and where he lands in the middle of the street and casually discards his parachute. Those parts don't really mesh with the tone of Casino Royale, but they wouldn't be out of place in For Your Eyes Only or You Only Live Twice.
Indeed, there's clearly an attempt to "do a Bond film" here, with lots of familiar set pieces: a street festival foot chase, a car chase in a city environment, a downhill snow chase (no skis, alas), a train fight, a stay in the villain's lair where he acts the host. You can see echoes of many other films. But they're usually lively: I really like the opening shots in Mexico City, for example, and I've already mentioned the Rome chase. The snow chase had some great moments (Bond just resignedly crashing his de-winged plane into a barn); I didn't find the train fight very strong, though.
 |
| That said, the Mexico sequence I remember as being a little more effective. Maybe it works better with the drums surrounding you in theatrical sound, and with you not distracted by folding your laundry? |
The weakness of the film comes when it lurches away from the spy formula into the superhero formula. On original viewing, the way Bond's "team" (M, Q, Moneypenny, and Bill Tanner) acts as back-up during the final battle didn't sit well with me; it feels like something out of, say, Thor 2 or Man of Steel. This time that didn't bother me, but the decision to link Bond's history with Blofeld's is awful. Bond (in both his prose and Daniel Craig version) is a spy, a blunt instrument, a man who would have self-destructed if he hadn't found a way to channel his tendencies, and who is very good at what he does. To make him special, into a person who just happens to be linked to the leader of the planet's greatest crime syndicate... that's not Bond, that's Batman.
The other thing I remember hating in theatres was the second climax-- after Bond's escape from Blofeld's lair, he returns to London and his team deactivates the creation of a new international surveillance system that is going to be hijacked by Spectre. There's a big countdown and stuff, but it all feels contrived: surely if Q shut it down a couple hours after it was turned on, everything would be fine. It feels like a tacked on attempt to raise the stakes... but it was fine. As tacked-on attempts at global jeopardy go in Bond films, you could do a lot worse.
Sam Mendes's visuals are great, too. I like how big he makes places look. The scene where Bond boats into the Alps, for example, is really striking.
So I wouldn't place this as a top-tier Bond film, but it's a good mid-tier one with moments of depth. 2015 Steve, you were far too harsh on it. Its new context made it work much better.
- In my sequence, this is the first appearance of Ben Whishaw's Q, Naomie Harris's Moneypenny, and Ralph Fiennes's M. Harris doesn't make a huge impression (though she gets two very good scenes) and M's role I don't care much for, but Whishaw nails it as his version of Q. I love the bit where he delivers a put-down that as written is like one Desmond Llewelyn's Q would make, but here it's an awkward flop of a joke, and all the funnier for it.
- My memory was that the part where Daniel Craig seduces Monica Bellucci was one of the most convincing seductions in Bond, but my wife told me I was wrong.
- Dropping this one in at this point in the sequence was definitely confusing to my wife, who has only seen the Bond films we have watched together. There are lots of callbacks to Quantum of Solace and Skyfall, two films she hasn't seen. I tried to explain them to her without spoiling those films.
- I thought it was weird that the film kept acting like MI6's headquarters (a real building just built in the 1990s) was this old, decrepit wreck in need of demolition... but when I checked Wikipedia after watching the film, it turned out that I forgot it was destroyed in Skyfall. It'll be a while before I get to that one. (I'm go to watch all the non-book Bond films in release order once I've made it through all the books.)
No comments:
Post a Comment