Spectre – Film Review – V2.0 by C.K. MacNamara

Director: Sam Mendes

Starring: Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Léa Seydoux, Ralph Fiennes, Naomi Harris, Ben Whishaw, Andrew Scott, Dave Bautista, Monica Bellucci

Preceded by the trumpeting calls of frothing marketing hype comes Spectre; the biggest, longest and most expensive Bond entry to the eternal franchise.

Helmed by returnee Director Sam Mendes, the latest chapter takes an editor’s machete to the glut of its franchise predecessors, keeping the bulk of what works and ridding itself of the epileptic go-nowhere busyness that felled Quantum of Solace. Instead the film takes a slower approach, favouring long tracking shots and the drawn out action of Hoyte Van Hoytema’s teeth crunching choreography. The result is a quintessential entry steeped in its 60’s heritage with enough originality to stand on its own merits, even if a few of the familiar flaws creep in.

This time around the collector of disposable femme fatales finds himself in Mexico taking in the sights and skulls of Day of the Dead, before levelling it in a high stakes sequence of helicopter rodeo. The higher-ups back in London take an understandably poor view of this international snafu, grounding Bond with an injection of location tracking nanomachines, and suspending the MI6. Undeterred by this mild inconvenience, he nevertheless embarks on a globetrotting extravaganza in search of his newly dubbed nemesis Franz Oberhauser and his cadre of evildoers evilling away in shadowy boardrooms, collectively titled Spectre.

The otherwise generic narrative is complimented by the film’s subplots, as MI6 does battle to keep the 00 agent programme relevant in the face of encroaching dominance from the worlds ‘conventional’ spy agencies – what’s one man with a gun compared with massive data mining operations and unmanned drones? (and let’s all pretend Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation did not already do this plot).

But all the dark narrative teasing and Freudian flossing in the world can’t hide the lethargy of Craig’s performance, especially in contrast to Chirstof Waltz’s all too short portrayal of the Austin Powers villain Oberhauser, a man who knows the value of a cat and a death machine. This central flaw is compounded by the films’ trimmings, from the second act token romance that grinds the pacing to a screeching inertia, to the banshee wail of Sam Smith’s theme song.

What we have then is a more cautious, deliberate iteration of the staple spy story, and whilst obviously not living up to its hype, Spectre presents an appropriately low key finale to Daniel Craig’s time in the role, a role he has clearly come to despise regardless of his contractual obligations for a fifth entry.