“Spectre” gives James Bond fans the long-awaited reunion of the classic super spy with his arch nemesis, the evil organization S.P.E.C.T.R.E. and, while highly-polished, does so in such a slow and tedious way to build to a comic-book climax that it really puts the “Uh-oh” in 007.
After 53 years of the James Bond film franchise, the expectations for any Bond film fan are pretty standard: gadgets, girls, guns, exotic locales, spectacular stunts, and an eccentrically extravagant villain hell-bent on world domination. Over the years, particularly in the mid-‘80s, the ideas and storylines in writer Ian Fleming’s original Bond novels had become exhausted and tiredly combined and copied to produce more Bond films- wasn’t 1985’s “A View to A Kill” just a pale copy of 1964’s “Goldfinger”? So, it was a relief when the Broccoli family, producers of the Bond films, decided to go back to basics and revitalize the franchise in 2006 with their adaptation of Fleming’s first Bond novel “Casino Royale.” The success of the film version of “Royale” was not only in its classic story, the Broccolis made a point of giving the film’s action a more “modern and up-to-date” feel (influenced by the Matt Damon/Jason Bourne films) and gave audiences an actor who conveyed all of the toughness, resilience, and ruthlessness of the literary Bond character in their casting of Daniel Craig.
With Craig firmly in place, the journey back to classic Bond has taken almost 10 years- and it’s been a bumpy ride. At the end of “Royale,” Bond tracks down a character called Mr. White (Jesper Christensen) who leads Bond to uncover a mysterious terrorist syndicate called Quantum, out to exploit the natural resources of oil and water for their own nefarious gain, in 2008’s “Quantum of Solace.” Proving once and for all that oil and water don’t mix, the film “Quantum” was a laborious exercise but did hold the promise for Bond fans that Quantum could be the next incarnation of S.P.E.C.T.R.E, the organization whose plots and plans were always in direct confrontation with Bond’s missions. By the end of 2012’s “Skyfall,” we saw the return of classic Bond staples in Moneypenny and Bond’s beloved Aston Martin. Could that bald, badly-scarred white cat-loving leader of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Ernst Stavro Blofeld be far behind?
The promise of “Skyfall” is the pain of “Spectre.” In getting back to the classic elements of Bond, “Spectre” plays out a thinly-scripted origin story to return Bond to the clasping tentacles of the titled octopus-logoed organization. Barring a great opening sequence featuring a hand-to-hand combat fight within the confines of an airborne helicopter hovering over thousands of revelers during Mexico City’s Day of the Dead festival, the stunts in “Spectre” are less than spectacular, the locales less than exotic, and the gadgets and girls lacking. However, a villain does emerge, Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz), with designs on controlling global communications as does the slippery crime syndicate he works for- SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion- acronymed S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
As “Spectre” begins, James Bond (Craig) has gone rogue given a post-mortem pre-taped plea from former chief M (Judi Dench) to kill a man called Sciarra (Alessandro Cremona) and attend Sciarra’s funeral to identify his associates. Bond tangles with Sciarra in the aforementioned Mexico City sequence and finds Sciarra wears a silver ring with an engraved octopus logo that Bond knows all too well- it’s S.P.E.C.T.R.E.. Securing the ring and returning to MI6, Bond is grounded for going rogue by the current M (Ralph Fiennes) and visits Q branch to have Q (Ben Whishaw) examine the ring while admiring Q’s latest car, a silver Aston Martin DB10 whose exhaust can shoot flames just like the Batmobile. Upon Q’s examination of the ring, he finds DNA samples that link it to a plethora of people, including “Casino Royale’s” Vesper Lynd, “Skyfall” baddie Silva and Mr. White himself (and you thought toilet seats were dirty). Bond, with Q’s help, locates Mr. White, goes rogue once again via the new Aston Martin and follows the contacts that will lead him into S.P.E.C.T.R.E.’s secret sanctuary.
The weakness of “Spectre” is that as an origin story to reintroduce S.P.E.C.T.R.E to a new generation, it serves up too many reminders of previous Bond films (“easter eggs”) to placate older viewers. When Bond reaches S.P.E.C.T.R.E.’s sanctuary, it resembles the volcano lair in 1967’s “You Only Live Twice.” Getting there via a duplicate of Goldfinger’s Rolls-Royce Phantom III, Bond is greeted by Oberhauser, whose fashion sense is copied directly from Dr. No. By repeating Bond references, “Spectre” mistakenly becomes cartoonish and lacks the hallmarks of what made Bond movies independently fun films. Its stunts suspend disbelief to become cartoonish (wingless planes tobogganing down Austrian snow-covered slopes) and gives “Spectre “ a comic-book feel that reduces the film’s climax to Bond, M, and the leader of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. being interchangeable for Batman, Commissioner Gordon, and the Joker.
While director Sam Mendes and Daniel Craig have all the style and swagger James Bond demands, “Spectre” sinks in its comic-book origin storyline. Though the characters are similar, Bond is not Batman.