Spectre Review: Return to Classic Bond?

If you track the Bond movies over the years you can see some distinct patterns. The hard edged but not too serious Connery era which really set the tone for pretty much everything to come. Next came the Moore era (which lasted too long for what it was) which is now know as possibly the lowest point in the franchise for many people, with the possible exception of Die another Day.
Next came Timothy Dalton who really reset the franchise to what it should be. The same thing Daniel Craig would do but way before its time.
Its sad to say then that after watching Spectre that it has a distinct and now unpleasant whiff of Roger Moore.



What I mean by this is that there are constant visual gags that would not be out of place in say, The Spy Who Loved Me. Not things we are used to seeing sharing the same screen as our hard edged Bond for the modern world.
Bond himself is almost a different character at points as well with none of the killer instinct and brutality we saw in the previous 3 films and its not a believable transition for the character as his films are supposed to be linked.

Then the other side of the movie kicks in.
The super serious side that wants to think it's way more important of a movie than it actually is. This in essence is why Spectre does not work, the campy half does not mesh with the modern serious side at all and makes for a very jagged structure in which you never know if you are supposed to be laughing or gritting your teeth.

After Skyfall having a film of such mediocrity is extremity frustrating, especially because throughout specks of excellent keep showing only to get over shadowed by something else.
Ben Whishaw is one of these specks, he brings and energy to the role of Q that hasn't been seen before, building very nicely on the character that we saw in Skyfall. I would love to see him continue in the franchise throughout multiple Bond's as he really is scene stealing.

The rest of the MI6 team don't fair so well, they do admirably in their respective parts (Ralph Fiennes as M, Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner and Naomi Harris as Moneypenny) but the presence of Judi Dench is still felt and they can't ever quite live up to that.


The script at points is also really excellent, the quips work well (mostly) and the banter is some of the best we've seen since Connery. It's just not enough to keep the lifeless plot chugging along.
Its basically boils down to a lot of contrived reasons for Bond to go from country to country and it never feels like its progressing naturally.  It also reuses a tonne of things from other (better) Bond films to the point where its just feels like Sam Mendes tried to put as many tropes in as he can.

On such trope that is never unwelcome in a Bond movie however is a car chase, sadly in Spectre they use the rather un-thrilling chase to dish out exposition instead of making it a compelling sequence which was a real shame.
As for the other action scenes, most fall flat with not much choreography and little thrills. However there was an admirable, yet very one note, opening sequence (it does have an absolutely beautiful opening shot however) and a very excellent train fist fight with Henchman Mr Hinx (Dave Bautista) who is very under utilized. This is a shame as the other villains aren't particularly compelling.
Christoph Waltz does admirably with the little he is given to work with but never quite pulls it off as well as he should have been able to and Andrew Scott as C was just quite bland.


 
Overall I don't think Spectre can be called a bad film, just the sum of its parts doesn't equal a particularly good one either, which after Skyfall really just isn't good enough.

Thanks for reading my Spectre review, let me know in the comments if you're planning to see it or have already, would love to hear you'r opinion.

Thanks

-Joe