'Spectre' by Sam Mendes Review: It could have been better

When I was just entering my teens, I would stay up late at night on a Friday and catch the films that would air on television. I had access to four channels and have to constantly move around the aerial in order to find the perfect spot to catch the signal. Often enough, during the night the BBC would air the older James Bond films. This become almost a tradition for me to catch these films, watching them from my small, boxed television that was in my room. For many, I'm sure they'd say there's only one real James Bond to them. As the many actors and ways they told the stories came and went with time. Each one offering something different to the franchise. To ask someone who James Bond is to them is like asking a person their favourite type of food: everyone has a different reason for their answer.

Growing up and watching these films late at night, James Bond was never a specific actor to me. The character didn't mean anything specific other than a symbol of the rare British blockbuster. A symbol of British tradition and the supposed classy nature of British culture. Though as the years went on, and the franchise died off, only to get its reboot featuring Daniel Craig, it certainly took on a different appeal. Trying to modernise and appeal to the new era of film and the audiences that attend the cinema. Moving on from the more British tropes and instead focusing on reaching the widest possible demographic. This was Bond for the new era, much of the same things as before, but very much many things new. These newer entries have been the ones that appeal to me the least, having lost me rather early on, void of the typical soul that was found with the more cartoonish elements of the original runs.

Though yesterday I decided to watch Spectre, in attempt to catch up with the Daniel Craig era of James Bond and see how it ended up. I had seen a lot of controversy over who would replace him, as well as how James Bond should be seen in the era of insanity in which all things masculine are targeted and shut down. Naturally this sets the character up for failure. My hopes were low, though I think this film came out just in time to have survived that insanity; something I'm sure the more recent film did not.

Spectre

A large problem of the modern James Bond films is their dependence on a very established structure in terms of the narrative. A structure that seems incredibly overdone and uninteresting, ultimately very much expected. James Bond is found in some random location, a bit of a fight takes place, he's threatened back in London for the dangerous actions and neglect. Following this he goes through his friends that handle the gadgets and we see the many told that 007 is to surround himself with later on in the film, as various events call for their use. Sprinkle in some women and moments of explosions and you've got yourself a relatively simple film. Other films have since followed and relied on a similar structure: John Wick and The Fast & Furious films come to mind. Though the Bond films seem to never really attempt to increase the stakes, instead relying more on the relatively tame villains and agenda their have to hold things together. The older films had their fair share of reliance on the structure and action, but had a very cartoonish manner of showing the villains. I can't say I've seen that so far with these newer entries.

And Spectre shows an aging James Bond, one that is witnessing the change of an era himself. A world where he is no longer needed as countries push into the very dystopian and technologically advanced methods of mass surveillance. The film takes place at the very cusp of this change as various organisations attempt to take control of the power and shift in narrative, gaining power over all by causing various acts of terrorism around the world, encouraging nations to accept these organisations in. While the aging James Bond now witnessing the changes of technology and having to come to terms with his own mortality, and career coming to an end on borrowed time is an interesting idea, much of the film focuses instead on the organisations, somewhat not making full sense and being a beat weak. I did like the idea that James Bond would be discovering that there is a life beyond the spy life, and that it might be a genuine option to pursue going forward as his abilities decrease with age, as do his requirements from the government. And the film does explore this slightly over the film with the romance option that appears. 007 sees the conflicting realisation that there is a world in which he can be happy, but the chaotic, always travelling action and spy life is something that seems engraved within, that he can't seem to escape. Almost longing for.

That said, given this is a more franchised film and one coming up to the conclusion of this era of James Bond, it felt a bit thin. Most likely as it serves as the setup for the actual sending off for the character. This means the narrative itself isn't anything major as well, instead thrown together to give justification for the film to existence and be that bridge to the end. What doesn't help the film is that it suffers at the hands of the blockbuster runtime. Over two hours in length and certainly lingering on for far too long, when much of the film just isn't that necessary. Around the halfway mark I had this assumption that it would be coming to an end soon, expecting the conclusion; but I noticed it was in fact that halfway mark with somehow over an hour left of story to push. It did bore me a little as it continued on, just roaming back and forth between these already established ideas without really doing much more with them. I wouldn't say it was bad, but just a bit boring.

This is mostly due to the fact that the most intense action sequence takes place at the start of the film, and the rest sort of waddles on attempting to tell the story of the spectre organisation and while showing James Bond a glimpse at love. There are other action sequences of course throughout, but are mostly through vehicles and don't have a lot of choreography that makes them interesting. The same applies to the directing and cinematography. Though the lighting in the film is pretty, often low light, quite soft and with plenty of shadows. But it just isn't that interesting. Very typical of blockbuster films that make sure things are visually pleasing, but don't go beyond with the camera movements given the film aims to please the widest possible demographic. Again much of this is also due to the fact that this film serves as the bridge that leads to the conclusion of the Daniel Craig era of 007, and the film just has no reason to be anything more than that.

Though sprinkled throughout is some of the James Bond appeal. The music around certain scenes. Moments of action and slight comedy as Bond pulls off some intense movement that seems a bit farfetched. But that's about it, unfortunately. I wouldn't say the film was bad, I still managed to enjoy it, just that it didn't feel all that inspired. For me, the main appeal was actually the performance by Ralph Fiennes. But ultimately, if anything, all it did was make me want to watch the older films, given it has been a very long time since I last did!

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