Who’s Watching : A Review of Spectre

Confession: I have never actually stayed awake for an entire James Bond film. Evidence:
A friend was playing one of the films (the one with nuclear weapons?) and I fell asleep at their house.
I went to see Die Another Day in a theatre with Dolby. I sat right next to one of the really loud speakers, and fell asleep within minutes. I was the only one in my group to do so, and got a lot of heat for it later. I bought the dvd to save face once it came out, but proceeded to fall asleep when watching the dvd.
I saw Skyfall with friends after a wedding when it came out–only to fall asleep within moments of it starting as well. I bought the digital copy Amazon sold, but never caught the whole movie.

Now, give me Goldeneye on an old gaming console, and I can be awake for hours–there just seems to be something about the film, itself. Also, if I have popcorn, I can usually stay awake in the theatre, but that’s another story.

When I heard all of the hubbub about this possibly being Daniel Craig’s last foray as 007 (and the possibility that this was going to Idris Elba, which is now confirmed as not true), I definitely wanted to see it. Especially when the trailers were so haunting. I love Christoph Waltz as the villain (okay, in Quentin Tarantino movies, he can be a villain OR a good guy)–he plays the psychological aspects that it would take to be a succesful villain so well, with measured speeches, and a good ‘villain’ accent.

Spectre starts during a Dia De Los Muertos celebration in Mexico, wherein James Bond is trying to track down a man who intends to bomb a soccer coliseum later in the day. Before Bond kills the man, he hears (through sophisticated spy gear, of course) about a man and a greater organization he needs to track down. The problem is that 007 is taking matters into his own hands, as MI6 grounds him. Since the death of the previous M, a global initiative to take terrorism seriously is threatening MI6 with the retirement of the 00 program and merging MI6 with MI5, along with a lot more global surveillance. However, Bond has to visit old enemies and make new friends in order to infiltrate and take down the organization, SPECTRE, at the helm of the terrorist attacks. But, as SPECTRE is watching his every move, will James be able to truly accomplish this on his own?

Daniel Craig is a believable James Bond, and Christoph Waltz a believable foe–closer to James than he may realize. I also liked the interplay between the people at MI6. Moneypenny is really cool, and she proves it again in this film, as does Q. The new M (played by Ralph Finnes, Voldemort extraordinaire) is well-balanced and definitely sticks to his guns, despite what you might think. This is a movie where the heroes are turned up to be villains and the villains are turned up to be heroes as different points in time.

There was one point of confusion involving a deerheart persian, but I like to think that the persian was okay. Also, the locations were very similar to some of the recent Mission Impossible movies, so I think there may be a scout who worked on both.

It kept my interest, from the tones of the Sam Smith theme song all the way to the end credits. This was the first Bond movie I stayed awake for. There was popcorn involved. And there were a lot of laughs, which I did not anticipate. My husband and I were the only people laughing at some very secret agent-type movie cliches, and we were in a relatively full theatre. I think it speaks more of the day, itself.

We saw this on the very day Paris was attacked. And, while my heart goes out to each and everyone of them as well as the Kenyan attacks a few months ago. Terrorism is now a ‘thing,’ which makes people uncomfortable. But a solution like the one proposed in the movie is just not feasible–it gives too much power to the ‘governing’ board. We need more Bond-like people in the world. We need more GOOD in the world.

I wholeheartedly recommend Spectre, to anyone looking for a solid film, with a good script and a better than decent cast. Dave Bautista was a really great addition, and we noticed that there was hardly any (if maybe one) cursing throughout the movie.

What is on your holiday watchlist?