Movie Review: Spectre
By Thalia Badio, Contributor
[Eon Productions; 2015]
Rating: 3/5
Bond is back and ready to take his reckless rogue justice straight to the top. In Spectre, Daniel Craig gives a routine spy performance, this time with bigger conspiracies, a bigger budget and tighter pants.
The movie is ultimately standard. Bond sleeps with women much too young for him, ambushes men on planes and defies the instructions of his overseers. This movie is action packed and perhaps overestimated. Spectre delivers its promise--a wild adventure with London's favorite assassin, but perhaps it’s time for a change.
The scenes are theatrical and dramatic, the jokes quick and sharp, but nothing about Spectre leaves you on the edge of your seat; nothing leaves you amazed, changed or enthralled. This might partially be the fault of the score, which seems to lack its usual intense, dark nature.
Another fault of Spectre is the misrepresentation of the female population, once again. I think it’s about time writers start including women as something other than underdeveloped and oversexualized props. Sure, Bond’s new leading lady can hold a gun, but when push comes to shove, she is forced to wait--once again!--for prince charming to come and save her. This plot line is tired; when are directors going to make the decision to mix these things up in the action genre?
Regarding director Sam Mendes, I can only question his lack of screen time for Hollywood’s favorite villian Christoph Waltz. Waltz no doubt could have helped this movie transition from uninspired to great.
To Bond fans, I suggest this movie as another ticket stub for the collection, but as a general note to the public--don’t expect anything spectacular.
