SPECTRE Review Thread

[Darth Marcus]

Originally Posted by Troll2fan

64% after 76 reviews.

Top critics are really enjoying this one. 82% with 7.3/10 avg rating.

[Riddler The Slag]

Originally Posted by Agent Bond

Your unofficial SPECTRE theme song:

Adele - Hello - YouTube


Sam Smith can sod off!

Well said! An idea I can totally get behind!!!

[Michael11]

I enjoyed the film for the most part. But there were some bad points.

Was anybody else surprised at how average Christoph Waltz' performance was? It just seemed so.....bland.

[Leonidas King]

One of my colleagues was at a screening yesterday and told me he loved it

I doubt its as good as Skyfall but I'm watching it no matter what.

[jayman3]

Apparently critic reviews must really influence my friend (who was excited for Spectre) since he decided to wait for it to "be on TV with how bad the reviews are."

[Infernal King]

Originally Posted by Foggy

Lynch mob is definitely out for this one. Nevermind, all the more for me to love it.

I'm rooting for the critics to tear into it and underperform at the box office because I want them to get rid of Mendes and Craig.

[jayman3]

Originally Posted by Infernal King

I'm rooting for the critics to tear into it and underperform at the box office because I want them to get rid of Mendes and Craig.

Not gonna happen. It's expected to open with 75-80 million over the weekend.

[Infernal King]

Originally Posted by jayman3

Not gonna happen. It's expected to open with 75-80 million over the weekend.

Let me clarify: this is one of the most expensive movies of all time which means it needs to make even more money than Skyfall worldwide and I hope it doesn't. I don't think it will anyway, since that was even more hyped (50th anniversary) than this one was, putting aside how much better the reviews were.

[Pieter V]

Originally Posted by dvdmike

Bad colour choices some weird focus issues

Like all Nolan movies.

[Jack Burton]

Originally Posted by Infernal King

Let me clarify: this is one of the most expensive movies of all time which means it needs to make even more money than Skyfall worldwide and I hope it doesn't. I don't think it will anyway, since that was even more hyped (50th anniversary) than this one was, putting aside how much better the reviews were.

No it doesn't need to beat Skyfall to make a massive profit. On a side note, think someone has ran off with half of the budget, because truly cannot see were 300m was spent, not even close. Unexciting car chase in which nothing happens, seriously that chase made the one in die hard 5 look exciting.

[LegacyCosts]

Its going to make it money back, even with that insane budget. I can't help myself, I'm going to go see it.

[imsounoriginal]

Originally Posted by Infernal King

Let me clarify: this is one of the most expensive movies of all time which means it needs to make even more money than Skyfall worldwide and I hope it doesn't. I don't think it will anyway, since that was even more hyped (50th anniversary) than this one was, putting aside how much better the reviews were.

Why don't you want it to make as much as Skyfall? All indications so far are that this one is a step towards the older style Bonds, at least going off what can be gleaned from reviews.

[jayman3]

Originally Posted by Infernal King

Let me clarify: this is one of the most expensive movies of all time which means it needs to make even more money than Skyfall worldwide and I hope it doesn't. I don't think it will anyway, since that was even more hyped (50th anniversary) than this one was, putting aside how much better the reviews were.

Thanks for the lolz. Just because a particular James Bond movie might fail at the box office doesn't mean they'll recast the character. There's been previous movies where a sequel was a bomb and yet they continued without replacing the actor at the time.

I'd give it 4-6 years until Daniel Craig will commit to one final film or have the studio recast him.

[Infernal King]

Originally Posted by imsounoriginal

Why don't you want it to make as much as Skyfall? All indications so far are that this one is a step towards the older style Bonds, at least going off what can be gleaned from reviews.

I read it's a bad mixture of nuBond and Moore Bond, like they can't decide which style they want the film to be. But I don't believe we'll see a return to the older style Bonds until Craig's tenure is up. Mendes might have already said he's not going to direct any more movies in this franchise, I dunno.

Originally Posted by jayman3

Thanks for the lolz. Just because a particular James Bond movie might fail at the box office doesn't mean they'll recast the character. There's been previous movies where a sequel was a bomb and yet they continued without replacing the actor at the time.

I'd give it 4-6 years until Daniel Craig will commit to one final film or have the studio recast him.

"lulz"

What previous Bond movies are you referring to?

The chances of Craig leaving the franchise after Spectre are starting to grow and it underperforming at the box office compared to Skyfall would at least slightly increase those chances.

[jamesdevil]

I hope the tepid reviews guarantee Mendes will move on to new things.

[aiman04]

"I think Idris Elba is the only choice to succeed Daniel Craig in the films. Idris is a massive presence, a brilliant actor, and incredibly smart about story construction." - Warren Ellis

http://www.hitfix.com/harpy/warren-e...and-idris-elba

[toddly6666]

4.5/5

This was quite excellent. Phooey to the bad or mixed reviews. I had a smile on my face the whole time and it was a great conclusion to the Craig Bonds.

It's quite special that we have a nicely contained one-story James Bond Trilogy with Casino Royale, Skyfall and Spectre. None of the other Bonds have achieved that.

All the characters in Spectre were excellent in their roles and were given heart and character - Bond, M, Q, Moneypenny, Swan, Hinx and the main villain.

It will be sad to see Craig's puckering lip/tight shirt Bond move on. One of the best Bonds!

But the main thing to remember is that we have had 20+ generally fantastic James Bond films - such a great character and amazing to see all the different interpretations over the years! It's a great feeling that a James Bond movie has been - most of the time - been reliable entertaining films for so many generations with barely any low points.

[aiman04]

Originally Posted by toddly6666

4.5/5

This was quite excellent. Phooey to the bad or mixed reviews. I had a smile on my face the whole time and it was a great conclusion to the Craig Bonds.

It's quite special that we have a nicely contained one-story James Bond Trilogy with Casino Royale, Skyfall and Spectre. None of the other Bonds have achieved that.

All the characters in Spectre were excellent in their roles and were given heart and character - Bond, M, Q, Moneypenny, Swan, Hinx and the main villain.

It will be sad to see Craig's puckering lip/tight shirt Bond move on. One of the best Bonds!

But the main thing to remember is that we have had 20+ generally fantastic James Bond films - such a great character and amazing to see all the different interpretations over the years!

What happened to Quantum of Solace?

[toddly6666]

Originally Posted by aiman04

What happened to Quantum of Solace?

That piece of crap film is gladly not connected except for more Mr White.

I'll try to watch it again - maybe it got better or less headache-inducing.

[Adam_ME]

Caught a screening in IMAX tonight. Probably the weakest of the Craig Bonds. Quantum of Solace at least was brief, so it never had a chance to get dull or overstay its welcome. SPECTRE is looooooooong and at times very boring, especially after the first act(which is very good, BTW).

The Good:
The Pre-credits Sequence - From the opening shot reminiscent of Birdman(or is it Bondman here?) to the insane fight in the helicopter, this was an excellent and thrilling beginning to the film.

The Fight on the Train - Not quite on the level of the classic scene in From Russia With Love(if only because there's no similar buildup with Bond being held at gunpoint), but damn that was an epic battle between Bond and Bautista's Hinx. Sadly that's the only real highlight from the final 2/3 of the film.

Q - His beefed up role was a welcome sight as Whishaw has great chemistry with Craig's Bond. I like the more playful banter between the two rather than the antagonistic relationship they had starting in Goldfinger up through the Brosnan era. Whishaw also had the funniest dialogue in the movie IMO regarding the car and the watch.

Daniel Craig - He's getting up there in age, but he's still very good as Bond. The movie around him isn't particularly well done, but at least he didn't mail it in like Connery toward the end of his run. He could probably knock out one more of these before retiring from the role assuming they don't wait too long between entries.


The Bad:
The Bond Girls - Monica Bellucci and Lea Seydoux are beautiful women, but frankly they're wasted in this movie. Seydoux also is totally schizo, wanting nothing to do with Bond at first and then suddenly falling in love with him a few scenes later. Sure, this happens a lot in Bond movies, but I thought the Craig entries were trying to move away from that silliness. Honestly, even Naomie Harris' Moneypenny was a disappointment compared to her role in Skyfall.

The Car Chase in Rome - What the hell was that?! I don't mind a slow-paced chase scene. It is possible to do one and have some tension(Jack Reacher comes to mind). But this dragged on for nearly 10 minutes and felt more like a car commercial than an action sequence. A complete waste of time.

SPECTRE - If you're gonna essentially retcon Quantum out of existence, do something interesting with its replacement. After their initial meeting that was reminiscent of that early scene in Thunderball, NOTHING HAPPENS! Oh sure, we eventually wind up at their secret lair, but even then, it's extremely dull and anticlimactic.

Christoph Waltz - He played one of the all-time great cinematic villains in Inglourious Basterds(which also featured Seydoux incidentally), but he's incredibly boring in this film. And having him be the puppetmaster of the entire Craig era is absurd. How in the hell was he behind Silva's actions? That dude was an abandoned agent who wanted revenge against M. SPECTRE(or Quantum for that matter) had nothing to do with the events in Skyfall. Again, this isn't unprecedented in the Bond series. The Fleming novels seemingly always involved SMERSH before SPECTRE came along, but it felt really forced and illogical.

The Score - I'm one of the few who apparently liked Thomas Newman's work in Skyfall, but it's all wrong here. This sounds like a Newman score and not a Bond one. Especially the scenes in Tangier. When Bond and Swann arrive there, I swear Newman lifted music directly from Phenomenon. I've never been a huge David Arnold fan, but he's come to closest to the brilliant work of John Barry in this series. He needs to return for the next movie.


The Ugly:
That Sam Smith Song - I think the guy is a talented singer, but his song sucks! And to add insult to injury, the theater inexplicably played the music video for it before the movie, so I had to listen to that dreck twice in a span of 20 minutes. Even Lulu and Sheryl Crow's numbers were tolerable compared to this.

The Pacing - As I said before, the first act is very good. But after that, it slows to a crawl and just drags on til the end(aside from the train fight). If it had retained the brevity of Quantum of Solace, that wouldn't have been a problem. But this sucker is 2 1/2 hours long.


I do hope Craig returns for one more. I'd like to see him go out on a high note and not with a letdown like this. Connery's tenure ended with the dreadful Diamonds Are Forever. Moore overstayed his welcome with the back-to-back mediocrity of Octop-ssy and A View to a Kill. And Brosnan's swan song, Die Another Day, was so over-the-top and ridiculous that Eon decided to reboot the entire series. I'd hate to see it end this way for Craig.