SPECTRE Review Thread

[Tony208]

Bautista needed more lines or another fight.

[Agent Bond]

PROS:

Gunbarrel at the start again finally.

Bond's skeleton costume. Nod to Baron Samedi from Live and Let Die.

Exciting opening sequence.

[Show spoiler]Bond fixing his cuffs again and a nod to For Your Eyes Only with Bond struggling for control of the helicopter

Beautiful opening credits with

[Show spoiler]the octopus and flashbacks being shown Spider-Man 2 style.

"Writing's On The Wall" is a good song. A female singer should've done it instead though.

Lucia's role was fine.

[Show spoiler]I know people felt like Belluci was wasted with her cameo appearance, but she got the Solange role: giving Bond the information he needed.

Nod to Thunderball with Bond visiting the widow at her place after the funeral though.

The SPECTRE meeting just like in Thunderball, but it was updated. I loved it. I can only imagine if Connery had paid a visit to the meeting back in the 60s film. When

[Show spoiler]Blofeld knew Bond was there and gave him that look, I was spooked!

Dave Bautista was great as today's Jaws. It was a memorable performance.

Car chase was outstanding. It's how Die Another Day should've handled it.

The medical place being an updated Piz Gloria.

Nod to The Spy Who Loved Me with

[Show spoiler]the flying vehicle and the car being side to side.

I had a problem at first with

[Show spoiler]Bond chasing Hinx's car with the broken plane

, but then I realized its something Timothy Dalton would've done.

Dominic Greene was practically ignored

[Show spoiler]he wasn't shown in the opening credits or the MI6 HQ walkway

aside from a quick picture. I guess even the producers must have realized how lame of a villain he was.

I didn't have a problem with

[Show spoiler]Silva being a high ranking member of SPECTRE. It explains how he got his resources. After all, let's not forget Auric Goldfinger was an agent of SMERSH.

Yes, there were comedy moments, but it was balanced like the previous films. Even the couch bit was handled well and not in an over the top style like Roger Moore would've done with his nonsense.

Enjoyed the small talk about Bond getting shot. Reference to Skyfall.

Throwback to From Russia With Love with

[Show spoiler]the train fight. It was intense and I cringed seeing Bond getting waffled near the end.

Quantum Of Solace rehash with the beautiful compound being in the middle of a desert.

I liked Madeleine

[Show spoiler]being Tracy or at least the modern version of her. Beautiful blonde woman (novel version), daughter of a criminal boss, that Bond falls heads over heels for. Come on!

Waltz was great as

[Show spoiler]Blofeld

. He was so intimidating with his speeches. I wish he had more screen time.

[Show spoiler] It was wonderful to see the persian cat and thank God they didn't make him bald! I would've preferred him not having the scar to stay as the book version, but the facial change is what Albert Broccoli wanted. Fair compromise.

I was okay with the ending

[Show spoiler]although no indication of Bond retiring.

. If Craig decides not to do any more films, he leaves the franchise on a high note. although

[Show spoiler]the look Blofeld gives Bond and Madeleine on the bridge as they walk away screams for him to break out of prison and murder Bond's second love in the next film.

It will make Bond regret his decision of

[Show spoiler]showing him mercy like he did with Yusef in Quantum Of Solace.

CONS:

Absolutely HATED Bond

[Show spoiler]and Blofeld being foster brothers.

Slap in the face of Ian Fleming and my main gripe with the film as not only did the needless twist take away from

[Show spoiler]Kincaid's character, but they want us to believe Blofeld's jealousy over his father's love is what caused him to start a global terrorist organization? BULLSHIT!!!

[Show spoiler]Felix Leiter was mentioned, which was nice, but he should've made an appearance.

[Show spoiler]Didn't like QUANTUM being a part of SPECTRE. Should've been a cover name since they spent years building up The Organization since Casino Royale, but hey, that's bad writing for you.

[Show spoiler]Mr. White should've had more screen time. When he died, I was like "That's it?"

Didn't care for Max

[Show spoiler]I already knew he was a member of SPECTRE since he acted sketchy from the get go. As Mr. White once said, "We have people everywhere."

or

[Show spoiler]the surveillance plot as seen in The Dark Knight and The Winter Soldier.

Should've re-used the stolen nuclear warheads plot instead.

I was bummed

[Show spoiler]Blofeld didn't kill an underling, who failed his mission, to show his ruthlessness.

Missed opportunity to add some more depth to him.

There should've been more screentime to establish Bond's

[Show spoiler]love for Madeleine. It was rushed, underdeveloped, and not believable unlike On Her Majesty's Secret Service where they dedicated a chapter to show Bond and Tracy bonding over time.

Tired of seeing

[Show spoiler]the classic Bond car. It was cool the first time in Casino Royale.

My final gripe was Bond

[Show spoiler]shooting down the helicopter (which did happen at the end of the Diamonds Are Forever novel), but FFS have him use an anti-aircraft gun like in the book, not his regular gun. That was just dumb and cliche. Truly, a facepalm moment.

In closing, don't listen to the critics. It was a solid film overall and worth the 30 + year wait to see S.P.E.C.T.R.E. at it again.

[Mr. Chaverria]

Originally Posted by Tony208

Bautista needed more lines or another fight.

Yeah. I actually hated how he was taken out. It was too on the nose. They kept showing what was going to happen, "oh... well I guess I already know how he's going to go down..." I was actually hoping he didn't die. Be a bit of a surprise. It was a good fight though. Bond was way out of his element in that one. So it was nice to see that Bond isn't some great badass in strength. He's just more clever. I didn't care for his line either. I would have preferred him to just get pulled away. No real visual cue to it aside from Bond's hooking.

[Gieferg]

Mendes, come here, I have a word for ya:



Well, that's exaggerated a bit, but after that previous trainwreck, I was really surprised that this new outing isn't that bad at all (ridicuolus reveal aside). Mendes still isn't good in directing action, but he definitely improved in that department since SkyFAIL.

Spectre isn't as boring or stupid as its predecessor, and can be entertaining (even if the finale is still weak).

6-7/10

[Malik True]

Originally Posted by Kevin Holly

False. The Living Daylights, License to Kill and Goldeneye are all several hundred times as good as Quantum.

However, I will agree that the other Brosnan films are several dozen times worse than Quantum.

It's all a matter of taste, I consider the Dalton Brosnan era as the end of the over-top somewhat campy Bond. There is a reason why there is a four year gap between Die Another Day and Casino Royale and you can credit The Bourne Identity for this change in philosophy in how Bond should be today.

They are not terrible as Bond but the series at that time became dated and stale. If I want the campy Bond I'll start with a View to Kill and go backwards.

[imsounoriginal]

I've said it before: QoS is a tremendous action movie, it's just not a very good Bond movie. But there's still plenty to like about it and frankly, at least a half-dozen more traditional Bond films I'd consistently rank below it.

[Pieter V]

[Show spoiler]

Couldn't stop watching at.

[Infernal King]

Originally Posted by imsounoriginal

I've said it before: QoS is a tremendous action movie, it's just not a very good Bond movie. But there's still plenty to like about it and frankly, at least a half-dozen more traditional Bond films I'd consistently rank below it.

I like action movies that aren't incompetently edited and therefore fail at their primary appeal.

Die Hard is a tremendous action movie. It leads me to wonder how you would describe much better action movies than Quantum of Solace, if you're starting from "tremendous".

[imsounoriginal]

Originally Posted by Infernal King

I like action movies that aren't incompetently edited and therefore fail at their primary appeal.

Die Hard is a tremendous action movie. It leads me to wonder how you would describe much better action movies than Quantum of Solace, if you're starting from "tremendous".

well Die Hard is the standard, almost no action movies measure up well against it. Maybe it's just me being a millenial, but the fast cutting has never really bothered me. I remember when QoS came out and literally every review complained about the opening chase being incomprehensible, and I found it fine. Just very untraditional for a Bond movie, but I never thought it was poorly done. My main beef with it is its over-reliance on plot points from Casino Royale that I never really thought needed to be resolved. It's my least favorite Craig movie but still a good one, just nowhere near a great one.

[Infernal King]

Originally Posted by imsounoriginal

well Die Hard is the standard, almost no action movies measure up well against it. Maybe it's just me being a millenial, but the fast cutting has never really bothered me. I remember when QoS came out and literally every review complained about the opening chase being incomprehensible, and I found it fine. Just very untraditional for a Bond movie, but I never thought it was poorly done. My main beef with it is its over-reliance on plot points from Casino Royale that I never really thought needed to be resolved. It's my least favorite Craig movie but still a good one, just nowhere near a great one.

I'm a millennial too but I think most of my dislike for Quantum is that, besides being boring, I can't follow the action. I've seen the movie several times and it's everything I hate about the way modern cinema tends to approach and execute action. Just pure anathema to me.

By the way, where is your avatar from?

[tigertron]

Originally Posted by Malik True

Quantum gets a lot of grief but it's better than any Bond film Pierce Brosnan or Timothy Dalton have done.

[imsounoriginal]

Originally Posted by Infernal King

I'm a millennial too but I think most of my dislike for Quantum is that, besides being boring, I can't follow the action. I've seen the movie several times and it's everything I hate about the way modern cinema tends to approach and execute action. Just pure anathema to me.

By the way, where is your avatar from?

The one sequence in QoS I could live without is the plane chase; just feels like one action beat too many and not a very good one. All the others are fine by me, but still, the Tosca sequence is by far the movie's "action" highlight.

My avatar is from an Indian movie called Dabangg; worth checking out if you've ever seen a Bollywood movie.

[Vlad Draculi]

Well that was the point. This movie's purpose was to reintroduce Spectre to the audience and set up who would be the villains for the next several iterations, which is exactly what I have been wanting to happen since QoS.

[evoxturbo]

To me the best part of Quantom of Solace was the opening car chase. The shaky cam completely worked for that scene. The sound editing is outstanding. Even on Blu-ray using a cheap home theater in a box, it sounds like theater quality sound. The chase was so frantic and out of control and it looked like not much CGI was used. That Aston Martin is gorgeous (not for long) and the Italian country side is also beautiful.

But then the rest of the film seem to used shaky cam for every action scene. I don't think that was a good idea. Casino Royale had great action scenes without abusing shaky cam. The movie would've been better without all those hard to follow action scenes. But I still think the opening car chase is excellent. Demo quality scene.

[Mr. Chaverria]

Originally Posted by evoxturbo

To me the best part of Quantom of Solace was the opening car chase. The shaky cam completely worked for that scene. The sound editing is outstanding. Even on Blu-ray using a cheap home theater in a box, it sounds like theater quality sound. The chase was so frantic and out of control and it looked like not much CGI was used. That Aston Martin is gorgeous (not for long) and the Italian country side is also beautiful.

But then the rest of the film seem to used shaky cam for every action scene. I don't think that was a good idea. Casino Royale had great action scenes without abusing shaky cam. The movie would've been better without all those hard to follow action scenes. But I still think the opening car chase is excellent. Demo quality scene.

The car chase is one thing. That opera scene was much better.

[Vlad Draculi]

Nah, QoS's best scene was the opera house. That is where the movie really started.

[Makarov]

Originally Posted by Cliff

You can have both. They aren't mutually exclusive. The problem with SPECTRE is that it is constructed almost exclusively out of plot contrivances. For example:

[Show spoiler]Bond sitting in a room and suddenly breaks down a wall to reveal Mr. White's secret room. No real explanation other than "Bond figured out it was there." or thugs kidnap Bond and bring him to the former MI6 building. Bond escapes yet still enters the abandoned building, despite not knowing that either Swan or Blofeld would be inside there... just because the script says so (when what he should have been doing was hightailing it back to M and Q). Or having Hinx show up on the train just to have a fight with Bond and get killed. It was totally predictable that he would be shot by Swan at some point, and yet it's incomprehensible that he was even there in the first place.

I gotta point out that

[Show spoiler]Bond realized there was a secret room because he saw a mouse run into a hole in the wall. There's an entire scene devoted to explaining that.

[Vlad Draculi]

Bond knew

[Show spoiler]Blofeld would be at the old MI6 building because that is where he was taken to by the thugs. Do you not remember the scene where the dudes put a black sack over his head?

I will agree that the scene on the train came out of the blue though, however, it was to be expected.

[The Great Owl]

My advice to everyone here, based on my experiences this weekend, is that Spectre is much more enjoyable the second time around. I hit the $11 night feature on Thursday night, and then hit a cheaper afternoon showing yesterday.

I'm such a big Bond fan that I always nitpick the movies during my first viewing. I even nitpicked certain things about Casino Royale when I first saw it. It always takes subsequent viewings for the true awesomeness of these flicks, and for their general ranking with others in the franchise, to sink in.

I loved the second viewing yesterday. I just sort of relaxed, because I knew what was coming, and I simply enjoyed.

In all honesty, I wish that I had waited until after my second viewing to write my review.

Yesterday, in the 2015 thread, I ranked Spectre as my favorite movie of the year so far, even over Ex Machina, It Follows, and Mad Max: Fury Road. I think that it's that good.


It was brought to my attention yesterday that the review that I wrote yesterday morning was somewhat spoiler-heavy, although it did not give away any real plot details. I didn't give away anything that was not already in the previews and the critic reviews, but I nonetheless edited my review to make it more of a broad brush stroke for those who haven't seen the film. Apologies to anyone who read the review before the fact and felt their enjoyment diminished (although we all pretty much visit this thread at our own risk).

[MovieKing101]

This movie was beautifully shot, Bautista was a bad ass & the Bond girl was awesome,

Everything else fell so flat.

[Show spoiler]Can't believe Waltz was barely used in this - WTF.

This movie pissed me off.