SPECTRE reviews (spoilers!)

A place for discussion of all SPECTRE related news and rumours
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SPECTRE reviews (spoilers!)

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A place for the hopefully unfavorable reviews of Quantum of Solace 2, I mean SPECTRE.
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Re: SPECTRE reviews (spoilers!)

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English Agent wrote:Spectre's budget was definitely over $300 million.....a truly amazing amount of money to be spent on a film! :shock: .............and that was confirmed, in what i have just read from one of the British newspapers as a review from an early screening of the film!

The reviewer gave the film a 4/5 rating stating that the first half of the film 'Spectre', is as good a Bond action adventure could ever be...............but then states that the second half of the film is not so good, as the film delves into Bond's emotions and his past!

Well...........sort of what i expected it to be from a Sam Mendes directed Bond film............disappointed though to here the reviewer didnt like the 2nd half of the film so much.............i hope its not too wishy washy with small talk................anyway, the bulk of the reviews should be out by the end of the week, so wait to until then, to get an overall feel for the film.

The review came from 'The Independant' which you can read online

Spectre, film review: An exhilarating James Bond spectacle that really didn't need to add depth

EA
shaken not stirred wrote:
English Agent wrote:Spectre's budget was definitely over $300 million.....a truly amazing amount of money to be spent on a film! :shock: .............and that was confirmed, in what i have just read from one of the British newspapers as a review from an early screening of the film!

The reviewer gave the film a 4/5 rating stating that the first half of the film 'Spectre', is as good a Bond action adventure could ever be...............but then states that the second half of the film is not so good, as the film delves into Bond's emotions and his past!

Well...........sort of what i expected it to be from a Sam Mendes directed Bond film............disappointed though to here the reviewer didnt like the 2nd half of the film so much.............i hope its not too wishy washy with small talk................anyway, the bulk of the reviews should be out by the end of the week, so wait to until then, to get an overall feel for the film.

The review came from 'The Independant' which you can read online

Spectre, film review: An exhilarating James Bond spectacle that really didn't need to add depth

EA
So.....4/5 despite hating the final half, shouldn't it be atleast a 3 or so then?.
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Re: SPECTRE reviews (spoilers!)

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bjmdds wrote:Frances Lai, The Upcoming:
"Unfortunately, Waltz’s limitless talents as a commanding character actor are wasted on Franz Oberhauser,
Spoiler
the nebulous figurehead of SPECTRE
, who turns out, inevitably, to have a personal vendetta against Bond. The characterisation of Bond’s nemesis proves to lack depth and substance. Ultimately, Spectre is barely suitable as a mindless action flick, and a long way from becoming a classic in the James Bond franchise. After more than 20 films, it is of course difficult to fashion a Bond film that will last the ages. Nonetheless, modern audiences are still waiting for a simply satisfactory one in recent memory." Verdict: 2 out of 5 stars
bjmdds wrote:Michael Roddy:yahoo.com: New Bond 'Spectre' plays like a swan song, and a long one: LONDON (Reuters) - It may be no coincidence that Agent 007's latest love interest, played by French actress Lea Seydoux in the new James Bond movie "Spectre," is called Madeleine Swann, because the film seems like a swan song for some of the participants. But this slick but overlong, at well over two hours, outing that takes viewers on an armchair journey from Mexico City to London to Rome to Austria to Tunisia and then back to London, has a somewhat tired feel about it, as if it had overgorged on a diet of Aston Martin cars, Omega watches and Belvedere vodka - among the main product placements.
Omega wrote:Weird I just read a review that seemed to praise Craigs "handsome shrek face and bat like ears " then went on about Snowden


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TROLLY wrote:Spectre begins with the gunbarrel sequence, (for the first time, since 2002) where it should be.

http://m.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/review ... punch.html

That automatically makes it Daniel Craig's best Bond film to date, in my opinion.
James wrote:89% on RT last time I looked but several of the reviews are of the 3/5 type - which of course is counted as positive. General consensus from the reviews I skimmed is that it's Skyfall 2 but nowhere near as good. It looks as if the insane mass hysteria (demanding an Oscar nomination for best film etc) that greeted Skyfall will not transpire this time. As already pointed out, it's interesting that the villain hasn't made much of an impression on the critics at all.
shaken not stirred wrote:
James wrote:89% on RT last time I looked but several of the reviews are of the 3/5 type - which of course is counted as positive. General consensus from the reviews I skimmed is that it's Skyfall 2 but nowhere near as good. It looks as if the insane mass hysteria (demanding an Oscar nomination for best film etc) that greeted Skyfall will not transpire this time. As already pointed out, it's interesting that the villain hasn't made much of an impression on the critics at all.
Every single one of the villains in the reboot bond era have been dull as beep with no real rhyme or reason for what they do, cr: oh no I lost all My money, revenge, qos: let's steal some water....then possibly....some rocks (muhaha), sf: mummy didn't love me, must kill mummy (seriously what the beep happened to the great bond villains of yesteryear who wanted to start wars, use lasers on spaceships, steal diamonds and god knows what else, it's like we have bond economy villains now (will the next one be in charge of bloody wall street (why not, maybe his henchman will be one of the checkout boys from beeping asda) (sorry I hate this praise this pos movie is getting and there's nothing we can do about it ( I need to see the kingsman now and get this beep franchise out of My head now beep this..sorry).
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Re: SPECTRE reviews (spoilers!)

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shaken not stirred wrote:The playlists thoughts on spectre:

SPECTRE: Quantum Of Solace 2: This Time It's Personal. Bad action, lousy plotting, Lea Seydoux only redeeming feature.

From marziepanic: https://twitter.com/marziepanic, his review on it: http://www.theshiznit.co.uk/review/spectre.php

(This bit in particular is very interesting :lol: )

As a result, it is Spectre's failings that are more obvious and will become more memorable over time: a problem with pacing, badly contrived plot points, a big reveal that has the stinky whiff of Austin Powers about it and a film that has designs on being an epic game-changer while just falling short of that promise.

It also gives us an important lesson to take away at this point in the 007 franchise. The more you define Bond as a real person, the more you paint him into a corner. At this point, it could easily be argued that the best way to make an interesting Bond movie is not to try to make Bond himself interesting, like this film so clumsily tries to do, but rather to have a well-laid out, compelling story to tell (something that this film lacks) and just have Bond be his usual caricature self throughout it all. It feels time now to just let Bond be Bond. - See more at: http://www.theshiznit.co.uk/review/spec ... cGUsE.dpuf

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review ... iew-833833

We can normally measure a Bond film by the quality of its villain, and Austrian double Oscar-winner Waltz certainly gives good evil, spritzing up Oberhauser with a light fizz of mirth and mischief. But he is hampered by a script which fails to make his long-standing grudge against Bond plausible, and provides zero motives for his power-hungry schemes. His big revelation in the final half hour will come as no great shock to anyone even vaguely familiar with the early 007 films. It feels like the filmmakers have been bluffing a great poker hand for two hours before throwing down a pair of threes.
In pure action adventure terms, Spectre delivers the goods, with plenty of revved-up supercar porn and several kinetic high-speed chase sequences on road, river and snowy mountain slope. Thomas Newman's busy score amps up the pulse-racing bombast, smartly invoking operatic melodrama in Rome and sinewy Arabic folk music in Morocco. Sam Smith's flimsy theme song is a weak entry in the canon of 007 classics, but admittedly it sounds better blasting out of huge cinematic speakers as Daniel Kleinman's gorgeous, gothic title credits billow across the screen. Spectre contains enough dazzle and derring-do to keep the Bond brand afloat, but not enough to make it a game-changing reboot in the manner of Skyfall. Two steps forward, one step back.
Veronica wrote:I DEFINITELY agree with the last bit written by marziepanic.

"Bond movies are only as good as their villains."-Colin Firth in Kingsman.
Capt. Sir Dominic Flandry wrote:http://www.scotsman.com/what-s-on/film/ ... -1-3924651

AT times clumsy and ponderous, Daniel Craig’s fourth outing as James Bond frequently undermines itself despite flashes of inspiration, writes Alistair Harkness

AFTER the artistic and commercial success of Skyfall, Sam Mendes was always going to have his work cut out following the biggest Bond film of all time. For the briefest of moments with Spectre, though, he looks like he might have succeeded. Kicking off the 24th official film with a cracker-jack opening featuring 007 (Daniel Craig) hunting down a target amid the chaos of the Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico City, the swooping Birdman­-like camera moves he deploys as buildings collapse and Bond becomes embroiled in a collateral damage-threatening tussle in a helicopter help set a breathtaking pace. Unfortunately, the ensuing film can’t really sustain it as the plot struggles to bring closure to the overarching hodge-podge saga with which Craig’s run on 007 has variously flirted.

The problems emerge early and are weirdly symbolised by the title. Though it is indeed the name of the global terrorist network first introduced by Ian Fleming in Thunderball (and in the movies in Dr No), it has no alternative acronymic meaning here. Its use is more thematic, hinting at the myriad ghosts haunting Craig’s run on Bond. But like the title of Sam Smith’s dismally bland ballad Writing’s On The Wall that plays over the laughable opening credits sequence, such on-the-nose cutesiness backfires somewhat as it becomes readily apparent Spectre is at best a ghost of Skyfall, needlessly regurgitating large chunks of its plot.

The double-O programme, for instance, is once again under threat. Bond’s actions in Mexico don’t help M (Ralph Fiennes) cope with the pressures of a merger with MI5 and a new boss called Max Denbigh (Andrew Scott) intent on streamlining the security services under one central, Big Brother-style organisation. Max goes by the code name C – the true meaning of which becomes a running gag for Bond and M, particularly as his snide and ruthless approach to Bond’s position forces 007 to once again go rogue – though naturally he enlists some covert help from Q (Ben Wishaw) and Moneypenny (Naomi Harris), the latter now thoroughly settled into her secretarial role after proving her incompetence as a field agent in Skyfall.

Bond’s first stop is Rome, where he seduces Monica Bellucci, cast here as the widow of his target in Mexico. Bellucci is the sole recipient of the iconic “Bond, James Bond” line in the film, but depressingly she’s swiftly discarded – the only thing more objectionable to Bond than a stirred vodka martini is, apparently, a beautiful woman his own age. Instead he’s soon united with the 20-something Léa Seydoux, whose character, Madeleine Swann, is some sort of Sorbonne-educated psychologist hiding out in a remote clinic in the Austrian Alps. She jokes about daddy issues and falling into Bond’s arms, but her competence with a firearm doesn’t offset the pathetic damsel-in-distress role she’s been assigned in the action, which at one point is so depressingly retrograde it’s a wonder Mendes didn’t just tie her to some railway tracks.

As for Craig, his recent “I’d rather slash my wrists than reprise the role” comments not withstanding, he’s clearly having some fun with the role. Always a more muscular presence than his predecessors — his fight sequences bloodier and more bruising — he’s now bringing a slyness to what had previously seemed like a bad case of Bourne-envy. In one of the film’s best moment, he floors a security guard with a thunderous punch and orders his about-to-spring into action colleague to “stay” like an obedient puppy – a nifty symbol of Craig’s command of 007, the mix of insouciance and playful self-awareness just right for a character still trying to find his place in the modern age.

Unfortunately, the film repeatedly falls back on lazily preposterous storytelling. That may seem like a churlish complaint for what has always been a traditional Bond trait — and to be fair, Spectre does occasionally get things right. The conclusion to an early car chase through the deserted night-time streets of Rome functions as a smile-inducing throwback to the days when a Lotus Esprit could turn into a submarine, or an Aston Martin could eject its passengers from something other than its side doors. But, elsewhere, the action is too reliant on Bond being able to magic a plane or a speedboat out of thin air, or break his fall on a well-placed couch or – literally, at one point – a safety net.

Even worse, the reveals are obvious and anticlimactic – and the methods to get us there are nonsensical. Why send an Odd Job-style henchman (Dave Bautista) to kill Bond on a train, for instance, when you’ve apparently already laid on a chauffeur-driven vintage Rolls Royce to pick him up at the end of the line and bring him to your desert lair? As the villainous Oberhauser and head of Spectre, Christoph Waltz can’t really do much here to live up to he menace promised by that bad-ass “author of all your pain” line that was all over the trailer. A shadowy figure in the early parts of the film, his beef with Bond is blown with some clumsy foreshadowing long before their big confrontation. Denied the playful malevolence of a Quentin Tarantino script to exploit his off-kilter delivery, Waltz also slips all too easily into the role of a panto bad guy, cackling his way through metaphorical speeches about cuckoos and meteorites as he outlines his diabolical masterplan.

And to quote Bond on the latter, this plan – a mundane riff on the NSA abuses – is “not exactly complicated”. Indeed, as Bond needlessly reiterates it for the benefit of anyone in the audience who hasn’t already figured it out (probably an hour earlier), it becomes all too apparent that the film is racing to keep pace with us, rather than us with it. This makes Spectre frequently ponderous and actually quite boring in places, taking an age to get us to where we all know it’s going. At least Quantum of Solace had the decency to be short and fast-paced. By the time this film’s drawn-out conclusion arrives, the writing really is on the wall for Bond (he literally follows it to find the bad guy’s hiding place). The final shot, meanwhile, is little more than a cheap bit of nostalgia designed to make you go out with a smile on your face rather than think about what that aforementioned “C” might really stand for.
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Re: SPECTRE reviews (spoilers!)

Post by James »

Down to 85% on RT.


http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/entertainm ... len-o-hara

Spectre feels overcooked

There were hints, in Skyfall, that the grand Daniel Craig era of the stripped-back, gritty Bond was over. That film reintroduced classic Bond elements like the Aston Martin DB5, a male M and Moneypenny, gradually shaking off many of the lifts from Bourne and its ilk. Now in Spectre, we've moved right past that Connery tribute and into an even broader tone that harks back louder to the Seventies films, making this an awkward marriage of Craig and Moore. From the opening credits, which skip through Craig's Bond history but also involve a surprising number of black octopi among the writhing female forms (Bond likes tentacle porn now?) this never quite finds its tone.

The film begins promisingly, with a gorgeous tracking shot through a Day Of The Dead celebration in Mexico City, where cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema harks back to the legendary work of Sergey Urusevsky in I Am Cuba. Of course, this version is more explosive, as Bond finds the assassin he's been tailing on the post-mortem orders of Judi Dench's M and dispatches him with extreme thoroughness.

But as Bond uncovers the clues that point to a massive criminal conspiracy, thanks in part to Monica Bellucci's not-terribly-bereaved assassin's widow in Rome, it turns out that it really is all about him. Led by the quietly barking Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz), this Spectre organisation has apparently been responsible for every tragedy in Bond's life, while maintaining a sideline in global destabilisation, intelligence gathering and mayhem. It seems like an awful lot of hassle to go to when they could just shoot Bond if they have that much control over the world, but madmen will be madmen, apparently.

Honestly, the plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense even by Bond standards; at one point, Q (Ben Whishaw) appears to deduce Spectre's senior membership and hierarchy through DNA traces on a piece of jewellery. It's more a case of one thing after another leading Bond around Europe and North Africa through a series of spectacular (but sometimes not terribly logical) action scenes. He soon has Lea Seydoux's Madeline Swann in tow; Bond swears to protect her and is only partly motivated by the fact that she might hold the key to the whole business. On the other side of the good guy/bad guy divide, Dave Bautista's throwback henchman Mr Hinx pops up regularly to chase or be chased. Almost wordlessly, the brawler stars in the film's best fight scene aboard a luxury train, where he thoroughly outmasses Craig.

A sub plot, which sees Ralph Fiennes M battling Andrew Scott's C for control of MI6, provides an almost-relevant political background to the action. M's surprisingly liberal belief is that our safety is better secured via old-fashioned, individually handcrafted assassinations by killers like Bond rather than mass surveillance - an unlikely but pleasantly odd position for a film about spies to take.

The women, as usual, are largely incidental. Harris's Moneypenny is sparky but underused, and Bellucci gets about ten minutes of screen time. Seydoux is interesting, with a Vesper Lynd sense of damaged wariness and intelligence, but she is inevitably sidelined after she falls for Bond and becomes just another pawn in the game. Craig seems to relish his moments of Martini-dry humour amid the mayhem, but even he can't find a consistent note through this plot.

By the time Bond invites himself to Oberhauser's headquarters and discovers something close to those legendary Ken Adam bases, with uniformed waiters incogruously offering champagne on the terrace and black-clad henchmen on patrol, it's as if Austin Powers never happened. Bond even gets knocked out with a blow to the back of the head like Moore always did. Despite the admittedly fun action sequences, shot fluidly and with some clever choreography, it all slows to a crawl instead of speeding to a finish, and at two and a half hours there's just too much of everything going on. It's never Quantum-levels of disappointing, but it all just feels overcooked. Time to once again rein in Bond's endless boom-and-bust cycle between reality to crazy fantasy, or next time we'll be back to pigeons doing double-takes and crocodile-shaped diving suits.



http://www.thewrap.com/spectre-review-0 ... oph-waltz/

Spectre’ Review: 007 Goes Through the Motions in a Perfunctory Adventure

Daniel Craig may or may not return as James Bond, but this relatively listless installment raises flags that the secret agent may be a dinosaur in the age of drones and Wikileaks

It all starts so well. The 24th installment of the 007 series kicks off with a bravura tracking shot that swoops and weaves through Mexico City’s throngs during the Day of the Dead celebrations. The camera picks out a white-suited man with his hair scraped back into a disreputable bun, before joining a couple as they walk purposefully through the crowds. They both wear masks. But it’s clear from her bearing that she is beautiful. And it’s clear from his tailoring that he is James Bond.

We follow them upstairs to a bedroom, where the masks are shed. But then Bond slips out of the open window, leaving his companion unfulfilled and disappointed. And for all the dizzying impact of this extended pre-titles action sequence — with its building surfing and helicopter wrangling — ultimately, she is the character with whom we end up identifying. The thrills here are empty. “Spectre” is a frustratingly unsatisfying experience.

Almost from the moment that the title sequence ends, the picture’s shortcomings are laid bare. Whereas “Skyfall” explored the emotional backstory of the world’s most famous secret agent and served up unexpected pathos along with the action, “Spectre” is all about the set pieces. Character development and dialogue both come in at a distant joint second place. An encounter with M (Ralph Fiennes) is a cold, stilted affair that seems more about ticking off plot points — namely, Bond’s suspension and the introduction of C (Andrew Scott), the new head of the joint security service — than it is with creating a flowing scene.

Despite being grounded — Q (Ben Whishaw) has injected Bond with something called “smart blood,” an intravenous tracking device which allows the powers that be to know his movements at all times — Bond manages to steal a multi-million dollar Aston Martin prototype and smuggle it to Rome before anybody notices. Here he encounters Lucia Sciarra (Monica Bellucci), the not-so-grieving widow of the man he killed in Mexico. It’s a throwaway role, offering little other than plot point delivery and joylessly routine seduction, and Bellucci handles it more with resignation than any great conviction.

But Lucia gives Bond a vital clue, which sends him to a meeting of the shady organization that turns out to be SPECTRE. There he first encounters his ultimate foe: softly spoken sociopath Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz), alias … well, let’s just say he has a penchant for white Persian cats. We are also introduced to this episode’s formidable evil henchman: Mr. Jinx (Dave Bautista), who demonstrates his fitness for the position by thumbing his rival’s eyeballs out of their sockets during the interview.

It’s an auspicious start to the job, but like so much else in this film, Mr. Jinx invites us to reference past Bond movies, only to end up lesser by comparison. He lacks the amiable relentlessness of Jaws or the stylish efficiency of Oddjob. In fairness, there was not much Bautista could do to flesh out the role. He only gets one word of dialogue.

Mr. Jinx does get to pursue Bond through the streets of Rome at night in a car chase which is notable for the fact that the streets are eerily deserted. This Bond film is empty, both emotionally and literally. There’s a later encounter on a luxury train which seems to have only three passengers, all of whom are trying to kill each other.

In what may or may not be his final outing in the role, Craig remains one of the series’ main assets. His Bond is permanently pissed off. His reaction to anything — shrapnel, heavy traffic, sexual attraction — is a grimace of irritation. He is paired with Léa Seydoux’s Madeleine Swann, the daughter of an assassin. It’s a photogenic match but it lacks the screen-melting chemistry he shared with Eva Green in “Casino Royale.”

Perhaps it’s unavoidable since there have been so many double-O outings before this one, but “Spectre” frequently feels as though it is picking over the corpses of the films that came before. The Day of the Dead opener, for example, evokes the New Orleans funeral parade at the start of “Live And Let Die.” And a needlessly complicated brain-drilling contraption that Bond finds himself strapped into is every bit as inefficient as Auric Goldfinger’s laser castration device.

Fittingly, it is information, rather than some genocidal superweapon, which is the threat to humanity in this installment. A global surveillance network is about to be launched — and the film rather quaintly suggests that a global surveillance network is something you can just switch off by fiddling around on a laptop for a few minutes, but that aside, the idea is timely and perhaps not too far removed from the truth.

“Spectre” is strongest is when it explores the central theme: What is the point of men like Bond in an era where information is power and drones can do his job without racking up an eye-watering bar tab and dry cleaning bill? Is he an outmoded relic of a bygone age? While the character’s relevance may still be subject for debate, the franchise doesn’t do its best work at justifying its continued existence this time around.
"I can't do that superhero stuff" Daniel Craig
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Re: SPECTRE reviews (spoilers!)

Post by Veronica »

Screen-melting chemistry between Craig and Green? All I remeber is a painful dialogue.
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Re: SPECTRE reviews (spoilers!)

Post by dirtybenny »

All these reviews seemingly vindicate my "Cheeseburger" rant from awhile ago. To recap Bond films have been and should be good quality "cinematic junk food" i.e. a tasty burger, EON however without warning replaced the burger with a boiled lobster tail with Casino Royal and continued to call it a cheeseburger. Each successive film EON added a few classic burger toppings to the tail. Now we have a lobster tail smothered in mustard, ketchup and relish which nobody wants. Cheeseburger fans (classic Bond) don't want it because it's not a burger, and lobster fans (pretentious Craig types) don't want it because it's disgusting! Some of these critics appear to be the latter, as they seem to be moaning and winging about the lack of pretentiousness that passes for character development we've unfortunately become accustomed to in Bond films of late, as well as the ham fisted handling of the traditional Bond elements. The sad thing is when, not if, but when this debacle fails it will be the Bond formula to get the blame just as it did after Die Another Day.
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Re: SPECTRE reviews (spoilers!)

Post by James »

No one seems to have a good word about Christoph Waltz. Btw, Metacritic has Spectre wheezing along at only 69% now. The Martian and Bridge of Spies are doing much better there.


http://www.cine-vue.com/2015/10/film-re ... ectre.html

Film Review: 'Spectre'
★★☆☆☆

The opening words of Sam Mendes' second Bond outing, Spectre (2015), are "the dead are alive" and there's a definite sense that this 24th entry into the franchise is attempting to resurrect ghosts from the past. Sadly, it is far from successful. The action begins gliding through the bustling streets of Mexico City on the Day of the Dead as Bond, once again played by Daniel Craig in what is presumed to be his final turn as 007, navigates crowds decked in myriad skull costumes, like some fantastical danse macabre.

This lavish opening tracking shot, captured in one take by cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema, dazzles, promising a spectacular follow-up to 2012's box-office behemoth, Skyfall. After a rapid costume change, and a brief glimpse of Stephanie Sigman's Estrella, we see Bond suited and booted as he hops across rooftops on a mission to kill a Mafioso boss, Sciarra (Alessandro Cremona). A dizzying helicopter battle knocks the wind from your lungs, and Bond acquires a ring bearing a mysterious symbol, before the - heavily octopus-themed - credits roll, backed by Sam Smith's limp title track 'Writing's on the Wall'. Once this opening sucker-punch of a set-piece has concluded we enter much more familiar Bond territory. Like Skyfall, Spectre is loaded with allusions to the previous entries in the franchise, undoubtedly providing much glee for Bond fans. The nods, quips, and - by this point terribly familiar - overall formula soon become tiring, however.

Unlike Skyfall, which explored how such a dinosaur of the secret service could still exist and operate in the modern world, Spectre is more confident about Bond, no doubt bolstered by the success of the previous film which took a staggering $1bn worldwide. Spectre has a level of confidence that dares to return to the tropes of old. There is an a-typical battle of wits between James and his superior 'M'; this time seeing Ralph Fiennes secured as the head of MI6, Mallory, following the death of Judy Dench's 'M' in the previous outing. Mallory explains how the 00 programme is under threat from a new security initiative, dubbed 'Nine Eyes' – a surveillance programme linking the world's nations, headed up by paper-pusher Denbigh, aka 'C' (Andrew Scott). Mendes - along with screenwriters John Logan, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Jez Butterworth - uses the rivalry between 'C' and 'M' as a chance to explore the current zeitgeist of anxiety surrounding surveillance and the secret services that have been a hot topic since Chelsea - formerly Bradley - Manning, and latterly Edward Snowden's high-level intelligence leaks.

Bond is determined to discover the meaning behind the mysterious ring, and after a visit to Q-branch, where the returning quartermaster (Ben Whishaw once again, boasting enviable knitwear) teases Bond with a new Aston Martin, and hands out a single gadget to help him on his missions. In Rome, Bond encounters Sciarra's wife (Monica Bellucci – in an all-too-brief role) who points him towards a gathering of a clandestine organisation, headed by Franz Oberhauser (played by a deeply camp Christoph Waltz, who not only gives Javier Bardem's Silva a run for his money, but also rivals Mike Myers' Dr. Evil). The settings are lavish; Rome, Morocco and Austria look glorious, with Van Hoytema's cinematography warranting comparison to Roger Deakins' marvellous work on the last Bond outing. However, the action is lacklustre, the script bloated with cheap (and repetitive) gags, that make Craig's Bond arrogant rather than endearingly cocksure. It diminishes his charm, which is blunted further by Craig's baffling half-smirks that give the impression of Bond cracking 'dad' jokes. After Rome comes Austria, and the reappearance of an old face, Mr White (Jesper Christensen), and direction to seek out his daughter, Madeline Swan (Léa Seydoux), who can reveal all about the mysterious organisation.

Along the way, Bond is pursued by Dave Bautista's Mr. Hinx, a hulking hitman with a deadly manicure and a penchant for popping eyes. He's a combination of Jaws and Oddjob, and serves little purpose to the plot other than kick-starting fight sequences. Seydoux is the love interest, who declares drunk that she will kill Bond if he touches her; less than twenty-four hours later is clad in a silk negligee following a near death experience and off-camera experimentation with Bond's licence to thrill. What follows comes too close to spoiler territory. Sufficed to say, the majority of the audience won't be surprised - this outing bears most in common with the predictable and dull-witted Quantum of Solace. There is confidence in returning to a more traditional Bond, but this attempt just feels tired. While Mendes and co. are keen to give audiences what they desire, they have utterly failed to push the envelope on the good work they did last time out. The underwhelming conclusion feels like a high-budget episode of Spooks - distinctly lacking in pace and drama. There is enough in there to reward Bond aficionados (largely the endless call-backs), but for those who aren't enraptured by 007's antics this is little more than a rehash, desperately lacking the rousing charm of Skyfall, or the slick glamour of Casino Royale. Perhaps, if Craig hangs up his holster, it may breathe new life into the franchise. At present, Ian Fleming's most famous character feels tired, dated and out of touch.

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Re: SPECTRE reviews (spoilers!)

Post by Veronica »

"At present,Ian Fleming's most famous character feels tired,dated and out-of-touch." This is ironic since EON claimed the whole point of a reboot was to modernise Bond. And of course to bring back Fleming's Bond...yawn.
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Re: SPECTRE reviews (spoilers!)

Post by carl stromberg »

Goldeneye wrote:A place for the hopefully unfavorable reviews of Quantum of Solace 2, I mean SPECTRE.
Most seem to be unfavourable. :cheers:
Bring back Bond!
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Re: SPECTRE reviews (spoilers!)

Post by Daltonite Toothpaste »

Veronica wrote:"At present,Ian Fleming's most famous character feels tired,dated and out-of-touch." This is ironic since EON claimed the whole point of a reboot was to modernise Bond. And of course to bring back Fleming's Bond...yawn.
Which has yet to happen.

RT has Spectre at 84% fresh.
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Re: SPECTRE reviews (spoilers!)

Post by Goldeneye »

Daltonite Toothpaste wrote:
Veronica wrote:"At present,Ian Fleming's most famous character feels tired,dated and out-of-touch." This is ironic since EON claimed the whole point of a reboot was to modernise Bond. And of course to bring back Fleming's Bond...yawn.
Which has yet to happen.

RT has Spectre at 84% fresh.
Out 5 rotten of 32 reviews, not a bad start (and some counted as fresh are not really positive reviews). In my experience the truly savage reviews wait for the release because they honor the agreement not to publish before a certain date. We'll have to see.

EON has talked about bringing back "Fleming's Bond" for generations now, I don't know they can with a PC culture which takes offense at the slightest misconstrued tweet. Even the films Fleming had a hand in were toned down from the books, some very good movies in my opinion just not the complete literary 007.
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Re: SPECTRE reviews (spoilers!)

Post by Boogiemind »

Quantum of Solace 2, are you joking ? :^o):

84% on RottenTomatoes :wink:

Mendes really helped bring Bond to a new level of respectability, and this is definitely the cheeriest 007 Craig has played.
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Re: SPECTRE reviews (spoilers!)

Post by Gary Seven »

Many of the reviews for Spectre have been lukewarm so far. Die Another Day received better reviews when it was released.
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Re: SPECTRE reviews (spoilers!)

Post by Omega »

Oliver Lyttelton | The Playlist: But the massive, movie-breaking problem? Story. Plot holes might be forgivable in a Bond movie (even ones of the gaping, you-could-drive-a-truck-through-it size we get here), but they stand out more when you’re mistaking mystery for actual story, with Bond on a quest that jumps from set piece to set piece rather than building up to something more compelling. By the time Waltz enters the game late in the third act (spoiler: he’s giving the same performance he always does), you keep waiting for some kind of unexpected twist, reversal, or even a moment that makes you feel any kind of suspense. But while press has been asked to keep the film’s surprises under wraps ahead of release, the biggest surprise to me, was that there weren’t any. In general, this feels like a film patched together out of endless hastily-drafted script rewrites rather than a cohesive vision

Proves the point of the Press not reporting some parts of the movie. Sebastian Faulks didn't like Skyfall or the press collusion to promote it.
He disliked the aggressive promotion and merchandising for the film and said critics had shown a "fantastic degree of collusion" with the film's publicists to avoid spoiling its main shock - the death of M, played by Dame Judi Dench.

"The critics said it was one of the greatest Bond films, which is clearly not true.

Sebastian Faulks ridicules 'distasteful' Bond film 'Skyfall'
............ :007:
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Re: SPECTRE reviews (spoilers!)

Post by bjmdds »

It's like the Democrats here saying Hillary Clinton is clean as the driven snow and deserves to be President. They live in a fantasy land in their own perverted reality of a mind.
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Re: SPECTRE reviews (spoilers!)

Post by James »

This review appeared tonight and bumped Spectre down to 83% on RT. I didn't post the whole thing because the reviewer more or less describes the whole film from start to finish.


http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/film ... 97166.html

Spectre review: No license to thrill

What Spectre does, it turns out, is allude so comprehensively to past Bond adventures and iconography that it’s almost more of a resumé than a fresh adventure, gratifying to Bond freaks and film critics who get off on spotting sly references but underplotted in its own right.

What we do get is a lot of lusciously filmed travelogue, a car chase, two more Bond girls, a big fist-fight, a torture scene, a shootout, a race against the clock and a big finish in iconic settings in London (interesting to note how it is the London Eye that most effectively signifies the London skyline internationally now, rather than the Houses of Parliament or St Paul’s). So it’s all there — but so are longueurs, clichés and massive plot holes.

The film has no real underlying idea, despite attempts to recruit it to the campaigns against government monitoring of internet data. There are real threats and troubles at large in the world and once Bond’s adventures did at least take place against the backdrop of the Cold War — but now it never touches on a single reality, such as Islamist terrorism, that might diminish sales anywhere internationally.

So, after all that marketing and expectation, here’s a Bond that, for all its grandiose production values, is little more than an anthology of previous Bonds, a palimpsest even, to be fancier about it. The name is Bond, James Bond, and the certificate, when it is released on Monday, is going to be 12A — 12 being about the right age for it, that means.
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Re: SPECTRE reviews (spoilers!)

Post by shaken not stirred »

http://www.warpedfactor.com/2015/10/the ... ombed.html

I know I'm counting far too many chickens but it's nice to think this...
Bond....James bond....Rest in peace (1964-2002)
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Re: SPECTRE reviews (spoilers!)

Post by Daltonite Toothpaste »

"The toe curling quips were decreased"

And replaced with toe curling 'dramatic' dialogue. *remembers all that armour guff... shudders*

"as Craig returned to Fleming's original outline of a more complex professional killer."

:lol:

Get's me every time. Craig's Bond.... Fleming's Bond.... between them, is a gap so big, I could park a fleet of Kenworth Tankers in the space.
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SPECTRE reviews (spoilers!)

Post by Omega »

shaken not stirred wrote:http://www.warpedfactor.com/2015/10/the ... ombed.html

I know I'm counting far too many chickens but it's nice to think this...
that guy was a awful suck up , but it seems the only way to critique Craig and be accepted is to lavish praise on him before cutting him down. The part were he act like this interview was unusual for Craig is crazy since the start he has had bad stand offish interviews . And many violent outbreaks .

Craigs bs the other day about he has the right to Change his mind is as insulting as what he said to piss everyone off.

Weird thing is he claims he just got done filming the interview I though he said he finished a month earlier . Either way he only worked 128 days for a $24 million payday from the film $6 million advertising crap, and profit sharing if the movie reaches sky fall levers of another $30 million .
For that much money he ought to sing and dance any time a fan walks by


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............ :007:
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