Spectre (2015)

James Bond will forever be in our movie memories as one of the greatest action series of films ever made. This film adds to this greatness. -TE (11.21.15)

This is a sequel to SKYFALL. Bond battles "the author of all his pain" as his secret past is revealed. An international organization plans on uniting all the top intelligence agencies in order to combat terrorism. However their goals are not benign nor are their methods honorable. Bond has his hands tied by his own agency as he operates in a semi-rogue fashion.The film gives us plenty of over the top action, Bond girls, Bond lines, Bond car and the Bond drink. I don't recall the casino. It shows the evolution of a man. It also shows us why men like Bond are obsolete in the modern world of intelligence gathering and drones....or does it?Perhaps it is me, but the film seems to changed to have more action than drama.

Bond only travels first class. Every boat, train, car, plane he's in is of unimaginable luxury. Even a train in Algiers to the middle of the desert isn't full of sweaty goatherders, but it's an immaculate wagon with first-class dining facilities and butlers.Every street Bond drives on, is completely empty.Bond only drives on streets alongside fancy, palatial mansions, palaces, and impressive bridges and architecture.Bond and whatever woman he's with always carry or purchase a smoking and gala dress, even when they rush from one country to another, are pursued, are carrying nothing but the shirt on their backs, or go to attack someone.Bond meets woman. Bond sleeps with woman 5 minutes later (even if he meets her at the funeral of her husband... really?!).Bond shoot a pistol at a pipeline in an IT facility. Entire facility blows up 10 seconds later.Helicopter with Evil Overlord flies away. It conveniently follows the river, so Bond can follow by boat and shoot the helicopter down (again, with a pistol).Bond can fly a plane.Bond has the latest gadgets.Bond can a drill bit penetrate his skull and brain, and not suffer any adverse effects.Evil Overlord survives the explosion that destroys his entire base.Every computer system can be hacked by Q in the span of 30 minutes.The only redeeming thing about this movie is the cinematography. Most shots are sweeping, wide, and beautiful. The camera doesn't jump from one shot to another twice in the span of a second. There's no shaky cam. The opening shot is a single take that lasts about 5 minutes, from the streets below, to inside the hotel, to on the rooftop - very nice indeed. If only the rest of the movie was half as good.The first 30 minutes had promise. Then it crashed and burned. Don't waste your time.

This is easily the worst among Daniel Craig's Bond movies uptill now. There is absolutely nothing to look forward to in this one. Craig could not sign off with a bang in his supposedly last Bond flick, maybe that's the reason he has declared to be back with yet another one with the studios, as he himself admitted he just does not go want to go off with a whimper. It had more to do with a super-weak script and a very very ordinary Bond girl for company. I kept waiting for this new Bond girl, as this has always been something to look out for in Bond flicks and it is only halfway into the movie did I realise, oh, is this Lea Seydoux who will be giving Bond company for the whole movie, come on, 50+ Monica Bellucci would have been a far more attractive prospect there. The only saving grace was probably the villain Christopher Waltz, hope he could have a bit more screen time there. He is damn good as he always is, can never forget him in the opening scene of Inglorious Bastards. Action scenes were cliche and this movie expectedly got average reviews. 6/10.