Movie Review: James Bond 007: Spectre

SPOILER ALERT: This is a full review with spoilers. Proceed at your own risk if you haven’t seen the movie yet.


Over the weekend, I saw Spectre, the twenty-fourth film in Eon Production’s James Bond series.

First, some background. In my opinion, Daniel Craig’s tenure as Bond has been a mixed bag. Casino Royale was brilliant. Quantum of Solace was dull and convoluted. Skyfall had its moments, but it didn’t hang together very well.

My main problem with Skyfall is that the writers/director didn’t seem to know whether they wanted the film to be in continuity with the two prior Bond films, a soft reboot, or some kind of standalone alternate universe detour. (We just had Bond’s origin story six years before, and now he’s over the hill?)

Resolving this conundrum is now impossible, since Spectre clearly establishes that all of the Craig films do indeed take place in the same continuity. But that’s Skyfall’s problem. I won’t hold it against Spectre.

Which is good, because Spectre has enough problems of its own.

Troubled Production
Spectre ran into problems before shooting even began. The film’s production suffered multiple and costly setbacks, including uncertainty about the return of director Sam Mendes, assaults by hackers, controversies over filming permits and foreign tax breaks, and massive budget overruns. Due in part to these extra hassles, Spectre is now one of the most expensive films ever made.

Villainous Plot
Bear with me as I try to sum up the plot of Spectre based on one viewing.

Mexico City: Bond chases a terrorist through a Day of the Dead festival. The scumbag tries to flee via helicopter, but 007 boards the aircraft and kills everyone on board with his bare hands. Not a bad start! During the aerial struggle, Bond recovers a ring engraved with a sort-of ghost, sort-of octopus thing.

Back in London, Bond is called on the carpet by M (Ralph Fiennes), who reveals that the shenanigans in Mexico City weren’t sanctioned by MI6. We also learn that M’s division has merged with MI5, which is headed by a weasely surveillance state quisling called C.

There’s a major conference coming up where the intelligence agencies of nine countries will vote on sharing all of their information, and Bond is suspended to keep him out of trouble. For good measure, M has Q (Ben Wishaw) implant 007 with a nanotech tracking device.

Bond skips town anyway, heading to Rome for the Mexico City terrorist’s funeral. Because M (Dame Judi Dench) tells him to in a postmortem video message. Bond saves and seduces the terrorist’s widow (Monica Belluci), who directs him to a meeting of the secret ghost octopus society her husband belonged to.

The meeting is totally chaired by Blofeld (Christoph Walz), and there’s not even any point in pretending that it’s not Blofeld, but the movie tries to anyway. There, Bond learns where Mr. White has been hiding since Quantum of Solace. After a car chase that’s more like a drag race with one or two obstacles, Bond goes to Switzerland to meet up with White.

It turns out that White was a member of the ghost octopus society, which is really called Spectre (not S.P.E.C.T.R.E.). All of the villains from Craig’s previous Bond films are also revealed to have been members. 007 asks where he can find Blofeld and gets a referral to White’s estranged daughter, whom he swears to protect. Then White blows his own brains out.

White’s daughter is working at a clinic in the Alps. She initially refuses to accompany Bond, but she’s forced to accompany a gang of kidnappers from Spectre. Bond saves her in a thrilling plane/car chase, and she agrees to help. At a hotel where she went on family vacations as a kid, they find directions to Blofeld’s secret base inside a crater in the desert.

There’s an awesome fight aboard the desert train that pays homage to From Russia With Love. Then Bond and Bond Girl arrive at the crater base. A toady invites them to have drinks with Blofeld after freshening up in an homage to Dr. No.

Blofeld comes on screen and monologues. He’s still using an assumed name, but the fact that he’s using C and the intelligence vote to gain control of the world’s top secret information should clue anybody who knows anything about the franchise into the fact that he’s Blofeld.

Blofeld reveals that:

• He’s Bond’s sort-of foster brother.
• He killed his own dad because he was jealous of Bond.
• He’s responsible for the deaths of every Bond girl since Casino Royale, including M.
• His name is Ernst Stavro Blofeld (duh).