The New James Bond Movie, Spectre, Is Awesome
Since September, I’ve been living and going to school in London. So far, it’s a lot like living in New York City but with shittier food, worse weather, easier access to travel, more casual daytime drinking, less masturbating homeless people, and public transportation that actually works. I’ve enjoyed it. But the best benefit of being across the pond so far has been that the new James Bond movie, Spectre, came out here last week while it’s still unreleased in the States. I’m a big movie guy so I went to see it, so here is my review:
(No spoilers obviously, since none of you have seen it and I’m not a dick.)
Spectre was, in pretty much every way, a throwback to an Old School Bond movie. The dialogue, plot progression, and character development throughout the film resembled a lot more of the Pierce Brosnan or Sean Connery version of a Bond movie, the version that was unconcerned with pretentious Internet critics, Austin Powers-parodies, and having to justify it’s own existence in this new pop culture world we live in where every movie and TV show has to SAY something instead of just being something entertaining that people enjoy.
Spectre was fun. Spectre had explosions. It had Bond delivering biting one-liners and killing people and banging gorgeous women. It was everything a classic James Bond movie should be. Was it as tense and have the cutting suspense of Casino Royale? Not really. Was the plot as well-written as Skyfall? Nah. But it didn’t have to be. Spectre used every bullet in the gun with James Bond tropes: A foot chase through a city, shaken-not-stirred martinis, an extended hand-to-hand combat scene, awesome futuristic cars, a Bond girl, pretty much everything you would expect. And I think that’s great, because that’s what I go to a James Bond movie to see. When I pay for my subway ride to the theatre and ticket and soda and popcorn, I’m expecting for 2 hours of a culturally iconic character doing awesome shit. Spectre didn’t really say anything important or aspire to be anything more than it is. It was just a super-entertaining, really well-made movie. And while I’ve seen some reviewers on the Internet call that cliché, or stupid, I still think there’s a place for that. At least to me there still is.
Spectre also felt like a swan song for the Daniel Craig-era of the James Bond saga. Big changes seem to be coming for the future of the Bond franchise. Sony’s rights to the franchise are expiring, and Warner Brothers is rumored to be aggressively pursuing them. Daniel Craig hasn’t exactly been shy about not wanting to reprise the character, and I think after this movie it’s safe to say that Craig’s darker, more gritty version of Bond (that I’ve really enjoyed), has been fully explored and it’s time to see someone take it in a new direction.
The search for the new James Bond will be fascinating. The name that’s been making the most noise has been Idris Elba. While some people scoff at the idea of a black James Bond as some sort of liberal overcompensation for a franchise that doesn’t fit the 2015 PC Culture of what entertainment is supposed to be (no joke I heard people walking out of the theatre discussing how “problematic” 007’s womanizing and violence was. People walked into a James Bond movie not expecting sex and guns, then complained when they were in the movie), I don’t see any reason the character of James Bond has to be a white guy. Nothing about the 007 persona requires him to be white: all he needs to be is charismatic, handsome, British, and awesome. Elba fits the bill. He’d be my #2 pick behind my personal favorite, Michael Fassbender, but I don’t know if you go from doing Shakespeare and biopics to being an action hero, so that feels like a stretch. No matter who Bond ends up being, I hope movies like Spectre, operatic in their scope, visually dazzling, and fun as hell, continue to be in the franchise’s future.
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