REVIEW: SPECTRE simply does NOT live up to Skyfall – we analyse what went wrong

Is this film Bond's funeral?

SPECTRE falls short of spectacular. Is 007 firing blanks? Daniel Craig's future as Bond is already in doubt and the latest film leaves us more shaken than stirred. Watch our analysis of what went wrong.

 

It feels like it's been an eternity coming but the spectre of, well, SPECTRE can finally be laid to rest.

The 24th James Bond film roars onto the big screen dragging race rows and speculation about Daniel Craig's future in its high-octane wake.

The endless dramas this year surrounding the present 007 and his potential successors have almost overshadowed the film itself.

WATCH OUR LIVE ANALYSIS OF SPECTRE NEXT (WARNING: MILD SPOILERS)

 

After Craig stirred up controversy with unguarded comments that he would rather "slit my wrists" than make another James Bond film, will we want him back anyway?

So, does he shoot to kill or thrill? Or have we finally had our fill of Daniel Craig as James Bond?

SCROLL DOWN TO READ THE FULL REVIEW OF SPECTRE

 

Is SPECTRE the most explosive Bond film yet?

REVIEW: SPECTRE

STARRING: Daniel Craig, Christoff Waltz, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Lea Seydoux, Ben Wishaw, Monica Bellucci

Living up to Skyfall was an almost impossible task.

SPECTRE, unfortunately, is too muddled to even get close.

The dialogue is sharp, the cinematography is lavish and the performance are uniformly excellent. Craig has grown into the role with such overpowering assurance that he is finally comfortable with a few deliciously dry quips.

So what went wrong?

 

HIgh-flyer: the spectacular opening scene over Mexico City

It starts so well. The opening sequence in Mexico City during the Day of the Dead is a thrilling jolt of vintage Bond.

A seamlessly shot rooftop assassination is followed by a spectacular mid-air fight with 007 hanging inside and out of a helicopter. It is breath-taking and pulse-pounding and sets a bar that the rest of the film struggles to match.

And before I look at the film itself, I humbly suggest that the avalanche of on-set photographs and video blogs run the horrible risk of diminishing the impact of the action when it finally erupts onto the big screen. Yes, the helicopter sequence was jaw-dropping but I had still seen far too much of it already in advance.

More disappointingly, a high-speed chase at night in Rome affords plenty of opportunity to admire the gorgeous architecture, but somehow fails to deliver high-octane thrills.

As for the film, whether or not this is Daniel Craig's final time as James Bond, there is an overwhelming sensation that this is the end of an era. 

 

Familiar faces pop up in the opening title sequence and throughout the film there is a sense of a spider's web finally closing in.

As the plot progresses, we are constantly reminded of the events of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, with the previous threats now presented as being the tentacles of a central octopus. And what, pray tell, is the emblem of the shadowy SPECTRE, itself?

Skyfall, of course, looms largest in the new film. Naomie Harris' Moneypenny hands James a box of retrieved memorabilia from the burnt out house and tells him that she know he is hiding a big secret.

The build up to this secret has been a long time coming. Frenzied speculation has surrounded the true identity of Christoff Waltz's menacing villain, but the reveal, when it comes, is rather underwhelming.

  

Daniel Craig kissing Monica Bellucci

Daniel Craig and Lea Seydoux

Skyfall skillfully paid homage to the past and had more than a whiff of Sean Connery to it. SPECTRE, unfortunately, flirts perilously with shades of Roger Moore.

Fatally, there is surprisingly little delivery of knuckle-biting fear here. The damsels may be in distress and Bond frequently fights for his life, but, apart from a sensational fight on board a train, it never really grips you by the throat until you can barely breathe.

Worst of all, Bond is being humanised. His psychological scars and instability in Skyfall have softened into real vulnerability here.

Bond's traditional relentless touching and feeling of every passing beauty smacked of the 'sexist, misogynist dinosaur" that Judi Dench's M so famously skewered in Goldeneye, but it's still preferable to a Bond who is touchy and feely in a soppy way.

And, boy does he love to snog – soppily and sloppily – in the new film.

 

That said, the two principal femmes fatale are fine additions to the canon. Monica Bellucci is fantastically alluring and tormented as the Mafioso widow and her make-out session with Craig brings real heat.

Lea Seydoux is a new breed of Bond girl all together. She refuses to fall straight into Bond's bulging arms and is a true match for him throughout the film. 

We also get rather more involvement from Bond's buddies who leave their traditional office-bound roles for various capers throughout the film. Ben Whishaw's Q even gets an international escapade - complete with stylish knitwear – while Ralph Fiennes' M continues to be a budding action hero himself.

The emphasis seems to be on getting to know them all as people. Moneypenny gets a boyfriend, Q has a cat and we even see inside Bond's London flat.

It's enticing and irresistible, rather like going behind the scenes at Buckingham Palace - but as the Royal Family learned to their cost, it runs a fatal risk of busting the myth.

 



Daniel Craig and Christoff Waltz compare smirks



SPECTRE isn't quite It's A Royal Knockout, but it undermines so much of the glorious grit and gravitas Craig has brought to the role. As ludicrous as the idea of the Queen skydiving may be to traditionalists, the sight of James Bond romantically holding hands with a girl is far worse.

Bond has always worked so well as an archetype. The man, the myth, the mystery. A towering figure almost beyond human understanding. 

Now he has pals, feelings and flat-screen TV.  

By giving our hero such heavy feet of clay, SPECTRE prevents the our spirits from soaring.

It is a double-edged sword and accordingly this is very much a film of two sides. There is so much to enjoy, but it left me strangely cold, very much against my own hopes and wishes.

Bond films have always seemed so sure of themselves – undeniably anachronistic, but grandly in a whole world of their own making. Suddenly all that has changed and it all leaves me rather more shaken than stirred.

What can possibly come next for Bond? I really haven't got a clue - and for the first time i'm not so sure I care…

VERDICT: 3 stars