Spectre (2015) [Blu-ray]
Action | Adventure | Thriller

Tagline: The Dead Are Alive

James Bond continues his run of romance and foreign intrigue in this tense thriller that pits him against the global terrorist organization SPECTRE. Already battling political interference, MI6 and Bond must again take on their most implacable foe.

Storyline: A cryptic message from the past sends James Bond on a rogue mission to Mexico City and eventually Rome, where he meets Lucia, the beautiful and forbidden widow of an infamous criminal. Bond infiltrates a secret meeting and uncovers the existence of the sinister organisation known as SPECTRE. Meanwhile back in London, Max Denbigh, the new head of the Centre of National Security, questions Bond's actions and challenges the relevance of MI6 led by M. Bond covertly enlists Moneypenny and Q to help him seek out Madeleine Swann, the daughter of his old nemesis Mr White, who may hold the clue to untangling the web of SPECTRE. As the daughter of the assassin, she understands Bond in a way most others cannot. As Bond ventures towards the heart of SPECTRE, he learns a chilling connection between himself and the enemy he seeks.

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Michael Reuben, February 7, 2016 -- Spectre, the twenty-fourth Bond film from EON Productions, racked up impressive box office returns, but it also divided fans. "It's no Skyfall!" was a common reaction among the disappointed (which included my colleague Brian Orndorf). Then again, I recall when Skyfall was similarly dismissed with "It's no Casino Royale!" As far as I know, no one has ever cited Quantum of Solace, Daniel Craig's second Bond outing, as a standard to which other efforts should aspire, but the trend seems clear: Each of Craig's followup Bond films has left part of the fan base with the nagging sense that the new film somehow falls short.

What accounts for this continuing sense of letdown? My theory is that it's driven by a change in the way Bond films are written, one that began with Casino Royale's "reboot" of the franchise. Following the path that Ian Fleming mapped in the first of his Bond novels, Craig's debut burrowed more deeply into Bond's character than any previous film (with the possible exception of George Lazenby's one-off turn in On Her Majesty's Secret Service). In the film as in the novel, Bond found his emotional vulnerabilities exploited and the last of his illusions stripped away. As Casino Royale's ad campaign promised, the film showed us how Bond became Bond—that is, how the newly licensed-to-kill 007 became the emotionally contained, self-sufficient hero who, in so many previous films, blithely walked into danger.

But the franchise's creators didn't stop there. In each of Craig's successive outings, the focus on Bond's inner life has remained an essential element (and yes, I hesitated before writing the phrase "Bond's inner life", which would have been an oxymoron for the character played by Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan). In each subsequent film, Craig's Bond has remained a man battling personal demons, some present and some past. Despite his repeated assertions that nothing bothers him, that he doesn't reflect on his choices in life, that he's an emotional cold fish who leaps from one adventure and bed to the next, Craig's Bond always finds that his latest mission stirs up a deep well of feeling, whether it's love for Vesper Lynd, devotion to Judi Dench's M, or sorrow for his lost family. Principal screenwriters Neil Purvis and Robert Wade have admitted to mining every scrap of information tossed out by Ian Fleming for inspiration in their effort to "deepen" Bond's character. No one seems to have questioned whether relentlessly excavating Bond's history and psychology was a wise decision for a franchise that has survived over fifty years because its hero always manages to emerge from disaster unscathed, both inside and out.

Spectre represents the apotheosis of the Purvis/Wade approach, as it systematically revisits and reformulates Craig's previous Bond outings, purporting to reveal an ultimate enemy who has lurked unidentified behind the scenes of three feature films and billions of dollars in box office. The marketing made no secret of the fact that, in what amounts to yet another "reboot" of the franchise, Bond's chief enemy isn't just a Serious Bad Guy. He's a figure from Bond's own past, one who mockingly informs 007 that it's Bond who is responsible for the villain's career as an evil genius. Such intimate ties between a hero and his nemesis are the stuff of Greek tragedy, Shakespearean drama and comic book franchises, but how many times do the impresarios of EON think they can get away with it for Bond?

As so often in the past, Bond in Spectre is forced into the role of rogue agent, pursuing a lead from an unlikely source that eventually brings him to the mysterious Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz) and his shadowy criminal organization with its octopus insignia. The path to Oberhauser begins in Mexico City, where director Sam Mendes stages an elaborate chase during the Day of the Dead celebration, complete with collapsing buildings, aerial hijinks and a massive crowd of extras. The pursuit continues to Rome, where Bond secures further information—and spends a few memorable hours—with Lucia Sciarra (Monica Belucci), the widow of a recently deceased Spectre assassin. In Rome, Bond catches his first glimpse of Oberhauser (whom he recognizes as a figure from his past) and manages the first of several escapes from an apparently indestructible Spectre assassin named Hinx (WWE star Dave Bautista, who played Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy). The trail then leads to Austria, where an encounter with an old adversary sends Bond to an Alpine clinic seeking the gorgeous Dr. Madeline Swann (Léa Seydoux), and then to Tangier, where Bond discovers the location of Oberhauser's lair in the Moroccan desert.

Back in London, the new M (Ralph Fiennes), along with Q (Ben Wishaw), Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and Tanner (Rory Kinnear), are facing the dismantlement of MI6 at the hands of Max Denbigh, a/k/a "C" (Andrew Scott, Sherlock's Moriarty), apostle of a shining new age of electronic espionage. As Denbigh moves forward with his plan to consolidate the intelligence services of Britain and eight other nations in a secure London headquarters over which he will have sole dominion, no one except M seems concerned that privacy and democracy will be thrown out the window along with the "00" section. (Is no one even a little troubled that the construction of Denbigh's spiffy steel-and-glass tower was funded by private contributions? )

The conclusion of Spectre attempts to unite these many moving parts in a grand finale with the requisite pyrotechnics, narrow escapes and just desserts for the villains, but there's something off about the whole affair—and not just because we're asked to believe that Bond emerges from the fray a changed man. The late Richard Maibaum, screenwriter of twelve Bonds, used to say that the film's story should be driven by the villain's evil objective. A plot to subvert the entire Western intelligence apparatus sounds like a grand scheme, but when it's motivated by what amounts to sibling rivalry, the whole affair is trivialized. Skyfall lost some momentum at the end, because it turned out that its villain's elaborate machinations boiled down to a simple act of revenge against "Mommy". But Spectre collapses entirely, because it doesn't even try to hide the fact that Oberhauser is doing it all to get even with Bond.

Despite its problems, Spectre is a Bond film, and Bond fans are loyal. With repeat viewings, I suspect that Spectre's flaws will retreat from attention, and fans will concentrate on individual sequences that are memorable, primarily in the film's first half. Though light on extras, the Blu-ray is a first-rate production and recommended.

[CSW] -2.8- I found Spectre's storyline bland and predictable with a premise we've seen before. After finding good actors to flesh out M, Q, and Moneypenny, they are barely used. This felt like a paint by numbers usage of past ideas. I cannot even give the film good marks for visuals and production as they didn't even seem to use their great locations in an effective manner. It would appear too many cooks in the kitchen working the on the story and the screenplay ends up with a work by committee where you spend most of the film looking at homages to other Bond films. But, somehow this movie still fails because of the bland and predictable plot mess. This is a watch once for Bond fans.
[V5.0-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box 10/10.


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