Bond confronts original nemesis in Spectre

I don’t know if you’re a Sam Smith fan or not (I’m not even sure where I stand), but that’s the first face you see in “Spectre,” the latest James Bond film, out today.

No, really: the movie opens with the music video for “Writings on the Wall,” a song created for the movie. A good chuckle ran through the theater, and I distinctly remember looking over to my fellow Advocate editor and sharing an incredulous eye-roll. The song’s good, for sure, the music video is just cheesy in my opinion, and I don’t quite understand the reasoning behind opening the movie with that.

As for the actual movie, it had its fair share of cheesy moments, as most blockbuster action films do. But after the questionable Sam Smith cameo, “Spectre” starts out strong. The first scene starts in Mexico City during a Dia De Los Muertos celebration. This scene is probably my favorite of the movie, despite the fact that it’s just an establishing sequence, simply because it gets me excited. The tone for the scene is set by a heavy bass beat that tempos each step, turn and position of the characters, which is incredibly fun for the viewer to follow along. And I might just have a thing for costuming, but the amazing costume design for the movie truly starts in the opening and carries flawlessly throughout the film.

The overall theme for the movie is, in a way, an underdog story. It seems as though everyone is working against Bond — the 007 program is likely to be terminated, and his agency has him grounded in London and on probation. He is, for all intents and purposes, alone. This makes you really root for him, and makes it even better when he prevails. Bond is as badass as you might remember him to be, so rest assured. Even more so, when he teams up with the feisty, knows-how-to-protect-herself “Bond girl,” Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux).

My biggest issue was when that ‘badassery’ aspect overtook certain action scenes, pulling me out of the experience.

An example is a helicopter scene at the beginning of the movie, where Bond takes a whole, suspenseful scene to incapacitate both the pilot and the passenger before throwing them out to fall to their death. I think I watched that helicopter almost crash into the crowd of thousands below about five times; way too dramatic for me.

Cheesy scenes like that is why didn’t give this movie a full 5 out of 5.

Now, what truly made the movie was the villain. Christoph Waltz played Oberhauser (the big bad) and as you can expect, he was excellent. He lifted the movie into a whole new score for me, because if you can make me cringe, then you’ve done your job. Nearly everything about his character was unsettling for me, from the fact that there is nearly no background music when he’s on screen to the fact that he wears slippers and capris (all I could stare at were his ankles!).

“Spectre” is a pretty good movie – albeit, a bit cheesy, but still good. I highly recommend it. Make sure to prepare mentally – it’s a lengthy film at 148 minutes, so you’ll be in for a long haul. I give “Spectre” a 4 /5 on the golden gun scale.

Advocate Staff