Overall the movie was great. That opening shot of the Pre-Title sequence lasted for two minutes or something, I caught on to that early, and I liked it, but it also made me think of “how long is this one shot? Is it the entire pre-title sequence in one shot?” which did take me out of the sequence a bit, but I was back on board when it started to change shots.
I am not sure how I feel about Silva (from Skyfall) being an employee of SPECTRE, or maybe one of its subsidiaries. Quantum I can understand, it was from the beginning designed to be the new SPECTRE, when EON Productions could not get the rights to use them, so the evolution of Quantum being associated with SPECTRE, I am totally on board with, even if it is a retcon.
Silva on the other hand, was an agent gone rogue, borderline insane, if I was in charge of SPECTRE, I do not think I would want an insane person, with highly valuable intel, to be working for me, as there is a chance that he could snap at any moment. Not to mention his entire backstory with M (Judi Dench), and his whole vendetta against her
At no point in time did I feel there was a puppet master in the background pulling Silva’s strings, he was on his own. Sure you could make the argument of “How else did he recruit as many men as he did?” but that is just a traditional Bond villain thing, to have employees. I ask “How did Kristatos get his men?” “How did Kamal Khan get his henchmen?” “How did Elektra and Renard get their henchmen?” it is all part of Bond tradition. I guess the simple answer is an unemployed finds a job that pays well, and it just so turns out that that job involves going head-to-head with James Bond.
Of the top of my head I can only think of Scaramanga as a villain without a bunch of henchmen. Only Knicknack and that technician controlling the cooling temperatures. Then again, we are talking about Christopher Lee, if anyone can do everything himself, it is him.
The only thing about Silva I could see maybe be a hint of him working with SPECTRE, is that he is a highly skilled hacker, who can manage to leak information out of the British Secret Service, and make it all seem like it was done on M’s personal computer. What is SPECTRE’s goal in this new movie? Gathering information from every corner of the world to control it, and in praxis world domination. Quantum was all about having leaks and informants literally everywhere, so it fits as a subsidiary of SPECTRE, but I just cannot see Silva being a part of it.
Another reason is that currently all of Bond’s opponents have had something to do with SPECTRE. Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace both dealt heavily with the Quantum organization, which is a subsidiary, and now Silva was an agent of SPECTRE. This gives of the impression that every villain and or criminal in the world is associated with SPECTRE. Every time someone robs a 7-Eleven, SPECTRE was secretly behind it. I know that is taking it to a drastic level, but that is the impression I got from this. Initially I was very much on board with introducing SPECTRE to Craig’s films, partially because it could make the return of the Quantum organization believable without the sour taste Quantum of Solace gave many of us. And partially because it would be a modern reflection of how the SPECTRE movies were done in Connery’s early films.
First we have Dr. No who, seemingly, operates on his own but he mentions to Bond that he is a member of SPECTRE, compared to Casino Royale where we find Le Chiffre doing his business with the stock market, but we learn that he is working under this Mr. White who mentions something about his organization. So here we know there is an organization behind both of our first villains.
Then From Russia with Love involves a plan from SPECTRE to get revenge on the agent who killed their powerful agent Dr. No, as well as getting a decryption machine, in the process revealing information about the organization to Bond, compared to Quantum of Solace where Bond wants revenge on his beloved one, whilst gaining intel on the organization. So here the follow-ups deal with a heavy presence of the organization introduced in the previous film.
Then comes Goldfinger featuring a villain who has nothing what-so-ever to do with SPECTRE, and Skyfall with no mention of Quantum at all.
Fourth came Thunderball again dealing with a heavy presence of SPECTRE, compared to SPECTRE which deals heavily with the eponymous organization of which Quantum was a subsidiary.
Having Silva be a member of SPECTRE ruins this reflection of the old movies.
The ending kind of confused me, I put my thoughts as I saw the movie in quotes, Bond leaves with Dr Swann and the screen fades to black. “What? Does the movie end with Bond retiring?” Next we see Q in his lab, “Okay, the movie is not wholly over yet…” Bond steps out of the lift, Q asks if he had not left them, Bond says yes, he just needs one thing. Next shot Bond and Dr Swann in the DB5 driving through the streets of London and end movie. ”Wait, does that mean he retired?” The credits roll, and no ‘James Bond will return’, at the start of the credits, might have come at the very end as in the old movies, but we do not sit through the credits in a theatre in my family, so I do not know. If I was on my own, I definitely would have sat through, because that question has haunted me these last couple of days already. Is this meant to be the end of Craig’s Bond? And if so, the way they ended the movie, do they plan on rebooting the series with a new actor already? So many questions fill my head right now, thanks to the way that ending was designed, I cannot take it.
And what about SPECTRE the organization? Sure Bond blew up Blofeld’s main base, and I will return to him soon enough, but we can clearly see trucks fleeing from the explosions, and what about all the people from the meeting in Rome? Blofeld is not dead, just incarcerated, so what does that mean for the organization? Will the higher-ups now fight for control? Or is Blofeld still in control despite being imprisoned? Are we to believe that the ENTIRE GLOBAL SPANNING criminal organization crumbled on itself just because the plan to merge nine countries’ secret service work failed? Unless they truly go that route, there is aplethora of stories to tell with SPECTRE’s follow-up plans, so I will be very furious at the production team, if they do decide to retire Bond with this film, and start up a new reboot.
The subplot is about a business man, C, trying to make MI6 and its agents obsolete by starting an Europol-like security cooperation with nine countries in the world, where all information is shared between all membership countries. This plot seemed a little forced to me, I thought after Skyfall, you know the movie with the subplot that M and her agents were relics of the past, proved to the British government that spies were still a necessity when Silva burst into the Parliament hall and started shooting at everyone. So the fact that this movie starts with MI5 and MI6 having already been merged, and on the verge of shutdown by the government, despite not being that long after the previous movie, just does not sit right with me. We do get to see Q, M, Moneypenny and Tanner all work together with Bond to cease the madness, so if you ever wanted to see them all doing field work, this is your movie.
Now enough ranting
There is a point in the film where Q is sent to bring Bond back to England, and just because he is seen talking with Bond, he is ambushed and attacked in the lift on the way back to his hotel room. He manages to escape them unharmed, but the entire sequence reminded me of For Your Eyes Only when Bond is chased by Loque and that German athlete in a lift, and he escapes by ski jumping. Pretty cool to see references to previous Bond films.
Chistophe Waltz’ Franz Oberhausen, was introduced, I think, perfectly, instead of like the old movies where the camera is either always behind Blofeld or pointed just below his neck, or Thunderball’s curtain down to chest height, Christophe was always fully in frame in his introductory scene, but sitting in the shade, and revealed himself to Bond, when he wanted to, instead of someone capturing Bond and bringing him before Blofeld. It was a clever way to modernize the hidden leader of the criminal organization, which has been parodied many times before. And I am sure this movie was not the first time it is done like this, but it works, and that is what counts.
I do feel sorry for Christophe Waltz, having been casted as the main villain in a Bond movie called SPECTRE everyone jumped to the conclusion that he must be playing Ernst Stavro Blofeld, but that being meant as a twist in the film, he had to go out and say that he in no way was playing Blofeld or someone like him. Reminds me of Star Trek where everyone guessed that Cumberbatch was Khan, and J.J. Abrams had to go out publically and say “no, he is not.” It was one of those situations where the twist was just too obvious.
I wanted to believe Christophe, but you really cannot have SPECTRE without Blofeld, and as there was no casting ever announced to play Blofeld, it was really the only possible situation. I did play around with the idea that what if Blofeld was a second-in-command who would backstab Oberhausen, but I never cared much for the thought.
Sean Bautista’s Mr. Hinx seemed like an invincible brute, like the Odjobs and Jaws’ of the past, which I think is a good thing. But that was also a reason why I was, Idk, confused? Disappointed? Whatever it was his death did not really sit right with me. I think my initial thoughts were “Does he not come back? Was that it?” Sure if someone tied a rope around my neck, and had the other end attached a bunch of barrels falling out of a speeding train, I would die with my neck probably snapping before I hit the ground. But this guy has for the entire second act of the film been chasing down Bond and Dr. Swann. Seeing what he has been through up to that point combined with his near invulnerable strength, I guess I just expected him to come back for one more scene.
I do not listen to the song written to be the theme song for the new movies until I have heard them in the film, so when I heard that Sam Smith with his ‘Writings on the Wall’ would be the new theme song, I was interested in where the song would go. Then I stumbled upon the comment section, and everyone and their mother was bitching over his high voice. I was curious what they meant, if someone can hit a truly high note, then that is good for them, no? Then the song played, and I was not expecting him to go THAT high, I was completely speechless. I have listened to it again afterwards, and currently, I think I like the song, so who really cares about how high notes he can hit, as long as it is a good song.
I almost did not register the visuals in the title sequence accompanying the song, because of the octopus motif used throughout the entire sequence. I know, an octopus is the logo of SPECTRE, so it makes sense, but if it were not for the people in the sequence being silhouettes, there are some images that could be considered borderline tentacle erotica.
Spoiler
