Daniel Crag (Susie Allnutt/© 2015 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., Danjaq, LLC and Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All rights reserved)
James Bond faces a villain who’s closer than he thinks—and who looks a little like Dick Van Dyke—in the latest installment of the decades-old franchise. From its spectacular opening set piece, Spectre careens for a generally enjoyable 2 1/2 hours. But if it takes a colorful villain to make a great action movie, this one falls short. Chalk it up to the banality of evil.
Sam Smith’s terrible, whiny theme song comes off marginally better behind a stellar credit sequence, all shattered glass and octopus tentacles (of which only seven are visible). The movie opens in Mexico, where Bond (Daniel Craig, in his final appearance as 007) walks away from an afternoon tryst to perch on a rooftop and assassinate a target across the street, one Marco Sciarra (Alessandro Cremona). The attempt sets off an explosion that nearly takes out multiple buildings, including the one Bond is standing on. He has nowhere to go but down, so he lets the roof collapse beneath him, which lands him suavely in a comfortable, if dusty, couch. In the real world, this kind of structural failure would kill dozens of people, but it barely scratches the assassin or his target. Bond inevitably gives chase after Sciarra in a dizzying helicopter sequence.
Naturally, this siesta was a rogue operation, set off by a recording left behind by the late M (Judi Dench). Back in the dreary blues and greys of London HQ, Bond gets chewed out and grounded by the new M (Ralph Fiennes), and is introduced to C (Andrew Scott), the head of the Joint Intelligence Service who wants to shut down the 00 program.
It’s a tangled web that strains credulity, but that’s what you’re here for. What’s striking is how bland much of Spectre is, as Bond is forced to navigate the drab bureaucracy and sterile modern architecture of the home office. It’s practically inhuman, and one of the new gadgets that Q (Ben Whishaw) has for the feisty agent is “smart blood” that turns Bond into a walking tracking device whose whereabouts can be traced anywhere. Since Bond has been forbidden to set foot out of London, he asks Q to look the other way and let that smart blood take, say, a couple of days longer to take effect.
Cristoph Waltz and Lea Seydoux (© 2015 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., Danjaq, LLC and Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All rights reserved.)The movie gives the dashing spy his set pieces, explosions and exotic love objects (art house favorites Monica Belluci and Léa Seydoux), but the biggest obstacle to avenging M seems not to be swarthy thugs twice his size (including D.C native Dave Bautista), but boring men in suits.
Which leads to the second-billed actor. Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz) makes only a brief, shadowy cameo in the film’s first hour, but when he finally makes a prominent appearance in the last act, it’s anti-climactic. Waltz is a great character actor, and struck a perfect balance between malevolence and a touch of goofiness in Inglorious Basterds. But director Sam Mendes has coaxed an incongruously lightweight performance out of him, from the slight bounce in his walk to the loafers-without-socks look. Villains should look sharp, right? Waltz can, but doesn’t. It seems to be a conscious choice, as Bond’s enemies turn out not to be the Other but the same old vanilla. No, Spectre isn’t as good as Skyfall, but it’s a solid, if ultimately bureaucratic, thriller.
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Spectre
Directed by Sam Mendes
Written by John Logan, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Jez Butterworth
With Daniel Craig, Cristoph Waltz, Léa Seydoux, Monica Belluci
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence, some disturbing images, sensuality and language
148 minutes
Opens today at a multiplex near you
