“I think you’re just getting started,” Moneypenny jokes to a deep-seated Bond, before eliciting a smiling reaction from Daniel Craig. And you’re right! Craig has started as Bond! For the first time, he plays Bond, not a man looking to become Bond. Craig, a self-confessed Sean Connery nut, teams up again with his ‘Skyfall’ compatriot Sam Mendes to deliver the most aesthetically pleasing entrance since ‘The Living Daylights’ (1987) and the strongest film in the Bond canon since ‘Casino Royale’. (2006). Mercifully rejecting the unnecessary cerebralism of ‘Skyfall’ and the frenetic testosterone madness of ‘Quantum of Solace’, ‘Spectre’ melds the classic and the modern, a modern example of pop cinema’s greatest icon.
Mendes has a flair for cinema, his palette and brush cover Bond and beyond. The film’s opening tracking shot is reminiscent of Scorsese, a subsequent torture scene in a lab is reminiscent of Kubrick. Atypical of a Mendes film, the dialogue breaks and buzzes as fast as any of Bond’s bullets. Mendes turns his hand to the Bonds of Connery and Moore without resorting to pastiche. “It was I, James, the author of all your pain,” Nehru says tersely dressed as Christoph Waltz (Franz Oberhauser) as he tells his fallen friend of his shared history. It’s a chilling moment, contrasting with a fun and hilarious train fight recalled ten minutes earlier. Dave Bautista’s Mr. Hinx must be the nicest henchman in years, his dumb but deadly ass is a good throwback to Harold Sakata’s Oddjob of yesteryear.
Waltz and Craig aren’t the only members to impress in this epic. Lea Seydoux impresses with ethereal qualities as resident Bond girl Dr. Madeleine Swan, her French intonation a good indictment of the series’ worldliness. Ben Whishaw and Rory Kinnear play their roles with ease, adding comedic flourishes to their bumbling office characters. Harris, the most complete Moneypenny to date; Ralph Fiennes, a frenetic action hero; if age weren’t a factor, he could be a very worthy successor to Craig. Only Monica Bellucci and Andrewe Scott don’t fare so well, the former on screen too gloomy, the latter unable to hide his Dublin accent, as embarrassing as Michael Fassbender’s Irish ramblings at the end of ‘X-Men: First Class’ or Pierce Brosnan’s inability to say ‘Bond, James Bond’ without resorting to hibernal dictation.
Fittingly, the film is the funniest and most light-hearted since ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ (1997), a refreshing change of pace from the dying introspection the film series has tried to follow since ‘The World Is Not Enough’ (1999), with humour. both predictable and consciously ironic. When Bond orders his vodka martini, he is informed that none are sold at the medical facility they are in. A frantic Bond disapproves of a Moneypenny in bed with another man, a throwback to the days when Naomi Harris’s predecessor, Lois Maxwell, criticized Bond’s nonacademic pursuits. And where Craig was once accused of having no sense of humor (Ed Power of ‘The Irish Times’ certainly thought so), it’s refreshing to see how much fun Craig is having in his fourth outing. After three movies of nonstop scuffles, it’s nice to see Craig chuckle when he parachutes in, or joke when a fallen villain falls from a peak, without resorting to the histrionic camp of the Roger Moore days. However, a break through a hotel wall proves that he hasn’t lost his finesse for carnage or his uncanny facial similarities to Steve McQueen.
The film is not without its detractors. Thomas Newman shamelessly recycles entire music tracks from his previous soundtrack for ‘Skyfall’, something John Barry never did with more than eleven scores, the film might have lost ten minutes for timing reasons and he’s not sure if it’s thematically pro or anti-Edward Snowden. But it’s a good example of pop entertainment as good as pop can be. If this turns out to be Craig’s last outing, he at least left with a smile very firmly plastered on his face! James Bond will return according to the promise of the end credits: ‘Spectre’ proves that he never left!