10 Nov 2015 15:04:31
I went to see Spectre today, just because I was passing the cinema on my way home and there was a showing just about to start, so I thought 'sod it' let's see what it is like. The first thing that came to mind, as it has with all the recent Bond movies, is how long it was. It went on and on and on, in large part with no real need, and no real thought put into large portions of the story. In places it felt dragged out, in others rushed, it was a bit weird.

The action scenes were just poor, in my opinion, with far too much focus on trying to give a feeling of being in the scene, rather than telling the story. It became difficult to follow at times, though it worked well in some instances, such as the close quarters fight on the train. Like so many others, Sam Mendes, the director, ruined the car chase, it was so poorly done, similarly to the Fast and Furious series of films, rather than the Bullitt, which still stands out as the best car chase ever, while F&F stand out as crappy popcorn movies. It was badly filmed, far too busy trying to be arty, with music over the top of the sound of the cars, in complete contrast to the way the fight scenes focused on trying to make you feel a part of it. The car chase stepped back and the music removed any chance of you feeling involved, which is particularly frustrating as the Aston Martin and Jaguar being used have gorgeous sounding engines.

It was that bit of the film that particularly stood out as a reason why it just did not work. The director ruined it, with the shots in that sequence particularly emphasising the feel of the film all the way through. The way so many scenes were just about looking good, rather than serving a purpose to tell the tale. Like it was a fashion shoot at times, rather than a tale being told. I am struggling to think how to describe what I mean, but it really was an odd way of filming what is in essence an action film. It was almost like he was making an effort to try and be artistic, rather than making it fun, with scenes that simply added nothing and felt drawn out, then it would suddenly rush through story telling scenes because so many minutes had been wasted on pointless bits.

Personally I just can't recommend this film, it was overly long, but just lost its way and the story was weak, extremely weak. The bad guy was just a bit weird, and offered no real fear factor, he was more sort of pathetic than bad really. It has all the ingredients to be a great film, but they just got mixed up in the wrong order for me. And please, to any director doing a car chase, stop watching those F&F type of movies beforehand, the car scenes in them are not what makes those films watchable, they are the weak links. Music over the top of the engine sounds does not increase the excitement, they just make you feel detached from the experience, which is fine in some circumstances, but not for a film like Spectre, where the director has worked hard to try and make the action involve the watcher, then all of a sudden you are completely detached and it is just silly. Not a bad film, but just do not pay to see it, it is not worth the money overall, though you do get your money's worth in time!

1.) 13 Nov 2015
13 Nov 2015 21:13:33
Less is more especially with music.

Other car chases I thought were decent were robin and the first Bourne film.

2.) 14 Nov 2015
14 Nov 2015 00:23:23
Ronin stupid auto correct

3.) 17 Nov 2015
17 Nov 2015 07:35:59
Ronin I have not seen. Will have to take a look, but I do agree on the first Bourne film one, it was decent.

4.) 18 Nov 2015
18 Nov 2015 07:20:33
I have to say, one thing about Spectre is that Daniel Craig really does Bond well. He is too good for this film. Craig makes Bond into what I imagine Bond to be, rather than what Bond was in previous films. Now if only the script could match his charisma, as it is that which makes him stand out as Bond, rather than his acting.

5.) 23 Nov 2015
23 Nov 2015 00:26:30
I think it was the opposite, in my opinion he was what brought the movie down, Christoph Waltz was immense but the story was poor I was bored by the end of it if i'm being honest

6.) 23 Nov 2015
23 Nov 2015 00:26:30
I think it was the opposite, in my opinion he was what brought the movie down, Christoph Waltz was immense but the story was poor I was bored by the end of it if i'm being honest

{Ed001's Note - Waltz was the baddie? He was truly awful! His acting made me cringe, it was proper over the top comedy baddie he was doing. Not as bad as the bad guy who was chasing him. The whole thing was almost taken back to the crap that Roger Moore was doing, trying to be funny rather than doing an action movie. Craig was playing Bond as he has done but everyone else was acting like they were in a spoof movie.}