Spectre

It’s not as dark as Skyfall. Actually, objectively it is significantly worse than Skyfall. James Bond is like a walking robot in this one. He knocks down everyone who just look at him the wrong way. Nobody can stop him, and I literally mean nobody. Count on it being much worse than usually. Plus there is a huge amount of cool lines. Even though there are no emotions, it shows that kind of harshness possessed by old action heroes in the nineties, which I’ve never seen in any Bond movie with Daniel Craig before. It’s a pity that the title song is so extremely slow that it’s really a pain in the ass. Similarly, the arch enemy Christoph Waltz was not really scary. The only strong positive of this movie is Léa Seydoux, who was a great fit. Maybe because I’ve known her for a while now and she is nice to look at. A little bit different Bond movie, but when it comes to the good old action movies, it fulfilled my long-time desired dream. (07/12/2018)

The most recent Craig film thus far is a very enjoyable part of the Bond franchise. A great opening reminds one of Live and Let Die, the first girl is the pleasant Monica Bellucci, the second - her complete contrast - Léa Seydoux (the fashionable Frenchwoman we primarily know for her blue hair), but the time period mainly favors Christoph Waltz's styling. Spectre flows nicely, developing the story already begun in Casino Royale, and I'm simply glad that James Bond will return. (08/22/2016)

Sam Mendes set off on a campaign that was already lost, trying to elevate everything that worked in Skyfall even higher. As such, Spectre brings a lot of quiet moments, where the viewer can hear a pin drop, a lot of nods to Craig's predecessors, and even more complex intertwining of storylines from the previous three films. After the second viewing, freed from the tense anticipation of wondering where it has yet to climb, I don't consider all the points of the film to be the best of the current Bond, but I will be one of the few who considers it even better than Skyfall. The dull spots have disappeared, the spine-chilling moments have increased, the grandiose and dangerously playful revelations do not disrupt the logic, and my beloved Léa Seydoux also receives enough room as one of the few truly worthy additions to the Bond Girl gallery in many years. Spectre has style. Individuality. It takes a while to get tuned in, but now I never want it any other way. (01/11/2021)

An essential Bond film. I could have plenty of reservations about it (everything people hate is objectively true), but here, reason loses out on points because when all the important proprieties slowly begin to emerge from the shadows in that rambling style, and you enthusiastically tick them off, it carves itself out in the end into a full-blown epilogue of one acting decade that has reached a complexity beyond most other things. (11/15/2015)

Different than Skyfall, perhaps slightly weaker, but still very, very good. Spectre reminded me most of Connery's From Russia with Love, which also doesn't have many action scenes, but has an interesting plot that is a joy to watch. Once again, everything flows beautifully, the film is lovely to watch and although there is a lot of talking, it is never wasted and the characters always have something to say. When it comes to action, it's typical Bond (plus the train fight is a reference to From Russia again), when it comes to women, it's typical Bond... The quiet, eerily calm atmosphere is atypical - but atypical certainly doesn't mean bad. I have to especially praise all the scenes with Blofeld, during which I almost didn’t even breathe, and I couldn't help but be pleased with the reasonable use of references to older Bond films (Connery's white tuxedo from Goldfinger, Bond's disguise as the villain from Live and Let Die, the Aston Martin DB5, the Thunderball-like funeral...). The only thing I could criticize is Thomas Newman's woefully unimaginative music (which is mostly apparent when listening to the soundtrack on its own); otherwise, I'm surprised at all the low ratings and bad reviews.___P.S. It's set up nicely for a sequel, which could easily be some sort of sly remake of On Her Majesty's Secret Service. (11/06/2015)