Comment

Jan 13, 2017mnunez2012 rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Specter was a pretty decent film. The film centered on 007's investigation of Specter, the organization responsible for organizing and mobilizing the villains from the previous films (the wealthy environmentalist, the ex secret agent, the mafia gambler, etc..) The film features Bond (played for the last time by Daniel Craig) investigating and confronting this shadowy organization. The film had many familiar faces return (like M, Moneypenny, Bond) but also had some new faces including Christoph Waltz and Monica Bellucci. Waltz was clearly a good choice as he was an excellent actor. Bellucci was a decent choice as well. Though she was clearly inadequate in terms of acting ability, she was unique in that she was an older woman in a role romantically linked to Bond. Some called this casting "revolutionary" in that it broke the tradition of casting younger actresses and suggested that older woman could be considered powerful, beautiful or valuable in a patriarchal society. However, Bellucci was only on the screen for a very brief amount of time so I think the film lost some opportunities to go in interesting directions (though due to her poor acting, those directions were probably limited from the start.) The film was visually impressive. The picturesque landscapes were impressive as were the special effects. The film boasted the largest planned explosion for a film (Guinness Book of World Records) and also had a unique fighting scene (with Mr.Hinx, an assassin) which was my favorite scene from the entire movie. The women were beautiful as well. However, the movie had writing that seemed trite and uninspired. It felt like the writers played it "safe," relying on gorgeous women ,special effects and beautiful landscapes to deliver an entertaining experience. The writing for the bond franchise appears to be very traditional, failing to evolve and explore new directions (i.e. by exploring Bellucci's character or exploring the homoeroticism in Javier Bardem's character.) This pattern was repeated for Specter. This approach provided an entertaining cinematic experience but prevented a superlative or excellent experience.