Bond is back and better than ever!
The mighty fine Daniel Craig is finally back in our lives in his latest outing as the insanely cool James Bond and it’s nothing short of outstanding.
The twenty fourth instalment of the Bond franchise sees our favourite suave spy caught up in the villainous organisation known as Spectre. This time round Bond has gone, marginally, rogue after receiving a video from M (the Judi Dench rendition) from beyond the grave instructing him to kill an assassin called Sciarra and she eerily instructs him “don’t miss the funeral”.
Of course Bond succeeds in taking out his target, and half a block in Mexico City during Día de Muertos – how very appropriate – in what is by far the best opening sequence in any 007 movie ever. Upon his return to London, Bond gets into a bit of hot water for his off-book actions from M (we’re back to the very much alive Ralph Fiennes version) and is taken off field duty which every single person watching knows won’t last more than a millisecond.
Lo and behold, before he’s even left the premises he’s arranged a meet with Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) to recruit her into helping him with his outside mission which, of course, she agrees to because let’s face it who in their right mind would say no to James Bond. He further extends his circle of collaborators when he has, literally, a whispered conversation with Q (Ben Wishaw) and secures his help in allowing him to disappear so that he can attend Sciarra’s funeral.
Bond then heads off to Rome and after a drawn-out glance at the back of a man’s head (we know he’s the bad guy but Bond will have to wait until later to find that out) he has a frank conversation with Sciarra’s widow, Lucia. Later that night he goes to Lucia’s home and gets the information he needs about what her husband did and who he was in the only way James Bond knows how when it comes to attractive women – I’m pretty sure I don’t have to elaborate on that one you all know where its headed.
Lucia tells him about the criminal organisation that her husband was involved with and where they will be meeting. Once he manages to get into the gathering of the crazy criminals he hears them talk about what transpired in Mexico and when the man in the shadow, who is clearly in charge, mentions Bond by name and then looks directly at him watching from the balcony, his cover is blown and it’s time to get out of dodge via an amazing high-speed car chase through the streets of Rome.
During the chase he calls Moneypenny (such a good multitasker) and she informs him that he is looking for a man named Mr White (yip that’s right the same guy from Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace) and Bond asks her to look into the name Franz Oberhauser (we presume the man in the shadow aka Christoph Waltz).
Next James is off to Austria to find Mr White who he finds dying of thallium poisoning. White tells Bond to find his daughter, Dr Madeline Swann (Léa Seydoux) and that she will be able to help him by taking him to L’Americain. James tracks Dr Swann down but their encounter doesn’t go smoothly and while he is distracted by the appearance of Q who tries to get him to return to London, of course that doesn’t happen and Q ends up helping again, Madeline is taken by men from Spectre and Bond has to chase them down to get her back, this time in a plane – it just keeps getting better.
Once he gets Swann back they go meet with Q who informs them that Oberhauser can be linked to Bonds previous missions – we had a suspicion it was personal. Madeline then tells them that the L’Americain that they are looking for is not a person but a place, so off she and James head to Morocco. And that’s all you’re getting because the plot gets even thicker after that and I don’t want to give away any juicy spoilers so that’s your lot for now, you’ll just have to go see it for yourselves to find out the rest of the story.
For me, James Bond has never been better than what we are presented with in Spectre. I have loved the re-invention of the 007 series in the past decade (yeah it’s been that long) with Daniel Craig at the helm. Casino Royale was a stroke of genius and while they lost me a little with Quantum of Solace, I was thoroughly dragged back in by the outstanding Skyfall and I’d say Spectre manages to surpass the brilliance of even that box office epic.
Everything about this movie from the cast to the story – that so cleverly compiles and incorporates aspects from the plots that made up Daniel Craig’s run in the role so far – to the epic stunts and even the way this movie has been shot, is fantastic. There’s not one part of it that I could put a negative comment to without being dishonest.
While I’m mentioning the cast I think it would be remiss of me not to at least give a small piece of my input into the whole ‘who will replace Daniel Craig as Bond’ debate, so here’s my personal view – I might be about to get controversial. I don’t think it should be Idris Elba. There I said it. Now stow your pitchforks, I’ve got a perfectly decent reason – a couple actually.
Firstly, I don’t think that Idris is suave enough. James Bond is supposed to be endearingly arrogant with equal amounts of charm and class and I don’t get that from Elba, I find him a bit cocky sometimes actually. My second reason is that he’s too well-known. While Daniel Craig is a household name now he wasn’t before he became James Bond and I think the role needs that, someone who can become wholly the icon that is Bond and not someone so familiar from past long-term roles and TV ads. So I’m going to tell you the guy who would be my pick to take over the position when Daniel Craig’s reign as the nation’s favourite secret agent comes to an end and that is…Richard Madden.
Now, if you have to look him up after reading this then I’ve made at least one of my two points from before and if you watch any interview with him I’ll have made my first point too. I heard Chris Evans say that he though the new Bond should be slightly younger given how long these movies take to make nowadays and I’m inclined to agree with that. Madden is younger - but not too young - and he is suave, sophisticated, has a nice voice, can pull of that ‘gentleman with a secret’ thing and looks fantastic in a suit while uttering a witty one-liner. It’s a no-brainer really. I’m one hundred percent sure that whoever they choose won’t be to everyone’s liking but Richard Madden would definitely be my choice if I had one – unfortunately I don’t.
I digressed too far there I think so back to Spectre, it’s a fast paced, espionage filled, epic super movie and Daniel Craig is sex on legs in a tailored suit. If that doesn’t tick all your boxes then you’re not someone I could hang out with because that is cinema perfection in my book.
So go see Spectre in cinemas now – I can’t think of a single reason why you shouldn’t.
Watch trailer of Spectre