The critics' reviews for the movie have been over the top, with many sky high marks and several proclaiming it the best Bond film that's ever been made. I've seen people gushing about how Javier Bardem deserves another Oscar nomination. I've been hearing about how Adele has served up the best Bond movie theme ever.
Yes, the movie is good, and worth seeing. It's not as good as all that.
What's great is how this James Bond movie has been approached with all the dramatic integrity of a "serious film." Director Sam Mendes never puts tongue in cheek, presenting this tale with the same realism and attempt to capture emotion as any other film he's made (a list that includes American Beauty, Road to Perdition, and Revolutionary Road). He's assembled as powerful a cast as any of those movies had. Joining Daniel Craig and Judi Dench (already the most highbrow actors the Bond franchise ever had), you have Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney, and the lesser known Ben Whishaw -- all of whom have been excellent in other movies, and who take their work here every bit as seriously.
And perhaps that's a bit of the problem. This movie is damn serious. There are a few moments of levity, mostly injected by Bardem when he seems to channel touches of Christopher Walken's performance from A View to a Kill. Following Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, this intensely dramatic tone might not be a surprise -- except that Daniel Craig has been saying all over the place in interviews that this is the finally the Bond movie where he feels like they're opening up and having fun again. Only by the slightest degree, I'd say.
Also absent in this film are the grand stakes and grand villainous schemes that were the hallmark of the best Bond films. This is a pretty straight up revenge flick, and the villain is operating on a very personal level. There's nothing wrong with that, on the face of it. But it does sometimes make the train-top fist fights, subway tunnel chases, and massive explosions feel a bit tacked on to what wants to be a more intimate film.
Those action sequences are pretty damn thrilling, though. The pre-credits sequence is an exhilarating romp through multiple settings. The climatic battle is an extended spree of killing and explosions that thrills and entertains. And most of the action in between is just as good. Plus, it's all set to a rip-roaring score by Thomas Newman.
I just want to try to knock down the expectations you may have, in case you'd built them up as I did thanks to the hype. It's good. It might even be the best of the Daniel Craig Bond films, by a touch. But it's not Bond's Best Ever. I give it a B. Factor that into your expectations, and then by all means go see it.
2 comments:
I was hoping Javier Bardem's character would become a Blofeld type villain for future films.
I was hoping for at some reference to Quantum, the organization not the movie. I liked the ending and what it will mean for the next movies. But connecting the "shaddows" in this movie with the a present day SPECTRE is more relevant today than it was in the Sean Connery bond era.
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