Movie Review: Spectre

By Chris Kenworthy

Spectre – even saying the name brings a chill to the spine, makes a few hairs stand on end on the back of your neck. The film is cleverly built, from start to finish, around the story and purpose of the villainous secret organisation, Spectre, and Bond’s personal connection to the man at the top.

As Bond chases an enemy the only way he knows how, the plot unravels to reveal a sinister disease developing globally, and even within MI6. The film explores how the world would survive without spies, and deals with the idea of there being no secrets, where the people know all – ironically, this is where the film may parallel reality.

Spectre links every villain, Bond girl and unfortunate ending since Casino Royale (2006), and the villain at the heart of it, Franz Oberhauser, claims to know all the answers as he pursues his revenge against Bond in what can only be described as a petty, schoolboy, personal vendetta.

Revisiting the past certainly makes the film more personal: we see a different side to Bond, much like we did in Skyfall. We see a villain who is psychologically evil, with a personal vendetta against Bond; and, we see Bond, who not only has to defeat his new villain on a physical level, but also an emotional one.

The film very much continues where Skyfall finished, but the question that everyone has inevitably been asking is, can a Bond film be any better than Skyfall?

While Spectre does a good job of tying up all the loose ends from the previous three films in the Bond franchise, you may be forgiven for thinking that’s all the film is about.

Far from lacking its own pot, however, Spectre builds upon Bond’s weaknesses – the girls he’s lost, and the villains he’s had to deal with (from Le Chiffre in Casino Royale to Raoul Silva in Skyfall). Over the course of the film, these ties go from being Oberhauser’s weapon against Bond, to being Bond’s strength over Oberhauser.

Spectre, as every Bond film has before it, capitalises on the spectacle of a classic car chase, this time through the streets of Rome at night between Bond’s limited edition, “£3 million pound prototype” Aston Martin DB10, and the even more special Jaguar C-X75, driven by the henchman Mr Hinx (whose own physical strength may only be rivalled, throughout Bond history, by Jaws).

The film would be nothing without Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace or Skyfall, and it may leave some Bond fans feeling a bit stirred, not shaken. But it is a Bond film, and it will entertain you as so many Bond films have done so before. It will also leave you with that fan-boy feeling of ‘I want to be James Bond.’