Lackluster End to Daniel Craig's Bondiverse

Spectre (2015) - Mendes

So everything in Daniel Craig's Bondiverse comes together to a close with this forth installment. And everythings lagging - script, visceral action sequences, a great villain, even a spectacular opening usually associated with this franchise. Sure, Day of the Dead celebration sequences in Mexico that opens up Spectre looks like a gazillion dollars (or more) but it lacks the energy. Beautiful settings in Rome, Austria, Tangier shot by Hoyte Van Hoytema (Let the Right One In, Her, Interstellar) wasted. They decided to make a character study out of Craig's Bond from its inception in Casino Royal. They knew that deeper they dig, the franchise is going to be short-lived. Unfortunately, this is the most lack-luster film of the series. It has that by-the-book kind of feeling and unbelievably stupid plotholes everywhere. Monica Bellucci is completely wasted, so as Christoph Weitz for the most part. Lea Seydoux is all right, but her part is not so (her name is Dr. Swann forgodssake). Bond doesn't seem to have any scruples banging the daughter of the man who tortured Vespar Lind whose death catapulted this whole supposed journey.

It's still an entertaining ride to a degree. Since they put an exclamation mark on Craig's Bond era, where do we go from here? The much publicized Black Bond (Idris Elba) taking the barton? Or female double o agent? Would it start with a clean slate, creating another alternate Bondiniverse? Craig had some beautiful moments with the well worn character struggling at being an outdated tool in a changing society (in Casino Royal and Skyfall). I wished their would be a plot line involving the Middle-east, reflecting the current mess we are in without inciting Hollywood's racist caricatures in the past. I mourn this chapter of the franchise.

*No Country for Old Bond

Skyfall (2012) - Mendes

Ever since 007 franchise decided to 'go back to its roots' with Daniel Craig as a no-nonsense, cold blooded MI6 killing machine, the makers were left with fewer and fewer options. The world is changing: the machismo, sexism and patriotism all sound as unattractive and outdated as the word 'computer'. It's been harder and harder to differentiate this blunt instrument from any other Bourne action hero types. So it has to be and only can be a character study even if it means sacrificing sex appeal and glitz. Because its breakneck speed though, to keep up with other actioners, the character arc and whatnot can't be stretched out long enough for them to keep Craig as Bond. And as much as I'm excited about the rumor that Idris Elba as the next Secret Agent, I am very sad to see Craig go. In my humble opinion, Craig has been the best Bond ever.

Mendes and the team sets out what maybe the last Craig 007 the same way as Rocky 4. Hardly any older than his counterparts in their primes (I remember one 80s Sean Connery Bond movie where they make incessant jokes about his age), Skyfall starts with picturesque Istanbul setting where he gets shot off of the moving train. Hard to believe Daniel Craig as an aging, failing Bond, considering Roger Moore's never athletic flabby Brit-twit JB. It's all about honor and code and stuff. Monstrous Silva (scene chewing Javier Badem), an ex-secret serviceman, has it out for M (Judi Dench, playing mother of all mothers). In order to protect her, 007 first has to go off the grid and do Driving Miss Daisy routine to Scotland, then do an OK Corral style shotgun battle. I was half expecting either Eye of the Tiger or Hank Williams to kick in.

But it's no less fun than the previous two. OK maybe a little less. It's also the first time anyone notices the cinematography (shot by Roger Deakins) in a Bond movie. Shanghai and Macao never looked better. The final showdown in misty Scotland, backlit by burning mansion is perhaps second best this year, losing only to another Scottish movie, Wuthering Heights.

*the title courtesy of Robbie Bruens.