I saw Spectre today.
Parts of it were fun. I liked the opening scene, I was bemused and amused by the tentacle porn in the credits, I liked the car chase through Rome (mostly because of the cars), I liked every moment of Q and Moneypenny and Mallory, I liked seeing Andrew Scott even as a villain, and to my surprise I mostly liked Bella Madeleine Swan as a character even though the romance was pasted on and she had to hold the Idiot Ball at the end to make to make the climactic scene possible. I liked that there was some small attempt at thought, both about the surveillance state and the use of violence.
Nevertheless, Spectre didn't have the depth of Skyfall. I recognize that not every Bond movie can be Skyfall, but I approach them not as a fan of the Bond franchise per se, but as someone who thinks the Craig-era grittier, gloomier Bond is interesting. (Also as someone who thinks Daniel Craig is extremely sexy, especially when he's bruised and bleeding, and how did he come through every fight scene in this movie with hardly a scratch anyway? I am both skeptical and disappointed.) Returning to the point, I liked Skyfall because of how much it wasn't a typical Bond film. Spectre, in contrast, larky and silly and not much concerned with plausible emotions, felt like a typical Bond film
At least until the ending, when Bond throws away his gun and quits his job and rides off into the sunrise with the new love of his life. The first thing I did when I got home was look up whether this was meant to be the last Bond film ever, because that ending felt quite . . . ending-y. Apparently the studio isn't saying. But my search did turn up Darren Franich's
theory, which I like a lot and will now choose to believe, because it not only fills the plotholes but brings back the melancholy and elegiac quality of Skyfall.
Mind you, I also want all the Bond/Mallory AUs, and at least some of the Bond/Q ones.
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