'Spectre' Film Review

Today I went to go and see the new James Bond film, Spectre, because the release of this film has been highly anticipated and the director, Sam Mendes, has directed other films such as Skyfall and American Beauty, both of which have been highly acclaimed. Going into the film, I expected a classic Bond film with unrealistic action sequences, sexism, and excessive alcohol consumption, which is essentially what the audience got.

The film opened at celebration of The Day of the Dead in Mexico City. The frame was always very full and busy and at times it was difficult to know where to focus, however this very vibrant way of opening the film caught, and held, my attention. I don't think we would have the funds nor the time to arrange an opening that comes near to the scale and vibrancy for our film opening, and Spectre does not fit the genre we are looking into. However, near the beginning of the film there was a long tracking shot of Bond hopping across the roofs in Mexico City. We are looking at doing a long tracking shot in our opening so this is useful.

After the action packed opening 5 minutes, some of the film seemed to drag but it culminated in a very fast paced and dramatic final act. There were particular shots that I enjoyed, of the character's Bond and Doctor Swan having a conversation, during which Mendes changed the film convention of doing over-the-shoulder shots during conversations and instead had shots in which each character was centre of the frame, which I thought was really interesting and reminiscent of Wes Anderson's 'Grand Budapest Hotel'. Since we are thinking of having an interview scene in the opening of our film, this might be something we could look into further.

Overall, I enjoyed the film and found the shot choices really interesting, as well as fantastic acting from the cast, particularly Christoph Waltz as Oberhauser, Ben Whishaw as Q, and Naomi Campbell as Moneypenny.