I just rewatched Spectre having bought the DVD yesterday, and, first things first, I’d like to totally refute the criticisms made in the video I referenced in this entry. Spectre emphatically does not suck. While perhaps not as good as Skyfall, I now think the supposed ‘flaws’ cited in that review do not hold water. For starters, I saw no grounds to say that it was too slapstick or too Austin Powers. What I just watched was a serious (insofar as bond films can be serious) film addressing a serious, increasingly relevant issue. A film about a global organisation that wants to spy on everyone is highly salient, even speaking to concerns about globalisation and the EU. To tie those concerns into an organisation created by Fleming, rooting it into the Bond franchise’s history was a masterstroke. To bring blofeld and spectre back, updated to reflect contemporary fears but still using the iconography of the ‘classic’ 007 films such as the white cat, is not only great filmmaking but also says something about why this franchise is so special. It can both constantly reinvent itself and play with it’s own history. To criticise it for referencing it’s past, to say that to echo older bond films is somehow lazy or that characters like Blofeld or oddjob are now out of bounds because they have been pastiched in things like Austin Powers, is not only to completely miss the point but also to misunderstand the bond franchise and film as an art.

Another criticism that video made was that it was wrong to connect Bond and Blofeld as family; that that made the story too personal to Bond. His missions should be about the safety of the country, not him as a person; he is an anonymous government assassin, not a figure like Jason Bourne or Luke Skywalker (”James, I am your brother”). Thus that criticism holds a bit more water with me, but after a second viewing I now think they got away with it. Skyfall touched on Bond’s boyhood and family life, and this film leads directly on from that. In Skyfall, bond says Judy Dench’s M knows his full history, and in Spectre it is she who sets him on his path. Granted, perhaps that makes this film more about Bond, and perhaps it is a bit too coincidental that the leader of this evil organisation just happens to be Bond’s adopted brother, but I don’t think that makes this a bad film, and it certainly does not warrant disregarding for it. Even if it was more about Bond than other bond films, I thoroughly enjoyed the film I watched this afternoon, and found it a great addition to the franchise. Far from being holed, the plot works well, both speaking to the history of the franchise and continuing it’s relevance. As when I watched it in the cinema, it just left me dying for more.