J-Bang Reviews Present: 007 Spectre

Daniel Craig returns as James Bond in "007 Spectre." Spectre is the legendary evil organization that has made multiple appearances throughout the James Bond franchise and has returned to cause chaos in this year's Bond movie.

"007 Spectre" starts off with an impressive bang! The opening stunt is well choreographed and suspenseful, including a helicopter spot that I have personally never seen performed before. After a colorful and artsy opening title sequence, Bond seems to steal the old disavowed trope from the "Mission Impossible" franchise. The whole movie, Bond has to do things without the "sanctioned" help of MI5. It seems weird that this route would be taken but since Bond is going up against a whole terrorist organization on his own, it makes each run in he has with Spectre feel more risky and severe. Plus, without help from MI5, every run-in Bond has with Spectre henchmen is forced to have a definitive conclusion (Which, by the way, is a good thing). The acting is spot on from every member of the cast, including the always talented Christoph Waltz who plays the main villain, "Oberhauser." To be honest, as the movie progressed, I thought Waltz was getting cheated out of screen-time, thanks to the over exposure of Dave Bautista's character, Mr. Hinx, (For those of you that don't know, this is the same guy who played the green alien from "Guardians of the Galaxy") but in the end, I believe Waltz got his well deserved due of camera time. Just to be clear, I'm not complaining that Bautista got so much exposure. It's just that I wasn't expecting it. In the end, Mr. Hinx proved to be a suitable henchman to challenge Bond. I liked him. I liked him alot. 

This entry in the Bond franchise also proved to be the most funny and satirical in my mind. There are a lot of jokes here and there that I would've only suspected from the days Sean Connery played James Bond. In a way, "Spectre" ultimately ended up feeling like the ultimate tribute to the Bond franchise. The snarky jokes! The over the top action stunts! The gadgets! The women! The British-ness?! Everything that made the Bond films famous, appears here in spades! 

             I do have some complaints about the film though. It feels incredibly dense and extremely long. The movie runs for about 2 and a half hours but somehow ends up feeling like 3 hours and 15 minutes. Plus, they throw so much information at you that it is easy to get lost in the shuffle if you loose focus. But of course, most films run into these types of problems, so these cons didn't take away from the pros that come with the Bond experience.

"Spectre" ends up being a fun and explosive joyride that feels more sophisticated than most action movies. If you have the attention span for it, go ahead and buy yourself a ticket for it because it is worth watching! "007 Spectre" gets a J-Bangin score of 4 out of 5.