Spectre: Skeptical, Score and Surprises
14:12
SPECTRE
Director – Sam Mendes.
Actors of note – Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Ralph
Fiennes, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Monica
Bellucci and Andrew Scott.
Music – Thomas Newman
Cinematography – Hoyte van Hoytema
Production Company- Eon Productions
**SPOILER ALERT**
Yesterday I went to see the latest Bond film in the cinema.
I was very sceptical going in as I have never been a huge fan of Bond. If I asked,
I would always summarize Bond as : Explosions, Guns, Girls, Car chases and
Villains. Five words summed up a Bond film for me. That’s not to say that I
haven’t watched Bond films before. I’ve seen many of the Bond films in which
Pierce Brosnan played the deadly assassin.
If you know me or have read this blog before, you’ll know
that cinematography is extremely important to me. I quizzed Bond fans before
going to see the film because I wanted to know what I was getting into. I will
put my hands up and say that I am not a Daniel Craig fan. One, because I don’t
see anything majorly exciting or talented about him and secondly, I don’t think
he’s attractive. But I will say that he does the action sequences extremely
well. A scene of note is near the beginning which deals with a collapsing
building. BUT, doesn't he have extremely piercing blue eyes?
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| Madeleine (Dr Swann) - Léa Seydoux |
There were little pieces here and there that made the audience laugh, including cheesy music for 009, a scene with a rather burly henchman tailing 007, little waves that Daniel Craig did and sarcastic retorts that made us laugh. He has the perfect smirk I will say, which will no doubt make many people swoon.
There is a sequence near the beginning where Sam Smith sings “Writings on the Wall”.
I wasn’t a fan of this song when I first heard it and I don’t think it has a
place in the film, but if you think differently that’s okay. If you’ve seen the sequence I'm talking about, you'll know what Cathal Sweeney meant when he said to me " Is this Tenticle Porn?". Naturally there were scenes where Bond was "GETTING IT ON" with various beautiful women, eg, Stephanie Sigman, Monica Bellucci and Léa Seydoux. I feel like raving about Léa because her blonde wavy hair and outfits were ON POINT throughout the film, those we all questioned where she was getting them from.
As with all Bond films, there was quite a bit of
predictability. I genuinely did feel tension with the some scenes, I felt the
build-up was particularly intense. Especially the night time scenes where there is an element of the unknown. Don’t get me started on that score. Thomas Newman did a fantastic job. A song of note was during the scene at the beginning, "The Day of the Dead" complete with percussion sounds amazing with the footage of the crowd wearing an assortment of skull masks. it makes me want to travel to Mexico to attend this event myself.
There was also a scene where the guitar rose in loudness and then ebbed away, as the tension escalated and descalated during a particular scene. I was genuinely amazed by how the music accompanies the film.
Cathal was humming through it and I closed my eyes for a minute or two just to appreciate the music.
A score makes a film in my opinion and Thomas Newman definitely delivered. Also, who doesn't love the classic Bond theme? The instrumentals were brilliantly done, exuding the right amount of menace and sophistication.
I have seen Léa Seydoux in The Grand Budapest Hotel and my love for the gorgeous French actress is growing. I think there's more to her than the "next Bond girl". It was also a pleasure to see Ralph Fiennes on the screen. He's such a talented actor, not just for Harry Potter, Schindler's List, The Grand Budapest Hotel, but for theatre also. Also of note was Irish actor Andrew Scott, who most of you will recognise from Sherlock. I detected a little bit of an Irish accent here and there but he did a good job nontheless. I missed seeing Dame Judi Dench as "M". She had been the only character to be there consistently for practically all the Bond films.
I'm not saying I'm an avid Bond fan since watching Spectre, but I definitely like them a lot more than I did before hand. But I think my being a little bit more open minded to films I wouldn't usually watch has paid off. I could see myself going to see the next installment of Bond, which incidentally will be the 25th Bond film. In your opinion, is the Bond series still delivering?
Thank you so much as always for reading.
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