The queer elements of the “James Bond” franchise has been a hot topic of debate lately, with openly gay Zachary Qunito saying the world is ready for a gay James Bond. In the pre-title sequence, the Day of the Dead costumes are clearly borrowed from the Roger Moore film Live and Let Die.
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Each movie improves the franchise – it didn’t make as much as “Skyfall” ($117.8 globally versus $1 billion) but “Spectre” still came in as the second highest grossing Bond film.
Mendes credits a few of the positive Spectre reviews to his team of film cutters, four Australians led by 55-year-old Sydney editor Lee Smith who also worked on big flicks The Dark Knight and The Truman Show.
While on their journey, they find themselves being hunted by Mr. Hinx, a burly henchmen reminiscent of Odd Job and Jaws. This gives M (an excellent Ralph Fiennes) a real stake in the movie.
Bruce Hall: It really would have been hard to match the atmosphere surrounding Skyfall, particularly with that film having been nearly universally praised when it was first released. These actions result in Bond being suspended and having to work-with the help of Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), Q (Ben Whishaw), and Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux)-behind MI6’s back in order to discover more about the shadowy “Spectre” organization.
This is where the film takes a turn for the worse.
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Another thing director Sam Mendez banked on was the audience’s knowledge of the plot arc going all the way back to “Casino Royale”. It also builds off the other installments, connecting all of Craig’s Bond films together in an effective way (even if it does retcon certain elements from this new canon). And anyway, solving problems through meaningful discussion is a lot more mature than Bond’s methods. The film opened in theaters everywhere on November 6. “It feels like there’s a rightness to it, that I have finished a journey”. Craig remains the best actor to play Bond. Add to this the fact that at the time, the previous entry (Quantum of Solace) had not been well received, and I think it’s clear that Spectre’s predecessor had the benefit of more fertile ground both critically and financially.
