James Bond has grown up.
Actually that can be said of all four of the installments starring Daniel Craig, but the statement most definitely applies here. This is NOT your father’s James Bond. This is a Bond more in tune with the discerning action adventure fans of the 2000s.
I have enjoyed the Bond film series since I first watched it starting in the late 1970s when I saw my first Roger Moore installment Moonraker (which I coincidentally now rank as one of the absolute worst of the series).
The stories, while compelling, were filled with cheesy characters and the situations Bond found himself in were often preposterous. But they were always entertaining and the quips that Bond shot back at the bad guys were always priceless. And those names. Hollywood would never get away with using character names like Pussy Galore or Octopussy today (although Xenia Onatop from Goldeneye comes pretty close).
But what I always looked forward to were the gadgets that Q, in the friendly guise of Desmond Llewelyn, would provide to Bond that invariably saved him from whatever fine mess he’d gotten into. Q’s admonishment to bring things back in one piece still resounds even to this day.
Since taking over the role in 2006’s Casino Royale, Daniel Craig’s Bond has taken on a darker tone with a more sinister edge tinged with slight uncertainty, traits much more in keeping with Ian Fleming’s conception.
Gone are the outlandish gadgets, although the cars still come equipped with standard stock features like smoke and missiles. Just ask your dealer to have them installed. Or I’m sure Ben Whishaw (the new Q) will happily help you out if you’re on the MI-6 payroll.
But in keeping with the more mature style of the new storylines, Bond is once again facing retirement when a new bureaucrat (who Bond refers to as C) plans to phase out the double O program. The groundwork was already laid out in the last installment, “Skyfall.”
Of course Bond isn’t going to take retirement sitting down. He investigates and discovers a secret organization behind the troubles he’s dealt with in the last three movies and that all the bad guys have something in common. In a word, that organization is SPECTRE.
Again, this isn’t the SPECTRE of old. Gone is the old bad guy with the wicked scar across his face who was dressed in the ill fitting grey suit that gave rise to Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers movies. But his fluffy white feline (who is arguably the precursor to Grumpy Cat) is back. I couldn’t really tell, though, if the cat was still wearing a diamond necklace.
Even the global initiatives of the organization are more diabolical, again in keeping with a more mature world environment in which this Bond has matriculated. And the lead baddie has a secret he’s just dying to share with Bond.
Craig is the ideal actor to carry James Bond into this brave new age. He’s handsome, athletic and sharp and he compels the audience to suspend disbelief and accept that men like James Bond could actually function in today’s world despite their misogynistic tendencies.
With his new entourage in tow (including Whishaw, Naomie Harris as Moneypenny and Ralph Fiennes as M), he’s all set to make this world a safer place from all things terroristic. And he’s set the stage for the next actor to take the role if Craig ever decides to throw in the towel on these physically demanding installments.
And I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of Christoph Waltz either. Playing Bond’s arch nemesis in this movie with his usual brand of smarmy verve, you can tell he’s just enjoying the scenery he chews while tormenting the super spy with his nefarious revelations.
This is definitely a Bond for the new age. And the stage is set for the 25th installment of the venerable franchise. Let’s hope that it too lives up to the precedents set by the last four movies. I give “Spectre” five out five stars.