The whole "brothers" thing is hilarious. It's as if they watched Austin Powers Goldmember and thought... LET'S DO THIS.

It would've been funny if Idris Elba showed up at the end at Q's headquarters and was like "...where the fuck's my car?", implying that he's 009

I know why you don't like the Helicopter fight Calvin. There is no mention of a stainless steel delicatessen.

I knew something was terribly wrong immediately when the movie opened with “the dead are alive”, it still baffles me that they thought it was a good idea

I'd have made Blofeld an agent of Quantum who takes over the organization and re-brands it. I'd have also rewritten things to where Bond finds out from Mr. White that after the events of QOS, using the information Bond got out of Dominic Green, Quantum was largely dismantled by MI6. However Blofeld, along with Mr. White and the few surviving members of Quantum go off the grid and slowly rebuild the organization into Spectre in the 6 years in between QOS and this film. That would also play into the phrase "the dead are alive" at the beginning of the movie as well. This organization that was thought to be destroyed comes back to haunt the world as SPECTRE! The name would have made so much more sense as well.

I'm pretty sure Blofeld mentioning that he visited Madeleines house once was actually a reference to a similar scene that featured both of the actors in inglorious bastards

"The dead are alive" sounds like a precursor to "The dead SPEAK" at the beginning of The Rise of Skywalker.

It's pretty embarrassing when "Spectre" pretty much rips off the twist in "Goldmember" ;P

As much as I admire Lea Seydoux's performance, I honestly think Bond's relation with Camille in Quantum of Solace was more interesting and genuine than what we got in Spectre. And I didn't particularly enjoy Quantum on account of its horrid editing and generally boring characters.

Spectre's shoddy screenplay doomed the film from the beginning. Bond going rogue, the entire character of C, and the nanoblood rubbish all never should have made it into the final script. The film derails after the Rome meeting and becomes an utter snoozefest by the third act. Blofeld should have been hyped as Blofeld all along without any of the Oberhauser rubbish. One of Spectre's biggest failures was Blofeld's character; ripping off Austin Powers in Goldmember was absolutely unforgivable.

I really hope the little mouse comes back for 25. James could try tracking it down across five continents to get the secret betamax tape of where the cheese is kept. On route Blofeld, now disguised as a cosplay cat, tells James (in an interesting and completely new twist) he's a relic of the past and its all done with computers these days or some such. No one mentions the cheese again once which is shame because most of us like a nice bit of cheddar. MI6 blows up. Where's my contract?

The "Bond is Blofeld's brother" sub plot is kinda like Austin Powers is Dr. Evil's brother gag.

2013: EON Productions manages to finally secure the rights to Blofeld and SPECTRE from the estate of Kevin McClory after 42 years. And that's why I have problems with 'Spectre'. Blofeld's inclusion is more because they could do it, rather than because they should have done it. I always felt Purvis & Wade wanted to use SPECTRE in 'Casino Royale' but couldn't because of the rights, so when they finally got the chance to use SPECTRE they wanted to make up for lost time, so did a ruddy big recon of the past films, as if they could alter the films that came before. Not to mention, using Blofeld also gave Broccoli & Wilson closure over the whole McClory debacle that their dad was forced to deal with for decades. And why make Blofeld Bond's brother? Because probably the inane studio heads at Sony Productions thought it would be deep. I can see them, in their board rooms, saying something like: "Being a villain just for the sake of having a villain isn't good character development. If he truly is Bond's arch-nemesis like they say he is, there should be something more profound about Blofeld. Could they be long lost brothers? Yes, do that." Ugh. The reason Blofeld is Bond's arch-nemesis, as opposed to any of the others, is because he has tenacity - and keeps coming back. He's the one guy Bond failed to kill. Not some cod personal-connection crap. The only villain before who had a personal-connection to Bond was Trevelyan in 'GoldenEye', and that worked because his grievance was with Britain, not with Bond himself. It wasn't a personal vendetta against Bond specifically. And that's why it worked, because it was the grand-scale master-plan that Bond villains are supposed to have. This "oh, daddy loved you more cuckoo" plan is just too weak. Look, I don't think emotional depth is a bad thing in Bond films - in fact, I think it can really richen a film's story if written well. That's why I like 'OHMSS' and 'Licence to Kill', because you see more of Bond as a person than just a conduit for action set pieces. But written poorly, it feels lazy. And that's what we have here. "Oh look at me, I'm being deep!" No you're not 'Spectre', no you are not.

It also didn't help that 2015 had other spy movies (Man From UNCLE, Kingsman and Mission Impossible Rogue Nation) that did what they were trying to do better than this film did.

I like how the title sequence didn't include Dominic Greene as if to imply, "Yeah let's just forget about Quantum of Solace. Greene wasn't memorable anyway."

Great review Calvin! Loved the bit where you were hanging up the posters as Blofeld, that had me laughing. You raised some valid points. I agree on the whole Bond and Blofeld stepbrothers relationship being dull. There's a lot I have drastically different opinions on though! But that keeps Bond fandom fun and diverse I like to think! Keep it up!

My biggest problem is with the finale. there's no way a little .380 ppk can take down a helicopter past 50 yards. At that distance it couldn't even break glass let alone take down a helicopter. if only there was a high powered assault rifle that was hinted at in a Q scene.... oh wait.

Spectre felt like Craig's Bond was retiring, especially with that ending. I'm still surprised Craig came back for Bond 25.

When Bond fought the 2 guys on the stairs in Casino Royale, he was battered bloodied and out of breath here he fights hinx who throws him around like he was nothing and he quickly has sex afterwards, you can see the realism has gone abit in the 4 films

You're right, I hated the development, I hated them being brothers, hated everything being wrapped up and connected. Hated Swan character. Loads of bad ideas in this film, if I was on the writing team I would be embarrassed, I REALLY hope the producers have learned their lesson for Bond 25.

This movie is SOOO dreadfully boring! Technically, it's a superb film; Masterfully shot by Hoyte van Hoytema, and directed well with some good acting. The action scenes are alright. The stand-out sequence being the train fight. I really hate how they reuse a lot of the music, which is really lazy, and I hate the 'twist' and how the films are tied up. It's just a really boring film.

I watched this again last night. I think that Bond's choice not to kill Blofeld on the bridge is supposed to be a pay off to a few lacklustre set-ups earlier on in the film. Also, the choice not to kill Blofeld is true to Bond's character as Fleming wrote it. By nature Bond hates killing in cold blood. I think this was mentioned in several places in the novels. It is also reiterated in TWINE where Bond has Renard on his knees and while he attaches the silencer to his gun he says, "I usually hate killing an unarmed man. Cold Blooded murder is a filthy business". The set-ups for his decision were on the train with Madeline where she asks why a man chooses the life of a paid assassin, and continues to ask what Bond thinks would happen if he stopped "living in the shadows, hunting, being hunted, always looking behind you, always alone". He doesn't know the answer and feels he doesn't have a choice, but I feel we're meant to think that this question has made more of an impression on him than it comes across. She tells him he's wrong and that we always have a choice. Bond says he'll drink to that, then the fight with Hinx ensues, stopping us from paying any thought to what has just been said. Perhaps this was supposed to be a profound moment in Bond's character arc, but it's so badly executed that it doesn't achieve what it was meant to. There is absolutely no sign whatsoever that Madeline's question or line of thought has had any kind of effect on Bond at all. A simple pause of deep thought from Bond to let us know that he is thinking about it would have helped this no end. Also, a shot of Bond looking at Madeline in deep thought would have told us that he was perhaps processing what she has said and developing feelings for her. If, during the fight with Hinx, madeline was knocked unconsious and actually needed Bond to perform CPR on her after Hinx was dispatched of, it would perhaps lend an emotional motive for Bond's and Swann's feeling toward one another to escalate as quickly as they do. There is also the line from M, although Bond isn't present so wouldn't have heard it, where he says a licence to kill is also a licence not to kill. This line illustrates the attitude towards his licence to kill that Bond will have been trained to have. This is reminiscent of Oskar Schindler's line in 'Schindler's List', "Power is when we have every justification to kill, and we don't". It's noteworthy that Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler says this to Amon Goeth who is played by Ralph Fiennes. The end of the film seems to be Bond resigning from MI6 and leaving for a life with Madeline. If this is the case, he wouldn't have wanted to start this new life with Madeline seeing him kill an unarmed man in cold blood. The problem is that the big picture is made of too many tiny, seemingly insignificant jigsaw pieces, that creating the jigsaw puzzle mentally from vague insignificant memories of poorly executed moments is arduous and not at all satisfying. This results in a film that appears to be a jumbled mess or silly ideas poorly executed, and thus an incompetent film.

Weird choices in this film. Despite her brief screen time ,the Monica Bellucci character was more interesting than Madeline Swann. Blofeld was no surprise and was actually just fine as Franz Oberhauser. It would have made more sense to have had Spectre be behind the death of Bond's parents in that unexplained climbing accident (perhaps Andrew Bond was a spy for MI6). Instead we got the "Brofeld" plot from Austin Powers: Goldmember. This review was very fair to the film, praising its strengths as well as pointing out its weak points. We only disagree on the Sam Smith theme. I'd rather get the brain drill than ever hear Smith's warbling again.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. My favorite scene is when Bond interrogates the mouse at gunpoint.

With Bond's rather strange outburst at Blofeld showing off the tape, I always assumed that the original idea was to have the interrogation of Vesper Lynd be shown here instead of the Mr. White suicide tape: as you pointed out, we see Bond briefly pick and examine the tape at L' American before putting it down, so that later on, Blofeld would play this both to torment Bond and to show Madeline what happens to those that get close to Bond, hence why he says "This is important" in reference to what is otherwise something very unimportant. Perhaps it's just the poor writing of the film but it's an interesting idea. Great review, by the way.

I liked it well enough when I saw it in cinema but I will gladly concede that everything surrounding Blofeld was incredibly underwhelming.

It is hard to believe Mendes followed up Skyfall with this script which was hopeless to begin with. It kind of ruined Skyfall to know that Silva was working under Spectre. I prefer to delete that point in the timeline. Waltz as a villain was wasted. Why would they send their henchman after Bond on the train if Blofeld wanted Bond at the complex? And why is the bad guy's lair always so easy to destroy with a flick of a wrist? It seems there are always places for Bond to shoot to cause an explosion to destroy the whole place. The ending with him taking down the helicopter was just lazy writing. It seemed silly Blofeld would wait for Bond to get out of the building. And why was Blofeld in London to begin with? His goons did not help protect the transfer of intelligence to MI5 or whatever. He was just there to toy with Bond who stole his father's affection?

"I came to your home once to see your father." "Yes, I served you some of our milk and then you shot the people hiding under our floorboards!"

Finally! Spectre is decent but feels kinda anticlimatic! 5/10

I feel like the movie would be better if they either had the villain be just oberhauser (my daddy loved you more than he loved me), or if they removed the family nonsense and made it just like a classic adventure with bond trying to prevent spectre's not-so-dastardly plan. Anyway, great review and nice to have you back :)

In Connery third movie Goldfinger the Villain Goldfinger was not apart of Spectre so in Craig's 3rd film Skyfall the Villain in that movie Silva shouldn't have been apart of Spectre

Also it just me or did the big Brother surveillance story element be done better in winter soldier and rogue nation?

I've retitled the Daniel Craig movies: "Casio Royale", "Quantum of Quality", "Pretentious Contrivance" (AKA, "Batman: Overrated"), "Sphinctre" and "This Whole Reboot Thing Was a Pointless Waste of Time"...

Terrific review, I agree 100 percent. In our Ultimate Bondcast on my channel (five of us ranked all 25 movies) this stinker landed at 20th place among our group average, and 23rd for me. Just gets worse every time I watch it!

Mission impossible 5: Rogue Nation had almost the exact same plot, and was released in the same year. And it was far, Far superior. Mission impossible 6: Fallout is also just as good if not better even. This? This is the lukewarm milk of spy thrillers

I think the producers thought they'd get brilliant villains by hiring "Moriarty" and "The Jew Hunter". Of course, it turns out you need a brilliant script for a brilliant villain, not just the actor.

The “now we know what C stands for” should have just been left to our imagination, like as soon as you say that line we all think of what it could be and then when he says “careless” you’re just disappointed...

The worst thing about the Blofeld reveal is that everyone of a certain generation (or who's watched the old films) could see it coming from quite some distance, whereas the casual viewer only familiar with the newer films wouldn't really have cared. With regret, this is the point at which Spectre ceased to be about good v evil/espionage and became about the Bond films.

The only plausible way of fixing this is if they do what Marvel did with Iron Man 3. My idea is that at the start of Bond 25, Waltz is visited (either in prison or after he escapes) by someone, and it's revealed to the audience that the visitor is the real Blofeld, and Oberhauser stole his identity to take over Spectre to find Bond to get revenge. Then, we have the real Blofeld, who has no connection to Bond at all.

As much as I do like this film, I never really got why they had to hide the fact that Waltz was obviously Blofeld, even during the build-up to its release we had our suspicions but they kept denying it, practically *_lying_* to us. The jacket Waltz was wearing was a *_dead_* giveaway when I saw it in the trailer, anybody who is a die-hard Bond fan would recognize that jacket straightaway. The exact same thing happened with _Star Trek Into Darkness_ where we all suspected that Cumberbatch was playing Khan.

I thought the film was okay but at times very dull. Also that ending...ugh. (Spoilers) For me, Blofeld should have got away.

I don’t think making Bond and Blofeld brothers was the worst part, it’s the fact that they made Blofeld “the author of James’ pain” because of his dad teaching James how to ski. If their relation was just a coincidence, fine, but the fact that they made Blofeld some petty lost brother made it so stupid and cheesy.

My take on the Q scene: Q is delivering the message his superiors told him to say, which is, we can monitor your vital signs and see if you are okay. Q then says it is a post-Mexico insurance policy, which I believe is Q going off-script and hinting that the real reason for the tracking is to keep tabs on where Bond is. (You can also see that one of the vital signs is alcohol level, implying that they are keeping track of Bonds drinking habits, suggesting they might think he is an alcoholic.) Q also says it was a direct order from M, which is his way of telling Bond that Q personally does not agree with this. When Bond says he completely understands, he is telling Q that he gets it is M wanting to spy on him and no hard feelings to Q. [30:10] I think Bond's reaction is not just that Madeline will see her father shoot himself, but also she will see that Bond enabled it. Of course, it is still something of an over-reaction given that we know White was dying anyway. The only way it makes any sense is if Madeline had not seen her father for some time and did not know what condition he was in, not what his relationship with Bond was. It's probably another continuity error caused by either editing or script changes. [31:40] You almost went full-gollum there. We hates this scene Baggins.

2:37 so this is what inspired the first words in Star War: The Rise Of Skywalker opening crawl. Those first words being “The Dead Speak!”

Spectre might be the most meh movie I've ever seen which is especially disappointing because I absolutely adore Skyfall.

I think the idea of making giving Bond and Blofeld a history is an interesting one that could really work... if executed properly...

About 'secret villains', yes, but The World is Not Enough had a good twist villain... And although most people hate it, I LOVE Die Another Day and that also had a twist villain... Just the same as the movie before it in fact... Damn. And The Living Daylights and Goldeneye are my favourite two movies in the series and they have twist villains as well... You know what? No, I love all the movies with twist villains it seems. -_- Trevelyan is such a villain and he's a contender for the best Bond villain ever. Certainly the best Brosnan baddie, surely?

Bond parachuting out of the DB10 and then doing the trademark Bond thing of doing whatever to his suit and saying good evening was one of the best parts of the film

Don’t think I click on something so fast

I personally think ‘The Dead Are Alive’ is the perfect opening statement. This film resurrects the memory and significance of Vesper, Le Chiffre, Greene and Silva, M and Franz Oberhauser, all dead and buried in Bond’s mind. It’s also a nice take on the famous Day of the Dead celebration in Mexico. I think it’s an outstanding beginning, and not at all pretentious. I do wish they hadn’t gone on to make the family link to Blofeld. But that’s a different story…

"The only thing that would have made that more perfect would be if the man was drinking and looked at the bottle and a double taking pigeon"😂

Largo is gonna be Bond's cousin in the next movie

Nice! 45 minutes of Calvin Bond goodness! This must have been a lot of work! Great work mate! Admire your dedication and keep up the great content!

When they said they were brothers, I was thinking really?? You are going down the Austin Powers route?

My favorite part of the movie is when Bond interrogates the mouse at gunpoint.

In a world where Spectre exists, I cannot see how people can be so hard on QoS. QoS starts off with such a great sequence and it has some great moments. It has flaws, I’ll give you that, but I can watch it- I feel obligated to watch it anytime I watch Casino Royale because of how QoS continues the end sequence. The only good things in Spectre are Ralph Fiennes and Dave Bautista.

I actually adore the first act of this film to the degree I forget the second and third acts are kind of crap.

Absolutely love this review Calvin! I come back to it more than I do the movie! Your critique of Waltz's performance is spot on. The role calls for someone a little more campy and OTT, not Waltz's self-conscious understatement. Can't wait for your NTTD review!

i hope somewhere in the near future they bring back Martin Campbell to direct

2015 was the YEAR OF SPIES-Spy, Kingsman:Secret Service,Mission Impossible:Rogue Nation, Spectre Spectre turned out to be the weakest of them all

CALVIN BACK IN ACTION WITH ANOTHER JAMES BOND REVIEW THIS TIME WITH SPECTRE KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK CALVIN,COLTON

I've read Hinx is gonna be back in the next Bond movie and that Bond and Madeleine are gonna be married at the start of it (*cough* OHMSS remake *cough*) also, I think Bond didn't want Madeleine to see the surveillance video because Bond basically gave White the gun and I thought Bond would think that Madeleine would think Bond's plan was to have White shoot himself... also also, I couldn't help but think of Austin Powers when I heard Bond and Blofeld are brothers

My only comment on the review would be the ending. My interpretation of Bond NOT killing Blofeld was M's comment to C. That the importance of a 00 agent was to know when and when not to pull the trigger. And in this instance bond found more value in not pulling the trigger.

The old photo of Blofeld is in reality a picture of a 23 year old Christopher Waltz

I definitely don't always agree with your analysis, but you were exactly spot-on with this one. I happen to really like the opening helicopter fight, and I'm a bit surprised you seemed happy with Blofeld's desert crater "Lair" which to me looked like a generic suburban Business park, only more boring (Christ, if there was ever an appropriate moment for the series to get ambitious and at least try to pay tribute to Ken Adam with a set...) but other than those two minor quibbles you perfectly covered every beat of where Spectre goes wrong. Thing is, even aside from the massive misstep of making Blofeld Bond's jealous kid brother (God, did no one in the production ever describe the "big reveal" that way, listen to what they just said, and realize they were making a huge mistake?), much of the movie on a scene-by-scene level just doesn't click. No big dramatic reason like a double-taking pigeon or Sega Genesis-level CGI kitesurfing sequence to roll our eyes at, just scene after scene that is trying to be exciting or dramatic and just not pulling it off.

the final 25 minutes are a dream. They have to be! Bond gets that drill in his head and passes out. He dreams about a quick and easy escape and getting back to London to finish the job. It has to be! Please! Otherwise that last 25 minutes is a complete failure. There were more exciting episodes of the Professionals in 1978.

It's always good to see new content from you Calvin! You have the best James Bond KZfaq channel for sure. Thanks for all your hard work!

15:20 I'd like to think Ray Quinn got a phone call saying "your cover of New York, New York is going to be featured in the new Bond movie" only to watch the movie and realise they play two seconds of it lmao

I've never been more disappointed leaving the cinema You said you saw it 4 times 😂😂

I have lots of thoughts on how Spectre could have been done better, but chief amongst them is how I feel like the brothers thing would have actually worked: Make the "brothers" thing metaphorical, and have Oberhauser (or indeed Blofeld, if you REALLY want to go that route or wanted to slam a studio mandate on me) be the one trying to initiate this relationship. Have him try to drive Bond to SPECTRE by severing his other connections after Quantum got stuffed. When Bond of course refuses to reciprocate, he makes an enemy for life of the man that never took no for an answer, always got what he wanted, until Bond indirectly ruins his life by being the one asset he doesn't control. If I was king for a day, this is what ruins Oberhauser and gets him killed, and sets up Blofeld to pick up where he left off, with his establishment as Bond's nemesis coming off the idea of being the one man to directly draw blood on SPECTRE, but either way, there you'd have it.

Terrible ending, the whole script of the film with the - Bond and Blofeld have grown up together - twist is just mad, absolutely mad. When I saw this the first time I was almost hoping as the DB5 gear lever is shown Bond would press the ejector seat button and Miss Swan would fly off the car. In my mind there's zero chemistry between them though we are supposed to believe they are now lovers like Bond and Vesper were. This is just a horrible movie.

I always assumed the “been to your house when you were a little girl” was a nod reference to inglorious bastads

The 2 biggest problems with this film: Craig and Mendes. Neither should have ever been brought into the franchise. Mendes isn't an action director and no matter how pretentious the Craig films have been they're still supposed to be escapist actioners. Craig is just awful in the role. No emoting, no charisma (the whole Aston chase is one of many examples) - just all wrong in every way.

I can tell you the EXACT MOMENT Spectre went off the rails for me while watching it in the theater. It had great cinematography, fun moments, good storytelling and pacing - I was INTO it and enjoying the ride, including the fight on the train with the henchman and Bond and Ms. Swan being escorted to Blofeld's lair in the desert... and then they walked into that damn dark room with the meteorite and it's like the whole movie just died from there on out. Them as brothers? Please! Christof Waltz won TWO Oscars for playing villains entertainingly well, you can see why they considered him, but he was soooooooo boring... and then you've got this little guy in loafers and a Neru jacket standing there, no threat at all, no danger. (I also look forward to successfully flying a helicopter after having my head drilled into twice, but I digress). They escape, go back to London, ONLY to have Madeline be kidnapped AGAIN so Bond can have this final meet-up in the shell of MI6? (And I'm so glad Blofeld had the TIME to collect the headshots of M, Vesper, Mr. Green, Silva, etc., to hang them). Ugh. Yes, I loved the boat chasing the helicopter down the Thames, but that's it. The movie was clipping along fine and then fell apart. One of the things I LOVED about Skyfall was it was a stand-alone adventure with NO sequel feel, NO ties to Vesper or Quantum or anything... and it SHINED! and then with Spectre they tried to make us think Silva was mixed up in this whole arc too. Thanks for letting me rant - I just loved the whole feel of the movie until literally the second they walked in to meet Blofeld and then all the energy fell out fo the movie.

Here's the thing. It's fair to say that there are valid reasons to criticize Spectre. I agree with most of the things Calvin pointed out, however, I think time will look back a lot more kindly on this film than people are willing to admit right now. I could imagine a hypothetical person walking out of the cinema circa 1983 and saying that Octopussy was the worst Bond film they've ever seen and that seeing Bond in the clown makeup and costume for the climax was a tremendously unforgivable sin vowing to never see another Bond film again. Today in 2017, Octopussy might be that hypothetical person's favorite Roger Bond film. Maybe they still don't like the clown bit, but over time they've learned to appreciate the parts of the film that they really like and not focus so much on the bit they don't like. I would argue that perhaps 20-30 years from now when many of us decide to look back on the Craig era, we will see Spectre as Daniel Craig's Octopussy. It's not a perfect film by any means, but there's enough to enjoy about it to look past the flaws. I could see Spectre becoming that "go to" Craig Bond film even if it's not necessarily the "best" of Craig's tenure which most of us agree will likely remain Casino Royale unless Bond 25 performs a miracle. In a previous video Calvin talked about how Octopussy is his "go to" Bond film. It happens to be my "go to" Roger film as well. I acknowledge that The Spy Who Loved Me is likely Roger's best but if I'm in the mood for a Roger film, I'm more likely to reach for Octopussy than Spy. I think 20-30 years from now, Spectre will be the film I'll probably put on if I'm in the mood for a Daniel Craig Bond film even though Casino Royale is far superior. "Well, it's all a matter of perspective," Bond says to Blofeld when asked why he decided to come there. When it comes to Bond movies, time and perspective are everything.

This movie should've been amazing, the cast is amazing, it's finally bringing the classic Bond villain back, it has most of the team that made one of the all time bests in Skyfall.... But it just. falls. apart. so quickly. And then bursts into flames. And then crumbles to dust. And then the dust bursts into flames. Easily the worst movie of 2015, a good contender for worst Bond movie ever.

Good to see you back Calvin. I 100% agree with your review it was very meh in my opinion! What we need is an action/chase scene with John Barry's 007 theme in the scene similar to Moonraker or From Russia with Love. I did not receive it very well if I am honest but who knows may get better if I view it again.

Yep. Thank you, this review summed up everything I felt about it as well. Sadly, when I heard the announcement that Spectre was the next Bond film, I got shivers. "Yes!" I thought. "They're going back to Blofled! Finally, they're going back to Spectre! This will be the second Bond reboot!" But this film was about as appetising as toad-brulée. It was a combination of unique and bamboozling blunders which actually ruined Bond and left an awful aftertaste. Spectre's true intrigue was that they were always there in the shadows, pulling strings, making calculated moves and never allowing Bond to get too close (at least that's how they should have been). They were elusive, and threatening. They were Spectre... When I saw this movie, I was laughing through most of it. The clinical and mysogenistic utility of Monica Bellucci, the Austin Powers Villain Summit, the dust-flavoured 'love interest', the unnecessary 'brother' link, and all the stupid, transparent tie-ins so clearly meant to make us go: "Oooh, aahhh, such planning! Such overarching vision! NOW it all makes sense!". It was just...a monumental waste of a cool idea. Cool review, though. Thank you!

I'm a little late to the party, but your content is really great. I thoroughly enjoyed this video! Thank you for creating and posting it.

I did actually enjoy Spectre and I didn't mind the whole Blofeld is Bond's brother subplot as much the first time I watched it. But as I watched it again and again, I realized it is pretty stupid. It reminds me of in Austin Powers Goldmember, where Michael Caine reveals that Austin is Dr. Evil's brother. The reason why I believe that subplot worked in that movie is because Austin Powers is a parody of the James Bond series and its supposed to be silly, whereas in Spectre its supposed to be taken seriously, even though its still stupid.

Spectre gets worse every time I watch it. Craig is solid, and I love the locations and clothes. But the screenplay is so half baked yet over-ambitious the third act just wretches. Even at that it’s still superior to QoS. On every level. And that’s the very definition of damning with faint praise. It’s at this point I realize I’m in love with an IP that is badly mismanaged.

With the MI6 regulars helping out Bond in the finale, I think a better comparison is Mission Impossible. Just swap out Bond for Hunt, M for Luthur, Q for Benji, Tanner for Brandt and Moneypenny for Ilsa.

Hey Calvin, awesome review. How often do you have a Bond marathon and watch the entire series in order, from Dr. No onwards?

Your review is spot on. I never got the praise the film got when released and only manged to watch the film once since. Spectre is ultimately.........boring.

Ah, the Yellow Bond Movie.

Has anyone else noticed that the impact mark in the bullet proof glass near the end of the movie is the spectre emblem?

OK, last comment from me. I've literally just watched it again.....probably for the last time. First thing....Calvin dear, your reviews are excellent. You must hear this all the time - but can't you do more movie reviews? They don't need to be connected to Bond or any of the actors, just any movie that takes your (our!) fancy. You are so good at it..... So I pretty much agree with everything said here. The brother story arc is indeed "beyond stupid"... it really is. All that talent, and at no point did someone say what a bad idea it is. I will say one thing..... the first scene in Mexico is ironically one of the best Bond intros ever. Craig is super cool, and the one-shot effect works so well. The helicopter scene is a bit daft though.... Anyway, I could bang on, but it's all been said, so I won't! Right.... No Time To Die (again) next! Take care all....👍🙂❤

Absolutely nailed it. Don't think I've ever seen a review that I agreed with so much. Subscribed.

Monica Bellucci should have been Blofeld

Dang, I remember that Blofeld was a son of Pole and greek lady, born in Gdynia in 1908 (as stated in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" novel).

Spectre was such a massive letdown in so many ways. It managed to squander a potentially amazing & iconic villain re-introduction, & completely screwed up the overarching Daniel Craig Bond story.

I love the Ray Quinn music observation!! Such attention to detail, Sir! Terrific!!

Ive been watching your reviews - Your channel is amazing - great video

The villain plans in all Craig’s Bond movies have all been a lot less than “world domination/destruction” of the old Bond films. I mean - “Bolivian water rights”? That’s why I’ve always been kind of underwhelmed with this series. The Moore films got way over-the-top, but this was too extreme of a downsizing.

Your not wrong. the white tuxedo is amazingly spectacular.

Honestly when I first saw this movie, I felt really confused the entire time. I thought that maybe the movie just needed another viewing and I would understand a lot of the real weirdness I felt in the plot. But nope--every time I see it those questions are still there. And these aren't the type of plotholes discovered by fans after overanalyzing the movie to a ridiculous extent--this is just basic storytelling logic that just gets thrown out the window time and time again in here. The needle during the torture scene is the perfect example. Blofeld sets up what the needle is for and what he's going to do with it, does exactly what he said he would do, and inexplicably it just doesn't do what he said it would. It's just like really bad storytelling. The revelation that Blofeld was behind everything from the previous movies is just flat out ridiculous. You can't just do this type of thing as an afterthought. There wasn't a single thread in any of those other movies that set this up--you can't just suddenly have a payoff of something you never set up even a little bit. And that ending....what the hell? I genuinely thought that this was an indication that the Craig era was over and the next one would start again in a completely different continuity with a new lead actor. I was extremely surprised to find out that the producers basically waited for Craig to say "yes" before making the upcoming one. At this point, literally the only story you can tell is Madeline getting killed and Bond on a revenge mission. Unless Bond 25 is going to be about domesticated Bond getting mad because his copy of The Guardian isn't delivered on time in the morning. The whole film just felt rushed, and I can't shake that sense every time I watch it. It's weird how Craig seems to be alternating between some of the best Bond films ever and some truly rushed and thrown together sequels. I have a feeling that a lot of this has to do with all the legal and financial issues that have definitely affected the production of these throughout the Craig era.

Great review, well worth the wait. Yeah, the final showdown definitely should have taken place at the crater and not back in London. Have you seen the "Every Bond Movie in 3 minutes" video? If you haven't you should, it proves just how nonsensical the whole Blofeld as Bond's brother plays out over the course of Bond's history. Just one question, surely the "dead are alive" title card was more of a reference to the Day of the Dead celebrations in the scene that follows rather than to the references to Vesper & co? Otherwise, great work!

I thought it would never happen but damn am i glad it did. You are just the best, good job

Great review, Calvin. It’s a film that’s taken me equally as long to figure out where it ranks among the other Bond films. Daniel Craig’s comment that he wants “to go out on a high note” with Bond 25 makes you wonder if there was more behind-the-scenes drama on Spectre than what the Sony hack revealed (such as the messy third act).

I really enjoy your video essays on Bond. Lately and whenever I am illustrating your videos are on; listening all the while and taking a few breaks to watch. Well done sir. Thank you and Keep it up :-})