James Bond 'Spectre', was it any good? | Day 6/100

I don't feel that there are enough James Bond Spectre reviews out there, so I'm adding my own. Sticking it on here is also a quick way to answer all of my friends at once that have asked, "Is it actually any good?".

The only way to watch a James Bond film, IMHO, is at the cinema. It's one of the few film franchises that can actually convince me to pay money to go to and see it. I'm a sucker for seeing an action film on a big screen and full sound. So, in that sense Spectre ticked all of the boxes and it's totally worth going to see.

The action sequences were immense. No doubt about it. One thing Spectre did especially well was explosions. I mean, Sam Mendes blew some serious shit up on epic proportions. While some of them were obviously CGI'd (well, you can't actually destroy MI6 for the sake of a film!), one of the key scenes used 33kg of powder explosives and 8,418 litres of fuel and was awarded the Guinness World Record for being the largest explosion in film history. It lasted over seven seconds! (See, interesting.) Definitely worth going to see it just for that, because you will sit there and be like, 'Holy crap. That was massive and so very cool.' I bet whoever got to push the button will forever remember that as their best day at work. Ever.

In terms of plot line, yeah I'll roll with pretty much what ever other film reviewer has said. It's not as good as Skyfall. In places, Spectre's story was a bit weak. The main twist, which is revealed kind of early on and then repeated several times just to make sure you understood it, seemed rather far-fetched and unnecessary. I liked that Skyfall revealed a bit about Bond's largely unknown family past, but they should have left it there rather than trying to dig further, the result feeling like it's clutching at straws to reveal this big family secret. Honestly, it felt desperate and is a plot line more suited to a  TV soap. It didn't need it.

Apart from that, it was good. Plenty more cliche, cheesy Bond stuff in Spectre, compared to the last three, that will keep you smiling. Lea Seydoux, who I'd only recently seen for the first time in The Lobster (highly recommend), was brilliant. As was Ralph Finnes, as the new M. Didn't know how I'd feel about that, because Judi Dench was a legend, so replacing her would be tough. However, I loved Finnes in the role. Great fit.

Only other gripe with Spectre was the theme tune. The radio stations I listen to don't have it on their playlist, so seeing it at the cinema was my first time of hearing it. Sorry Sam Smith, I thought you did a bad job with this one. If someone was to ask me to sing it to them, I wouldn't be able to. It's not stuck at all.

So there you go. Definitely worth a watch at the cinema, but enjoy it for the action rather than any big Bond plot and you'll leave the cinema feeling satisfied that you've seen a good film.