Review - Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015)

        Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, we've got two more James Bond movies to cover before the release of No Time to Die, so let's dive on into them. Skyfall, released in 2012, and Spectre, released in 2015, were both directed by Sam Mendes, and both star the likes of Daniel Craig as Bond, Ben Whishaw as Q, Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner, and Naomie Harris and Ralph Fiennes. Skyfall also marks the last time we have Judi Dench in the series as M, but we'll get to that in a moment.

         So, Skyfall opens with Bond, along with a new field agent named Eve, going after an assassin named Patrice, who has killed fellow MI6 agent Ronson and stolen a data drive containing the list of every NATO agent embedded in terrorist cells around the globe. While Bond chases Patrice onto a train, Eve gets ahead of them and gets into a sniping position. Unfortunately, she doesn't have a clean shot, and is ordered to shoot anyway despite the risk of Bond taking the bullet instead of Patrice. Bond takes the bullet and falls to the water below, and Patrice escapes with the drive. 

      Months later, M is brought in for a hearing with Gareth Mallory, who informs her that he'll be overseeing the transition of power until M's retirement as head of MI6. On the ride back, M is informed about a breach in MI6's computer system, and receives a cryptic warning: "Think on your sins." At a bridge near MI6, M witnesses a bomb destroy her office, forcing MI6 to relocate to an old underground bunker from World War II. Bond, meanwhile, whose been enjoying life in paradise, sees the news of the MI6 attack, and returns to London. M pits him through a series of medical, physical, and psychological tests before he can return to duty. And although he doesn't pass, M reactivates Bond anyway, and sends him to Shanghai to go after Patrice. 

         But first, Bond meets MI6's new quartermaster, Q, who gives him a plane ticket to Shanghai, a Walther PPK-S pistol with a microdermal sensor in the grip encoded to Bond's palm print, and a radio transmitter for a quick exit. In Shanghai, Bond follows Patrice, fights him, but doesn't learn about who got the list, as Patrice falls to his death, leaving behind a casino chip for a casino in Macau. Bond heads there, and is met by Eve, who is there to help out. At the casino, Bond cashes in the chip in exchange for a ton of cash, and he meets a woman named Severine, who offers to take him to her employer/lover, in exchange for Bond taking out her guards who will try to kill him. Bond defeats them, and meets Severine on her boat. 

        The next morning, the boat arrives on a private island, and Bond meets the man responsible for the attack on MI6: former MI6 agent Raoul Silva. Silva reveals that his goals are one of revenge against M, as she sold him out to the Chinese back when she was an MI6 section chief in Hong Kong. After a really uncomfortable, and I mean borderline creepy, interrogation scene, Bond and Silva head outside, where the two have a contest, which ends with Silva killing Severine to knock off a glass of scotch from her head. Bond, who'd been faking poor marksmanship the whole time, kills many of Silva's men, and several helicopters appear and Silva is arrested and taken to MI6. 

         M confronts Silva, who shares of how he was tortured by the Chinese, and he never gave up any secrets, and it was only when he realized that M had betrayed him that he tried to kill himself with a cyanide capsule in his molar. The cyanide did deform and burn him, but he didn't die. After M leaves for an inquiry board hearing, Q and Bond investigate Silva's laptop, and the laptop hacks Q's servers, leading both Bond and Q to realize that Silva planned to get caught. Bond chases Silva into the underground train tunnels, nearly gets killed by a train, and along with Eve, Tanner, and Mallory, saves M from Silva. Bond drives M away from the scene, and to a car storage garage, where they switch from an MI6 companies car to Bond's Aston Martin DB5. 

        Back at MI6, Q plants a false electronic trail for Silva to follow, with the okay to do so from Mallory. Meanwhile, Bond and M head to Scotland, where they arrive at Bond's old family home: Skyfall. At Skyfall, Bond and M meet Kincaid, the gamekeeper of the grounds, who reveals that the house was sold, as was the gun collection. All that was left was Bond's father's hunting rifle, dynamite, and a few knives. So, Bond, M, and Kincaid work together to fortify the house against Silva's men. While the first wave are easily taken out, Silva arrives in a helicopter blaring the song "Boom Boom" on the loudspeaker, to which Bond remarks "Always gotta make an entrance." 

      So, Bond continues to fight off Silva and his men, while M and Kincaid escape through an underground tunnel, which leads them to a nearby church. Bond destroys the house, and escapes through the tunnel. Bond fights the last of Silva's men, while Silva himself heads to confront M at the church. Silva tries to make M kill the both of them, buy Bond arrives and kills Silva. Bond holds M in his arms as she does of a wound she sustained earlier. Some time later, back in London, Eve gives Bond an object that M left to Bond in her will, and the two head inside, where Eve reveals her full name is Eve Moneypenny. Tanner informs Bond that the new boss is ready for him, and it's revealed that Mallory is now heading MI6 as the new M. 

        Okay, so Skyfall is, for lack of a better word, awesome. Daniel Craig as Bond is awesome. Javier Bardem as Silva is awesome. Ben Whishaw as Q is awesome. Naomie Harris is Moneypenny is awesome. The action is awesome. The directing by Sam Mendes is awesome. The fact that Ralph Fiennes, who was Voldemort in the Harry Potter movies, is the new M is awesome. The movie's theme song by Adele, which won an Oscar for Best Original Song, is awesome. As a celebration of 50 years of the series, Skyfall is just awesome. I'm giving it a 5/5. Seriously, this is a must-watch for all Bond fans.

         Three years later, Sam Mendes returns with Spectre. This movie marks the first appearance of the terrorist organization known as SPECTRE since Diamonds Are Forever, and the fact that this happened, thanks to the heirs of Kevin McClory selling the rights to Thunderball back to EON Productions, is fantastic. So, let's dive in. 

       The movie opens in Mexico, where Bond is on the trail of a man named Marco Sciarra. Sciarra, and several other men, discuss a mysterious individual known as the "pale king," and Bond shoots the apartment where they're meeting. A massive chase through Mexico City, which involves a helicopter, ensues, and Bond kills Sciarra. Back in London, M berates Bond for his actions, and pulls him from active service. That evening, Bond reveals to Moneypenny that the previous M left a video message ordering him to kill Sciarra and attend his funeral in Rome. Bond then asks Moneypenny to investigate the "pale king." The next day, after meeting with Q, Bond heads to Rome and attends Sciarra's funeral. That evening, he saves and seduces Sciarra's widow, Lucia, and gets information from her about a meeting.

       Bond goes to the meeting, where he recognizes one man who he believes to have been dead for years: Franz Oberhauser. After a chase between Bond and a massive man named Mr. Hinx, Bond calls Moneypenny and reveals that the acts of terrorism happening worldwide are all caused by the same organization. Moneypenny then reveals that the "pale king" is none other than Mr. White, formerly of Quantum. Bond then heads to Austria, where Mr. White is living his last days. Bond realized that Mr. White is protecting someone, a daughter by the name of Madeleine Swann. Mr. White asks Bond to find Madeleine, who can lead him to L'Américain, and Mr. White kills himself with Bond's gun. 

            Bond then heads to a hospital where Madeleine works, and unsuccessfully attempts to get her to leave with him. After a conversation with Q, who he asks to scan Sciarra's ring for him, Bond chases after Mr. Hinx and several other bad guys, and he rescues Madeleine. The two meet with Q, who reveals that all of Bond's past enemies (Le Chiffre, Silva, Dominic Greene, etc.) all have ties to Oberhauser, who Madeleine reveals the name of the organization he leads: SPECTRE. Madeleine then takes Bond to L'Américain, which is a hotel in Tangier. There, Bond and Madeleine learn that Mr. White had triangulated the hidden location of Oberhauser's base: a crater in the middle of the desert. Bond and Madeleine head there by train, and end up attacked once more by Mr. Hinx, who Bond knocks off the train. Back in London, M reveals that due to the power shake-up he's been dealing with involving the director-general of the newly formed Joint Intelligence Service, Max Denbigh aka C, Bond cannot get any help at this point.

        Arriving at their destination, Bond and Madeleine are taken to the crater site, and they are taken to meet Oberhauser, who reveals that he's been the one responsible for everything that's happened to Bond over the years. He reveals that this is due to the fact that as children, Bond was adopted by Oberhauser's father Hannes, and the two grew attached to each other, making Franz feel cast out. So, Franz caused the avalanche that killed his father, and took on a new identity: Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Bond and Madeleine escape, and destroy the facility.  

      The two return to London, where Bond reveals that C is working for Blofeld to set up a new surveillance system called Nine Eyes, shut down the 00 program, and this SPECTRE can act unimpeded. Madeleine is taken by SPECTRE agents, and Bond goes after her at the soon-to-be demolished MI6 building, still ruined by Silva's attack. Bond confronts Blofeld, and goes to rescue Madeleine before the building is destroyed. M, meanwhile, confronts C, having Q shut down the Nine Eyes program, and M and C have a fight which results in the death of C. Bond shoots down Blofeld's helicopter, but decides not to kill him, leaving him to be arrested by M. Some days later, Bond goes to pick up his DB5, and he and Madeleine drive off. 

       Okay, so in my opinion, Spectre wasn't as good as Skyfall, but it was still really good. Christoph Waltz was excellent as Blofeld, although trying to hide the fact that it was Blofeld was a bit dumb on the part of the filmmakers. I also liked both Lea Seydoux and Monica Belluci as Madeleine and Lucia. Both were terrific, and we're great additions to the film. Now, while I didn't really care for Andrew Scott as C, I definitely enjoyed Dave Bautista as Mr. Hinx. The notion of tying the villains of all the Daniel Craig era Bond films together was a bit of a stretch for me, but it was still neat to see that they all were tied together by SPECTRE. The movie's theme song, "Writings on the Wall" by Sam Smith was definitely good, and deserved the Oscar that it won, but it still pales in comparison to "Skyfall" by Adele. 

       Overall, a decent Bond film, I'm giving Spectre a rating of 4/5. This is Chuck signing off , and I'll see you guys tomorrow when we officially kick off HallowScream with my reviews of Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage.