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SPECTRE (007), which was... Well, not terrible... Not great either. I don't know how I felt about it. It was lazy, and had a ton of potential that it just wasted. Some nicely filmed scenes... specifically the "Hello James. What took you so long?" sequence.
But man. Something was off. I remember loving Casino Royale because at the time it was such a ferocious and unexpected new (old) vision of Bond, and because it played out like NOT a Bond film, but rather a really well made, well timed thriller.
Quantum of Solace... I don't remember anything from that movie. Something about sand?
Skyfall was excellent. It felt like the the "Dark Knight" to Casino's "Batman Begins." Javier Bardem was possibly the best Bond villain ever.
SPECTRE, though, was a whole lot of build up for almost no payoff. Better than Quantum, but not good enough to be the Dark Knight Rises of the series.
Unless you can't tell, I think it's quite obvious that the entire Daniel Craig Bond reboot was a pretty transparent attempt to mimic the style and success of Chris Nolan's Batman films. I used to just consider this a theory, but now that I know MGM originally went to Chris Nolan with Casino Royale and wanted him to cast Christian Bale as Bond, I think it's fact.
Apparently they tried to get Nolan to do SPECTRE when Sam Mendes was hemming and hawing about it, but Nolan was busy making the best fucking movie of the last few years, Interstellar. I think they still want him to be part of the Bond world, and here's hoping he gets on board. He's one of the only directors in the world who can reliably belt out blockbusters that are both visually stunning and intelligent.
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