Excerpts from early SPECTRE reviews

SPECTRE poster

The initial wave of SPECTRE reviews, by critics who attended a Wednesday press showing in the U.K., are being posted. Reaction is mostly positive (some reviews overwhelmingly so) while some reviews express reservations.

What follows are some excerpts from a sampling of those reviews.

We’ve tried to keep out spoilers, but for some almost anything is a spoiler. So if you’re really spoiler adverse, stop reading now.

OLIVER LYTTELTON, THE PLAYLIST: “The Daniel Craig era of Bond movies has been something of a mixed bag so far. …(I)t would be nice to report that (director Sam Mendes’ ) second movie in the franchise, “Spectre,” will please both the hardcore and the more casual fan. Unfortunately, the new film, the 24th in the long-running series, feels more like a successor to ‘Quantum (of Solace),’ or to one of the ropier Roger Moore films, than to its Oscar-winning predecessor.”

“As with “Skyfall,” Mendes (and writers John Logan, Neil Purvis and Robert Wade, here joined by “Edge Of Tomorrow” and “Black Mass” co-writer Jez Butterworth) are pushing forward a more serialized, backstory-heavy Bond for the modern super-franchise era, while also paying homage to classic 007 entries.”

PETER BRADSHAW, THE GUARDIAN: “If nothing else, the spelling of the title should tip you off that this is a thoroughly English movie franchise. Bond is back and Daniel Craig is back in a terrifically exciting, spectacular, almost operatically delirious 007 adventure – endorsing intelligence work as old-fashioned derring-do and incidentally taking a stoutly pro-Snowden line against the creepy voyeur surveillance that undermines the rights of a free individual. It’s pure action mayhem with a real sense of style.”

BRIAN VINER, DAILY MAIL:  “Does it warrant all the hype, the secrecy, the breathless anticipation? Indubitably, yes.

“From the exhilarating pre-credits sequence, against the backdrop of the Day of the Dead festival in Mexico City, to a spectacular denouement…Spectre is a proper joyride of a James Bond film.

“It features everything (with the exception of a really memorable theme song) that most of us hope for in a 007 picture: great gadgets, stunts, and a handful of laugh-out loud one-liners.”

“It is a pleasure, too, to find Bond back in control of his own destiny. As good as Skyfall was, it was disconcerting to see him quite so vulnerable.”

DAVID EDWARDS, THE MIRROR: “Mean, moody and mad as hell, this is a Bond we haven’t seen since the days of Sean Connery, with director Sam Mendes returning the superspy to his brutal roots.

“Forget the campiness of the past, 007 is the suited-and-booted menace originally envisioned by creator Ian Fleming.

“And while you can’t help cheering as he takes on the sinister criminal organisation, Spectre, with the single-mindedness of an Exocet missile, he remains someone you really wouldn’t want to meet for a Martini.”

GEOFFREY MCCNAB, THE INDEPENDENT: “Thankfully, as an action movie, Spectre is every bit the equal of its predecessor, Skyfall. For at least half its running time, this is as good as Bond gets – a rip-roaring and very stylishly made thriller with tremendous production values.

“The hitch is that, in its latter stages, Spectre struggles to reconcile its own internal contradictions. The filmmakers want to have it both ways: to provide slick entertainment while also giving us new insight into Bond’s emotions and into his past. This leads to some strange contortions.”

Positive reactions from U.K. press showing of SPECTRE

One spoiler, but a ways down the page (not a plot spoiler). Stop reading now if you’re spoiler adverse.

A press showing of SPECTRE, the 24th James Bond film, was held Wednesday evening in the U.K. and generated some positive reactions.

What follows is a sampling and isn’t comprehensive. The first two of the following tweets aren’t spoilers. The third contains what many would consider a spoiler but there is no plot information.

One of the first we saw was from Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian:

#Spectre great fun, very exciting, sexily pro-Snowden

— Peter Bradshaw (@PeterBradshaw1) October 21, 2015

Deathlan Slashin, home page editor of BuzzFeed’s UK edition appeared to like it.

So, #Spectre: much funnier, great retro/canonical touches, old school Bond action, too free-wheeling in midsection, bloody cracking finale

— Deathlan Slashin (@Tweet_Dec) October 21, 2015

And now for that spoiler:

#SPECTRE The gunbarrel is at the beginning and there is no OHMSS in the soundtrack that is very much like the soundtrack of Skyfall

— Rob_Coppinger (@Rob_Coppinger) October 21, 2015

A Daily Mirror staffer weighs in:

OMG, just seen this. Prepare to be shaken. The boldest & best #Bond yet. Superb! #Spectre. Well done @SonyPictures pic.twitter.com/3nEO70Up7U

— Derek Momodu (@DelMody) October 21, 2015

And here’s one more:

#spectre getting great response from u.k. color me #relieved

— Showbiz 411 (@showbiz411) October 21, 2015

UPDATE: First negative reaction we spotted:

SPECTRE: Quantum Of Solace 2: This Time It's Personal. Bad action, lousy plotting, Lea Seydoux only redeeming feature.

— olilyttelton (@olilyttelton) October 21, 2015

UPDATE II: Meanwhile, the chief film critic of The Times in the U.K. gave readers a preview of what she’s writing.

Shall be giving #SPECTRE the full five-star treatment in The Times tomorrow

— Kate Muir (@muirkate) October 21, 2015

Reading between the lines of THR’s story on MGM and Sony

SPECTRE teaser poster

The Hollywood Reporter has A STORY BY GREGG KILDAY examining whether Sony Pictures will no longer release 007 films after SPECTRE. But the story has some other interesting data as well.

Sony has released all four Bond films of the Daniel Craig era, but its current two-film deal expires with SPECTRE. Here’s a look at some of the other side issues raised in the story.

SPECTRE’s budget: Kilday quotes sources he doesn’t identify as insisting “that the final net budget now stands in the neighborhood of $250 million.”

It’s known, thanks to the Sony hacks, that SPECTRE spending was on track to reach around $350 million. The Hollywood Reporter story suggests that production placement and similar deals (such as the subsidies Mexico paid out to the production) helped bring in about $100 million to offset a substantial portion of those costs.

Mind games between studios: There’s also an anecdote in the story about some mind games between Sony and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the studio that controls half of the Bond franchise along with the Broccoli-Wilson family.

According to the story, MGM told Sony in June 2013 if it wanted its name in a press release announcing the release date of the then-untitled movie, Sony had “to opt in immediately.” At the time, there was no firm budget but Sony was being pressed to commit anyway, THR says. (Not mentioned in the story: there wasn’t even a first-draft script. That wasn’t submitted by initial writer John Logan until March 2014.)

The release was issued in JULY 2013.It had this joint quote from Sony executives Michael Lynton and Amy Pascal: “It’s a privilege to work on the Bond films. EON, John Logan and Sam Mendes have come up with an extraordinary follow up to SKYFALL and we, along with our partners at MGM, can’t wait to share this new chapter with audiences all over the world.”

Subsequently, Logan was replaced writing the movie and Pascal was fired after bad publicity from the Sony hacks.

To read the entire Hollywood Reporter story, CLICK HERE.