【电影简介】

詹姆斯·邦德（丹尼尔·克雷格饰）是在苏格兰长大的孤儿，天幕庄园承载着他童年的记忆。天幕庄园炸毁之际，唯有一张幸存的老照片令邦德难以释怀。照片上邦德父亲站在邦德和另一个孩子中间，那个孩子的身份令人生疑，所以邦德开始了一次神秘任务，从墨西哥城到最终的罗马他邂逅了美艳的露西亚·斯琪拉（莫妮卡·贝鲁奇饰），而她则是一名臭名昭著的意大利黑手党寡妇，在那里邦德潜入到了一个密会中，揭开了一个名叫幽灵党的邪恶组织背后的秘密。

然而，远在伦敦的国家安全中心的新任负责人马克思·登彼（安德鲁·斯科特饰）怀疑邦德这次行动的目的，并挑战M先生（拉尔夫·费恩斯饰）掌权的军情六处的地位。然而邦德暗中召集了钱班霓（娜奥米·哈里斯饰）和Q博士（本·威士肖饰），协助他寻找他宿敌的女儿玛德琳·斯旺（蕾雅·赛杜饰）的下落，玛德琳·斯旺手里握有解开幽灵党秘密的线索。作为一名杀手的女儿，斯旺比绝大多数人更了解邦德，正当邦德冒险潜入幽灵党中心时，他得知自己与他寻找的敌人弗兰兹·奥博豪斯（克里斯托弗·沃尔兹饰）之间有着骇人的联系。

【音频文本】

One of the few possible ways to appreciate "Spectre" is to think of the latest and most expensive title of the series as a standalone piece. The irony notwithstanding, this seems to be the only way to prolong the life of one of the longest continually-running film series in history.

Surely as per routine, "Bond 24" delivers adrenalising car chase, enchanting female bodies and cut-throat fighting scenes. In fact, courtesy of filmmakers Gary Powell and Neil Layton, actresses Monica Bellucci, Léa Seydoux and actor Dave Bautista, "Spectre" has scored well above average in the plentitude of visual thrill.

So Bond is unofficially investigating a case assigned by the previous M, and he finds a secret organization linked to his encounters in all four previous Bond films, so far so good. But nothing about the shadowy organization makes sense. "Spectre" has been powerful enough to wreak havoc in the world, but somehow isn't able to deal with an individual 00-agent. The assassin they've sent on Bond's tail seem quite keen on terminating his prey, but once Bond reaches the den of the criminals, they want to torture him instead. And guess what? They have a torture room and some equipment just in place for that purpose! How convenient!

Instead of convincing us about the threat of the villain and their evil agenda for world-wide surveillance, the filmmakers only manage to tell us the one thing we've already learnt from the last 23 Bond films, that is, attractive women, from girls in their twenties to widows in their fifties, all want to have some with our tuxedo-ed hero.

Some critics believe "Spectre" is identical with "Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation," but that's absurd! Of course both films deal with secret spy organizations, but "Spectre" and "Syndicate" are two different words. Certainly both films are about agents refusing to retire when the intelligence business is modernizing, but "James Bond" and "Ethan Hunt" are two different characters. One sleeps with his enemies and his enemies' wives and mistresses, the other only falls for someone in a more common line of business. Plus the "Rogue Nation" has done a better job in alleviating modern spies' unemployment anxiety. The IMF still needs Ethan Hunt to infiltrate facilities and crack physically isolated terminals, but the 00-agency only needs someone to look the victim in the eyes before deciding to pull the trigger, a job easily replaceable by drones with enhanced camera lenses.

But if we were to fixate on the flaws in the story, this review could go on and on, but since I strongly believe that between a movie and its reviews, only one of them is allowed to reach the two-and-a-half-hour mark, let's look at the distinct style instead.

Starting with the spectacular long take featuring Mexico's Day of the Dead celebration, the cinematographers continue to provide gratifying images as our characters carry on with their adventure across the globe. Sam Smith's "Writing's on the Wall" may not sound immediately impressive, but the controlled pace and tension eventually rise above the anti-climax of the plot. It also strongly points out the theme of the film: Bond 24 is not about spies or surveillance, but about a man's commitment to fulfilling his promise.

Whether Daniel Craig is going to honor his contract and appear in another Bond film for the sake of money, "Spectre" will suffice as a grand finale by itself. Will future directors of the franchise continue to come up with stories with distinctive themes like the Sam Mendes production, or will they churn out more popcorn spy films, we are not sure. But we are sure the latter is getting more and more difficult.

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