Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #141 - SPECTRE

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #141 - SPECTRE

Hi Mom,

I went to see SPECTRE with Dad yesterday at Alamo Drafthouse. We always talk about you when we do stuff like that, how we did some of those things with you, how we still might if you were alive, and if you had not developed the degenerative palsy.

Did you think Daniel Craig was sexy?

The movie did not fare to well with critics (see image below - I am stealing from Google today), but I don't care. I enjoyed it. Sure, there were flaws in the plot and many standard, stock Bond schlock, but that's why I went to a Bond film. Come on, Man!

I think my critical capability has diminished. I just don't care so much any more about the finer points. I just care about escape, entertainment value, getting my Bond's dollar's worth. I am not interested in giving it too close of a judgement as a "film." But then, I have found myself very forgiving of Jar Jar Binks and The Phantom Menace, which many people are not. Lots of that has to do with going the other way. There is so much Jar Jar and Phantom Hate that I have to go the other way.

Still, 64%? 60%? Harsh. 7.2 is closer to reality.



Really, it's not my critical capability that's diminished. It's my capacity to care about it that's changed. I do not care to invoke the critical thinking all the time. Sometimes, unless something is dreadful and painful to watch, I just want to enjoy it without spoiling it with criticism. This is an idea that my women's studies students never grasped regardless of how often I described it. In the gender criticism class, we were there TO BE CRITICAL, that was our whole raison d'etre. If you want to let art flow over you, and just enjoy it, go be somewhere else and not in a class dedicated to criticism of media for their gender messages in their media products.

I am not crazy about Léa Seydoux. But that's my own personal bias. Her acting was superb. She's beautiful, if that's the look one likes. Her love scene with Bond was pretty hot. But for me, I am not so attracted to that look, and since I am attracted to Bond films based on this "Oggle Factor," this is a negative for me.

Making Madeleine Swann a bad ass with guns and able to hold her own in a fight was definitely a great choice. But I was more excited to see Monica Bellucci in the film. Just a personal preference. Though I was very pleased to see a much older than average woman in a "Bond Girl" role.

Seydoux just doesn't do it for me.

I have a blonde bias.

But this is a cool photo of her with a gun.

But the film is gorgeous visually. The opening gambit with its Day of the Dead scene alone is worth the price of admission.

Beautiful scenes, and a huge location shoot.

I was also pleased to see the attention to Bond lore, IE. Vesper Lynd from Casino Royale and the big reveal of the identity of 

SPOILER ALERT

Ernst Stavro Blofeld as the actual identity of Franz Oberhauser, who is also James Bond's adopted brother.

There's been a lot of criticism of this choice, but it tied up neatly some Bond stuff for me, and I liked it well enough. Much of the criticism (see HIT FIX review) stems from how the team making this Bond film played the Internet rumor mill and so people are pissed to be fooled. Given that I have ignored the Internet rumor mill (as we all should), I don't care. It's neat that we now know who Blofeld really is. Hit Fix is also oversimplifying Blofeld's motivations. He's a power hungry psychopath. Do all psychopaths need complex motivations for being psychopaths?

In the end, Bond throws away his gun to be with the new woman of his dreams, but he did not kill Blofeld/Oberhauser, leaving the door open for more films, though maybe not with Daniel Craig, as this is his "Swan Song," which may be why the new love interest's name is Swann?

More on how SPECTRE references bond lore at this link: FLICKERING MYTH LINK.

TELEGRAPH REVIEW

HIT FIX REVIEW

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 143 days ago


- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1511.25 - 22:10