The latest James Bond film,Spectre, has received a rather mixed response since its release a couple of weeks ago. There are those that loved it, those that hated it, and those that fall somewhere in between (like myself). One person of particular note, however, has a less-than-glowing response to the picture, and that’s James Bond himself. Yes,Pierce Brosnan, who was famously dropped from his Bond contract in favor of rebooting withDaniel Craig, has weighed in with what he thought of the 24th James Bond film in speaking withHitFix, and one could say he’s not really a fan:
“I was looking forward to it enormously. I thought it was too long. The story was kind of weak — it could have been condensed. It kind of went on too long. It really did.”
I mean, he’s not wrong. Brosnan, of course, played the eponymous character in four films from 1995’s excellentGoldeneyeto 2002’s dreadfulDie Another Day(remember the invisible car?), so he has a significant degree of experience with varying degrees of success with the Bond character. What’s interesting, though, is that whileCasino Royaleoffered up averydifferent take on the James Bond franchise that continued through 2012’s spectacularSkyfall, this most recent entry actually felt at times like it had reverted to the Brosnan era, more specifically the bloated, explosion-filled post-Goldeneyerun.
Brosnan continued by sayingSpectresuffered from somewhat of an identity crisis, although he praised Craig’s performance:
“[Spectre] is neither fish nor fowl. It’s neither Bond nor Bourne. Am I in a Bond movie? Not in a Bond movie?. But Daniel, in the fourth go-round, has ownership of it. He had a nice looseness to him.”
So, there you have it. ASpectrereview from a former James Bond. And for those that may think there’s a hint of jealousy that colors Brosnan’s comments, the actor previouslyheaped loads of praise onSkyfall, so there’s no bad blood here.
What do you think, folks? Is Brosnan right in lambastingSpectre’s “weak” story and bloated runtime, or do you thinkSpectreearned its fourth act? Sound off in the comments below.
