Spectre
(Opening Title Sequence)
Ok so at the Jaguar screening for Spectre, they take all your phones off you at the door, which should be implemented in every cinema. They give you free popcorn, maltesers and fill your glass with bollinger. The lights dim, there's no trailers or adverts. We are straight in, with the MGM lion roar. And guess what, Danny boy has a gun barrel sequence at the start. FINALLY, after the disappointment of the Skyfall entrance with Danny Boy turning up in a corridor out of focus minus the gun barrel, Mendes finally gets his shit together and gives the public what they want.
And I cry. I raise one clenched fist to the ceiling, hug the stranger next to me, and with my other palm, smudge away a tear. And the barrel sequence from what I saw through a watered spectrum, was well paced. Danny boy had quite a hurried gun barrel walk at the end of Quantum, but now he's truly relaxed as Bond. It's a nice nonchalant stroll and a good swivel then BANG. It doesn't have the menace of a Pierce gun barrel, or the elaborate lunge of a Bob Simmons, but it's confident, no knee wobble like ol Sean, and actually fires straight at the camera unlike ol Roger.
Into the very first scene which is a long continuous sweeping shot that follows Danny Boy and his squeeze through the Day of the Dead parade in Zocalo Square, Mexico. The girl thinks she has landed Bond and is about to get her kit off in the hotel room when Bond whips off his Skeleton cape revealing a mustard Tom Ford suit and tells her 'Back in a minute love' then hops out of the window like the man from Milk Tray. Oh and he's carrying a fucking cannon yeah! So off he pops for a casual walk along the rooftops, which is so cool because he's walking like he's just popping down the Spar for some fairy liquid, but just one loose step and he'll fall to his death. Anyway, he takes out a whole building in a minute and we are introduced to the first gag of the movie. Bond falls through a crumbling building and you begin to think 'Oh no, this is it for Danny Boy, he's a gonna'. But no, he lands on a sofa, rather casually. Which gets a good hearty laugh and just goes to show, Bond as well as being a highly trained badass, does need the gods on his side once in a while.
Bond gets out of the rubble and eyes this rakish fellow in a rather dapper all in white suit called Marco Sciarra. They have a little 'come on then c*nt' Mexican stand off and Bond starts to give chase. Only it's a walking chase scene through a crowded parade because Danny Boy did his knee in during one of the stunts and couldn't run, so Mendes filmed a walking chase scene, which works just as well.
They get to the helicopter, and Sciarra thinks he's got away, but Bond gets in just in time and he starts to kick Sciarras arse, and the poor pilots arse. The helicopter is whizzing around, upside down and all that. Eventually Bond kicks Sciarra off the chopper, not before having the foresight to nick his ring first. Then the chopper is careering downwards into the parade with 9,000 people running for cover, before Danny Boy pulls it up and everyone has a huge sigh of relief. Thank god for Bond they all think! A little reminiscent of the Goldeneye beginning with ol Piercey in the plane.
Overall it was gripping, certainly gets us off to a banger. The scale of the entire set piece and the long single shot, frame by frame beginning is certainly something new and there is genuine tension. It's perhaps too early to give it a rating amongst the pantheon of Bond beginnings. I do like the walk along the rooftops and the fact Bond is being sneaky. For me there wasn't a clever pay off like Bond rolling into a gas station in his fold up fighter plane in Octopussy; 'Fill her up please'. Or the sleek dialogue of Casino Royale when Bond tells Dryden 'I know where you keep your gun.' Although there is a clever little interplay with M and C later on that echoes that, but that's for another day. For me. I still have to say for opening titles, World is Not Enough still tops the lot, closely followed by Casino Royale, Octopussy then TSPWLM. But I've been none to change my mind on these things.
