spectre.jpg

I've been thinking about spy movies a fair amount lately, having seen (and really liked) Kingsman and having seen (and mostly liked) Spy and having rewatched Mission Impossible: Ghotocol to prep for next week's Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. Hell, the Mercury's resident 007 expert, Music Editor Ned Lannamann, was also kind enough to let me borrow his Blu-ray of The Man with the Golden Gun so I could revisit that movie following Christopher Lee's death. SO. LOTS OF SPIES. The general sentiment I've come away with: James Bond movies might've come to define the spy genre, but in recent years, everyone but Bond is cashing in on what's fun about the genre. The more dour Daniel Craig gets, the more fun everyone else seems to have.

That's not necessarily a bad thing—Skyfall, one of 007's mopiest and srs bsns outings yet, is one of the best films in the series. (Bond might even be at his best when he's at his saddest—my favorite 007 outing is still the unfairly maligned On Her Majesty's Secret Service.) But it's still weird to see so much of the stuff people associate with Bond—goofy gadgets, ludicrous missions, insane villains' high-tech, high-style lairs—taken over by other, more free-spirited movies. That goes double when those other movies are also interested in using the spy genre's conventions to explore new territory that Bond's never been particularly sensitive to—Spy with gender, Kingsman with class.

But then when Bond movies nail it—like Skyfall did, and like this new trailer for Spectre makes it look like it will—I have to feel like that's part of a plan. Like someone at 007 HQ said, "You know what? Our movies might not be silly anymore, but if we're going to make blockbusters about a sad spy, let's make them best sad spy blockbusters ever." If Spectre is even half as good as Casino Royale and Skyfall (let us not speak of Quantum of Solace), maybe it's okay that Bond's letting everyone else have more fun. Maybe this is an okay tradeoff.

Cool helicopter trick! In the final sound mix, though, there better be a slide whistle.