It's official. It's really happening. It's really real. Tickets have been purchased for my viewings of the upcoming James Bond film, Spectre.
You didn't read that wrong. It does say tickets and viewings; as in multiple tickets and multiple viewings. I'll be attending a late Thursday showing with my friend Danny and then follow that up with an encore the next night with my wife and a group of friends. Most likely it won't end there either. I'll probably see it at least once more in a few weeks after the hype and personal elation has died down a bit.
Things finally sank in for me yesterday that my expectations might not be fulfilled with this movie. Normally I don't let critical reviews or overseas box office receipts sway my excitement level (at least not until the night of when I'm standing in line with the velvet rope being the final barrier to me and a new Bond adventure; at that point I'm like Riley from Inside Out with fear in total control of the console), and you'd think that having Sam Mendes at the helm for his second 007 picture would soothe me after the great success of Skyfall. However, for some reason I'm already freaking out about whether I am going to be disappointed or not.
While critics have mostly been generous with their praises, it seems they believe Spectre isn't quite as good as Skyfall. The general consensus among fans is that there is no consensus. I've seen it ranked as high as the second best of all time and as low as the second worst. Some have it near the same spot as Skyfall while others consider it to be nothing like the quality (whether good or bad) of the previous Mendes movie. These two things alone aren't the reasons I have started overthinking the new film and been overcome with pre-show jitters.
What ultimately got me to start questioning the upcoming film is a ranking I found on a fan message board that included Spectre at number 17 on this individual's list. Okay, big deal. So one person had it in the bottom third of the series. Well, what makes this single list stand out more than the rest is where his other films fall. His rankings are eerily similar to my own. We agree on both the top two films of the series (From Russia with Love and Goldfinger) and are dead on with another two. We differ only one spot on five other films and another two are separated by two spots. It would seem this person has about the same level of taste when it comes to James Bond movies, so finding his or her ranking of Spectre at 17 is what has me worried.
By early Friday morning I will know for sure whether I liked Spectre or not and by about 11 that night I will have a great idea of where it falls in my overall list of all the films. My hope is to have updated rankings for all aspects of the 007 film series, from movie and music to characters and title sequences, by early next week.
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