The ultimate reason why Waltz and Mendes and everyone else involved pleaded with people to believe Oberhauser wasn't Blofeld was because his character begins and ends with the name. Strip away that and the flair that Christoph Waltz brings to the role and he's a totally indistinct villain, bringing none of the menace of Donald Pleasance, the methodical nature of Telly Savalas, the theatrics of Charles Gray or the delicatessen-buying skill of John Hollis. Not every film Blofeld's been in has been great, but at least he always had a presence. In Spectre, Blofeld isn't a character, he's an easter egg - an in-joke on a level with the Aston Martin DB-5 or the crater base - who only ever goes through the generic motions. Just think about it. He doesn't even really have a scheme. There's the skeleton of one through C, but what he directly deals in is vague and confusing, playing with Bond and sitting around saying "Cuckoo". In the finale, that James shoots down his helicopter with a pistol is the least ridiculous thing in the sequence when you realise the leader of an international terrorist organisations end-game is to mess with his half-brother's almost-girlfriend. I liked Spectre broadly and I actually enjoyed Oberhauser at many points, mainly thanks to Waltz's performance and that chilling meeting scene, but the eventual twist was a mess and everything afterwards kinda imploded in on itself. A big issue with the film was its leaning back on Bond iconography, which is exactly what went wrong with this Blofeld reveal. It may have been obvious, but that isn't the problem. The problem is that it doesn't really have a purpose. What's your opinion of Spectre's big "twist"? Let us know what you think down in the comments.
