The best bit of Spectre is its opening. Now that comes across as a painfully backhanded compliment, a way to dismiss the film as a whole, but it's more down to just how great the first shot of the movie is than an indictment of what comes after. A four-minute extended take that tracks Bond through the Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico City in pursuit of a S.P.E.C.T.R.E. agent, it's a glorious technical achievement with everything you know about Bond - womanising ways, dapper dress sense, witty put-downs, nonchalant death-defying actions - all present. Sure, it'd have been more impressive if Birdman hadn't just won Best Picture, but it's still an awesome moment. Long takes have become increasingly commonplace in blockbuster cinema, but Spectre shows there's a way to do it and still stand out (rather than in Tomorrowland or San Andreas where you barely even notice it); on top of being incredibly well structured you can't see the cuts (if there are any) and there doesn't feel like there's obscene amounts of CGI enhancement (unlike other parts of the opening). I almost wish Mendes and Hoyte van Hoytema had chosen to stretch the shot out for the whole sequence, logistics be damned, to fully hammer home the claims this is the biggest opening ever, but four minutes is good enough I guess.
