Spectre (November 2015)

Official Australian release date: 12/11/15. Viewed: 13/11/15.

Director: Sam Mendes

Actors: Daniel Craig, Lea Seydoux, Christoph Waltz, Ralph Fiennes

Genre: Action

Rating: M       

‘Spectre’ is the 24^th Bond film and Daniel Craig’s fourth – and final – outing as 007. Is not the best Bond, but nor is it the worst. It does play a lot on nostalgia and the villains/plots (Spectre) of the Moore/Connery eras. It has a lot of classic Bond attributes going for it: worldwide locations (Mexico, Italy, Austria, Morocco), great cars & car chases, plane/helicopter stunts, some sly humour, martinis, explosions and disobeying orders, but it also feels a little tired in places.

The plot does well to link in aspects of ‘Casino Royale’, ‘Quantum of Solace’ and ‘Skyfall’, but doesn’t really offer much of a driving force, as does Blofeld (Waltz)’s motive as the villain – it’s there, but poorly articulated and Waltz is not fully utilised as well as he could be, which is a shame, since we know he can be a great bad guy (‘Inglorious Basterds’ & ‘Django Unchained’). Swann (Seydoux) is also adequate, but never 100% convincing.

There’s probably too many “down”/slow moments in a 2 & a half hour film, but at times the score – or lack of, before it kicks back in – is excellent. Q (Whishaw) and M (Fiennes) are both good and get a bit more screen time than usual. The fight scenes are well done and there’s plenty of action, but I’m interested to see who the next Bond is – and hope they give us four or five years to anticipate it.

Overall: Does what a Bond film should.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.