SPECTRE (THE FILM’S BLAND VERY BLAND)

James Bond may very well be the most successful fictional creations in literary history. Whilst not every missions the super spy has embarked upon has been a rousing success (Thunderball, The Man with the Golden Gun and more recently Quantum of Solace) Bond has always managed to return and remake himself. I was a big fan of Casino Royale, underwhelmed (as most were) by Quantum of Solace and a big fan of Skyfall. So my hopes were high that Spectre would keep up the high quality of Skyfall. Sadly whilst there are impressive set pieces Spectre fails to live up to the high standards set by its predecessor. It all starts out well with a highly stylizes sequence at the day of the dead in Mexico with a nice call back to Live and Let Die with its voodoo chic look. After this stylized impressive opening, we follow Bond as he follows a mysterious message from M (Judi Dench) his late mentor. It’s around the halfway mark that things begin to seriously fall apart with a plot that goes nowhere (even for a Bond Movie!) Some truly cringe worthy dialogue (again even for Bond movie). Not even the presence of Christoph Waltz as the arch nemesis can save the film, defeated not by Bond but by a very shaky script. Even the action is lacklustre with long periods of talking killing any tension and ensuring that pace of the film slows to a snail’s pace. Let’s be clear it’s not that film is terrible or without merit but that it simply fills the nice of a decent action film and not the lofty heights that we have come to expect from Bond. Daniel Craig has said publically that he does not intend to return for another film (although a large amount of cash might prove the antidote for that) Perhaps the filmmakers should take this opportunity to go back to the drawing board. I think this would be a shame as I like Craig’s Bond and feel that this creation of the character still has potential. FINAL VERDICT 6/10 Entertaining but it could have been so much more.