An adequate end to a poorly set up quadrilogy

Rating: 6/10 (7 May 2016)

Upon watching Spectre a second time, I really felt it could be acceptable as a finale to the series if only they planned Blofeld as the big overarching villain from the start of the Craig-Bond films.
It tries to build up this mystery of a super villain who's been controlling everything behind the scenes but the reveal falls flat because it was predictable and we'd only just met this character. If only Blofled had been in Casino Royale or Skyfall it would possibly have been a satisfactory reveal or encounter.
Unfortunately, much like the reveal of Khan in Star Trek: Into Darkness, it relies on the established legacy of the character rather than the character in the film itself.
They go further and add another twist by making Blofeld the biological son of the man who adopted Bond. Now he's is mad because his daddy loved Bond more than him and he's been plotting all these years just to get revenge.
What is this? An M. Night Shayamalan film?
Blofeld: "Bond, I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate!"
Goldeneye on the other hand handled the reveal of Alec Trevelyan much better and it was far more impactful because they were established as friends in the opening sequence. In Spectre, Bond has no feelings for Blofeld. He never loved him or hated him as a brother. In fact Bond seems to have no memories of him other than a McGuffin photograph recovered from Skyfall.
I've criticized Skyfall for ripping off The Dark Knight, but the Craig-Bond series really lacks a Batman Begins-esque origin story where we see Bond's journey from orphan to spy. Casino Royale, while an overall good Bond film, is a soft reboot that didn't go far enough to establish Bond's beginnings.
On a technical level, Spectre, like Skyfall, is pretty good. It's well shot and has pretty good atmosphere, but I wish they didn't wash out everything with a brown color. It makes it feel like they're trying too hard to be serious. It's almost like they're intentionally trying to suck the joy of it.
And speaking of joy, the film doesn't have any. It lacks excitement and fun. This is mainly because the stakes are never really high. Action is just a thing that happens, but it never manages to be meaningful or tense. Except perhaps the train fight which is the most visceral.
Spectre's biggest sequence is a chase in which Bond flies a plane to catch the bad guy's car, but it ends up boring. Why? Because there's nothing to care about. He trying to rescue the girl, but we only met her a second ago. We have no real reason to be invested in her character other than the fact that she is the girl.
Compare this with the tanks chase in Goldeney. Bond chases after the bad guy who's kidnapped the girl, Natalia. The key difference is that she is a well established character by this point in the story. On some level we care about her. We want to see Bond save her.
Madeline, played by Lea Seydoux, has nothing to contribute to the plot other than the fact that she knows one thing - one measly little thing. She has no skills and does nothing that moves the story forward. She's just along for the ride, and then right before the last action sequence, she decides to leave, only to be captured by the villain.
At the end of the film they seem to imply that the two end up together and ride off in the Aston Martin. However, Bond has no reason to love her. Of all Bond's women, she and he have the least chemistry. They just had some good sex after a fight. That's it.
Lets not even talk about the scene with Monica Bellucci which is one of the most bizarre and un-sexy seductions in a Bond film ever. Say what you want about the "sexism" of past Bond films but they used to at least try to set up some plausible attraction between Bond and the female character. Even if Bond was pushy he was at least charming.
On a positive note, the element that worked most for me was how they established bigger roles for M, Q, and Money Penny, almost like the Mission Impossible team. It was nice that they served as more than just characters in single scenes. Now they actually help Bond. This is a dynamic they kind of already set up in Skyfall, but they really got it working in Spectre.
So where does Spectre rank in the Craig-Bond franchise? I'd have to say it is second best after Casino Royale which I would give an 8/10. Skyfall was uneven. It started out with a lot of promise but it ultimately fizzled out at the end. It was also really frustrating because the characters made stupid decisions. Spectre, while being slightly too long and having a bunch of problems itself, managed to be more consistent than Skyfall which is why I rank it higher.
I really hope that they manage to bring back the fun in the next film. Of course no one wants a repeat of Die Another Day, but I think they shouldn't be so afraid of a little bit of camp.