"I've really put you through it, haven't I?"

Rating: 7/10 (5 December 2018)

I watched this film right after "Diamonds Are Forever" and was surprised to see the character of Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) show up again, but this time it's the son of the character in 'Diamonds'. Which is somewhat confusing when you consider that the 'Spectre' Blofeld referenced his father in the past mentoring the childhood James Bond, thereby setting up a personal rivalry between them. So who was the James Bond in the 'Diamonds' film? I'm not a Bond fan well enough at this point (while watching the films out of order) to understand if there's a lineage in the Bond family, but it doesn't seem likely to me. Oh well.
Aside from the revelation of a criminal organization known as SPECTRE, this is pretty much a by-the-numbers Bond flick with all the elements we're used to seeing in prior films. However Lucia Sciarra (Monica Bellucci) isn't around long enough to classify as a true Bond villainess, while Dr. Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) doesn't appear to have the charisma needed to pull off her role as Bond's assistant. Andrew Scott lacked the gravitas needed to pull off the role of Max Denbigh/'C' of the newly merged British Intelligence unit comprised of MI5 and MI6, leaving Blofeld perhaps the most interesting character. Daniel Craig himself appeared a bit lackluster to me as well, it might have helped if he cracked a smile every now and then.
I did like the opening Mexico City segment, very colorful and culminating with the best action sequence of the picture. Trouble is, it just about topped everything else that followed making even the reveal of SPECTRE's global surveillance system somewhat anti-climactic. But now that I've gotten on this recent James Bond kick, I'm inclined to view the entire series in order of release to get a sense of continuity going and get up to speed with events and characters I'm not familiar with. Should be an interesting exercise.