An average Bond movie but worth it for the backstory and lore. 75%

Rating: 7/10 (8 December 2015)

Possibly Daniel Craig's last outing as English superspy James Bond, this movie sees our hero confronting a mysterious organisation with corrupt roots which spread deeper in society than anyone knows, let alone suspects.
The cinematography in the film often has visual cues to previous Bond films, be they "Live and let die", "From Russia with love" and no doubt many others too.
Whilst no element of this film stands out, there is some situational and character based humour which lightens to the tone, somewhat. That being said, the violence in this movie can be quite confronting, putting in mind the phrase "Be careful what you wish for", as scenes that would otherwise play out like "Classic" era Bond movies begin to push the envelope until it makes you squirm uncomfortably. Which reminds me...another point of comparison for this film: "Licence to kill", due to this strong violence.,,but it's not as extreme as that earlier Bond movie.
Speaking of "Classic" era Bond movies..."SPECTRE" is indeed a throwback to those early Connery movies, like "From Russia with love", as far as tone and pacing goes. For the Connery movies, this was a negative to me, as he wasn't of my era and this approach dated those early movies for me. However, the more modern sensibility of Craig's Bond films makes this approach more tolerable, if not entertaining.
Despite being escapist entertainment, my rational brain did resist the film's logic, especially early on. E.g. the helicopter fight scene...this didn't strike me as believable and I did wonder if Bond had missed some important OH&S seminars at HQ! Apart from the escapist aspect of this film, it does broach contemporary concerns in a more serious manner, for example, contemporary politics and the surveillance police state.
After viewing this movie I was thinking of scoring it 70% but that would put it pretty low on my list of Bond movies (see my List on this site for my ranking of the Bond movies), so I upped my score (relative to other Bond movies only) to reflect the fact that I found this movie more enjoyable due to it having a more "modern" character as well as for being good fan service as far as James Bond's backstory goes as well as the lore associated with the franchise.
Daniel Craig's series of Bond movies are probably the ideal way for someone new to this franchise to enter the Bond world and that includes this movie too. You get more of Bond's backstory here as well as that of characters and organisations which were a staple of the "Classic" era of Bond movies, i.e. starting with Sean Connery's Bond. At least Craig's Bond movies have an air of coherence to them, which the earlier ones don't, really, unless you have a photographic memory.
By the by, the Herald Sun's "Hit" lift-out reviewed this movie and also included some factoids about it. Personally, I find it hard to believe that this film was so expensive to make. There's also the factoid that the movie made the Guinness Book of world records for the biggest ever film explosion, utilising 8,418 litres of fuel and 33 kg of explosives. Also, the film just made me look up "dirty Martini"...not a variation on the dirty Sanchez (fortunately!), but a cocktail which features olive product.
Lastly, whatever Daniel Craig decides to do with his career, the end credits of "SPECTRE" assures us that "James Bond will return"!