Good old James Bond is back!

Rating: 10/10 (1 November 2015)

Wow, how does one start a review for a movie that I've personally had extremely high expectations for ever since all the way back when the credits for Skyfall rolled up on the cinematic screen the last time.
Following the perfect ending of Skyfall with the reinstatement of a newer, better version of Bernard Lee as M, Mr. Ralph Fiennes, and an almost nostalgic scene that put Daniel Craig directly in the footsteps of Sir Sean Connery, it was obvious that Spectre had to bring this enormously phenomenal set up into a movie that finally could stand on its own again (in contrast to the previous movies, which dwelled in Bond's past before and during his becoming of a 00- agent.) Not saying Daniel Craigs three previous movies weren't absolutely fantastic, but it was nice to see James Bond on a real mission in her majesty's secret service again... At least for the duration of the first good hour of the movie, whereof the opening sequence of course was something extraordinary. Almost art out of this world. However, the flashbacks to the previous Craig movies (the images of Vesper, Silva, Greene and Le Chiffre) were dragging this movie a little backwards again; into the "before-Bond-became-a-00" time, and that contradicts the wonderful notion of Spectre being an independent Bond film once again just like Die Another Day. That being said, these flashbacks fit the storyline of Spectre and the rest of Craig's movies very well, and even when Franz Oberhauser (astonishingly portrayed by our very own Christoph Waltz) revealed himself as the root evil of all the previous three movies, and even the entire Bond franchise, THE one and only, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, I still had a feeling that the whole plot came together quite well. There is just ONE tiny, little slip that somehow annoyed me. The fact that Bond in end says something like: "I don't want to do this anymore. I'm out of bullets." While he drops a magazine on the ground and throws his (what I assume to hopefully be his Walter PPK; didn't notice if it actually was that) away. Thus, he leaves Blofeld to be arrested to pursue his newfound "love", Madeleine Swann (portrayed exquisitely by Léa Seydoux.) Wait a second? What is going on? James Bond is not supposed to be THAT soft! And on top of it, Madeleine is Mr. White's daughter, which just seems absurd that the odds of her being Bond's next love (which he shouldn't have. He is a cold-blooded killer and gentlemen, but not a lover) should be Mr. White's daughter. Although, not impossible, it just seemed a little far-fetched and too romanticized in the end. Nevertheless, my theory for Bond not shooting Blofeld was that the writer's want to reinstate him as the villain again in future movies, which actually is a very nice idea, so that is a good thing. All the complaining aside though, my overall impression of Spectre did live up to my ridiculously high expectations, so of course I will definitely recommend it to anyone to watch... Above the age of 13 of course.