Despite the fact that Spectre is undoubtedly so far the most popular movie of 2015, it seems that neither critics, nor the audience really appreciated it.

Rating: 6/10 (22 November 2015)

Despite the fact that Spectre is undoubtedly so far the most popular movie of 2015, it seems that neither critics, nor the audience really appreciated it. That's probably because this is the most dark and thoughtful James Bond movie. For the first time in Bond history the bad guys are not just one ridiculous and eccentric person (ex. Goldfinger) but a massive network of legitimate companies and white collar criminals. The enemy is in fact modern capitalism. The main themes in Spectre is that you can't really divide humanity into good and bad guys and that Information is today's most valuable asset. This is the first Bond movie that parodies itself, since even the use of the special agents is put under criticism. Bond operates under no authorization and seems powerless against this massive conspiracy like a "kite dancing in a hurricane", as one of the bad guys states in the movie. Moneypenny is now black, Mr Q is a young hacker and even the "bad guy" is using technology and not muscles to torture Bond. In a nutshell this is the most modern movie of the series. Sam Mendes' direction is a bit different and strange (what did you expect from the guy behind American Beauty?), Bellucci becomes a Bond girl just for a night, Lea Seydoux is sexy, Daniel Craig is (as always) tough and sarcastic and Christoph Waltz is just fantastic (possible Oscar nomination). Worth mentioning is that Spectre features a great sense of humor that lacked earlier entries. All in all those new elements mixed together in this modern James Bond version give a new breath of life to the series but might puzzle the old school action driven fans. Still, there is plenty of action in this film and Bond always manages to succeed in an explosive way, just to make sure that the series remain on track.
Grade: B