Half-Brother !

Rating: 8/10 (19 April 2020)

At the time the latest Bond movie, if it wasn't for the Covid-19 virus, 'No Time To Die' would have been out, but it was delayed because of that (maybe an idea for a future Bond screenplay- a deadly virus). This film makes it a 3rd part of a trilogy (and possibly a 4th) as it continues on from where 'Quantum of Solace' left off, evolving the organisation Quantum into part of SPECTRE, and it also references Silva out of 'Skyfall' as a member of SPECTRE so possibly making that film into a part 3 and this film a part 4 of 'Casino Royale', confused? So am I.
Daniel Craig does another good Bond role, and it turns out that Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) is Bond's adopted half brother, who'd of thought that. Waltz is good as Blofeld, but the film is a bit slow, not as dynamic as others, in 'Skyfall' the slow periods were filled with great acting, drama and good dialogue, but not so much in this, the intro is excellent though, and there are still plenty of action scenes, its directed reasonably well, but the music is not so good, but the continuation of using authentic locations helped, only some of the Moroccan and Rome scenes were filmed elsewhere (Mexico and London).
Bond Themes:- It seems they are going back to the early Bond movies with the themes which is an excellent idea, we have a Festival again, not seen in a Bond film for many years, a Cable Car scene, Helicopters as usual (I think Helicopters have been used in every Bond Film to date, but I could be wrong?), Fight in A Train Scene with Henchman (ala 'From Russia With Love', 'Live and Let Die' and 'The Spy Who Loved Me') and a full MI6 crew - M, Q, Moneypenny, Tanner and now a 'C'' (but he was a baddie so won't be returning), no Felix Leiter though.
Henchmen:- We have one new one, harking back to Odd-Job and Jaws, in Hinx (Dave Bautista an American Wrestling Artiste). Cars:- An excellent Aston Martin DB10 with a Jaguar C-X75 chasing it, and a Rolls Royce Silver Wraith from 1948, can it get any better in Automobiles. They also had a few Range Rovers that idiots with too much money buy.
Bond Girls:- Just 2 in this, No.68 is Dona Lucia played by Monica Belucci (Italy) who is a widow at the start of the film and Bond seduces here to get information, Monica is reported to be the oldest Bond Girl, maybe but she looks great, and still a lot more sexy than many of the previous Bond Girls. Then the main Bond Girl - Madeleine Swann (no.69 - appropriately) played by Lea Seydoux (France), daughter of the SPECTRE employee/hitman Mr White (who finally dies in this), but she is not a baddie, Bond goes to her to find the way to get into SPECTRE, she tries to escape/avoid Bond but of course eventually he wins her over at the end. The most attractive woman in the film was Estrella, played by Mexican actress Stephanie Sigman, who was Bond's companion in the Day of The Dead intro, but he runs out on her when they get to the room where she is expecting to get shagged, so I cannot include her as Bond girl, but worthy of a mention.
Anyway, it's a bit down on 'Skyfall', and too long, if the slow parts were better I might have given it a high score, but it is still one of the better Bond movies.
I have done my own average rating's for Bond films to date and The 4 Daniel Craig films rate the highest at average 8.5, with Brosnan's 4 not far behind at 8.25, Connery's at 7.5 (including 'Never Say Never Again') Dalton's 2 are averaging 7, with Roger Moore's at 6.9, I rated Lazonby's one film at 9, but since he only did the one, I am not counting it in this average rating. So Daniel Craig's are generally the best overall, I hope the next and Craig's last (and possibly the last ever) is as good.