Craig's most traditional Bond movie is his third best

Rating: 6/10 (1 January 2016)

It's good, it isn't great but it's good. Mendes had a tough challenge following up Skyfall and while he can't reach its heights Spectre is still a entertaining movie.
So about it. Right from the start this feels more like a pre Casino Royale Bond movie than any of the previous Craig reboot movies. Many of the Bond films follow kind of the same structure and this definitely has more of the classic set up. It also has more humor than Craig's other ones too. Most of it works but some jokes fall flat. It's fine because it never gets silly and while this is Craig's most lighthearted movie it still is more serious than most of the older ones (not License to kill). The movie opens brilliantly, I will say this pre credit sequence is among the best in the entire series. Wonderfully shot and tense action. In the context of the movie I didn't mind Sam Smith's theme song. However after that the movie soon slows down. The story soon starts to feel less and less interesting after the stellar opening. Wouldn't call it weak just no more than average and some themes feel a bit to similar to previous movies. Always entertaining but never surprising. Exactly the same can be said about the action. The action scenes are well done but nothing special and I feel many of them are too short. Apart from the opening it lacks any wow action moment. I say that the movie starts better than it ends, yes unfortunately it actually gets weaker as it goes on. On to the acting. Daniel Craig is as outstanding as we know he would be. Against the odds he has made the role his own. Ralph Fiennes and Ben Whishaw have settled into their roles well. Naomie Harris is quite a different Moneypenny than the previous ones but maybe that's the point and I must just get used. Léa Seydoux is beautiful though her character is undeveloped. Seydoux and Craig have some good chemistry but nothing will ever bet the him with Eva Green. Seydoux as a Bond girl feels pretty standard, nothing bad about her but nothing out of the ordinary either. Monica Bellucci is a great actress but totally wasted. To bad all the hype about a different take on Bond girls did not come true. Christoph Waltz is alright as the villain even if he can't live up to his predecessor Javier Bardem or Mads Mikkelsen. He does well but the character introduction is unfortunately so rushed. Neither his character nor his scheme are much fleshed out. Disappointing is also Dave Bautista's Mr Hinx who I had hoped would become one of the more memorable henchmen but while he looks big and intimidating he becomes nothing more than that. This movie is also overlong. A movie can be long if there is a big and good story to tell. Spectre divides it's running time wrong, as some scenes are drawn out while other stuff is so rushed.
On the whole Spectre is a entertaining but flawed and sad to say unspectacular flick. It's easier to criticize that to praise. So this review sounds more negative than I meant it to. Third best of Daniel Craig's 007 movies. And I really hope he does one more.