Spectre: A Mediocre Return to the Classic Bond Film Formula

Rating: 6/10 (24 January 2016)

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS TO THE PLOT OF SPECTRE.
"SPECTRE" has the hard task to continue the Bond saga after the both critically and fan- acclaimed "Skyfall".
THE POSITIVE:
Daniel Craig once more portrays Bond and he does a magnificent job at showing us both Bond's humorous side and the tough and very intelligent 00 Agent which we know since Dr No. Lea Seydoux also does a good job and adds a distinctive character to the bondgirl role. The movie also tied in nicely with the predecessor "Skyfall" as the death of Judi Dench's M is thematized (Dench even gets a nice, totally unexpected but welcome cameo) and Bond's Aston Martin is still destroyed and still has to be repaired by Q. It is also nice to see Moneypenny and the new M more involved in the plot than in "Skyfall". THE NEGATIVE: Unfortunately, the movie fails at the level of plot. It feels like a mixture made of scenes from previous Bond Films. The carnival in México reminded me of "The Spy Who Loved Me". The entire train fight scenes resembled the ones in "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "From Russia with Love". The new henchman of Blofeld is basically an updated Jaws. Moreover, it wasn't a good choice to bring Blofeld back. I really liked Waltz as a villain in "Inglorious Basterds" but in this movie his acting always looks a bit ridiculous. He isn't even threatening. For example, when he tortures Bond by drilling metal needles into his head, it has absolutely no effect on Bond although Blofeld tells him that his memory will be erased. At the end, after the chopper crashes, Blofeld just crawls away (!) from Bond, effectively making him the most pathetic Bond villain of all times. The Plot itself is also ridiculous. For example, Blofeld is presented as the mastervillain behind all the villains in Craig's Bond movies but there was absolutely no connection established between LeChiffre, Silva and the others before this movie. (They didn't even seem to belong to a single Organisation like SPECTRE) Finally, the ending ruined the Film completely for me. It just reached a new Level of incredibility and implausibility. Bond just keeps shooting at the chopper with his pistol (!) until he hits a vital part of the chopper and it crashes? Bond throws his weapon away and joins his new girlfriend instead of at least apprehending Blofeld?