Stumbles a little bit, but still a good addition to the Bond films

Rating: Null/10 (2 December 2015)

Daniel Craig is back as James Bond and this time the stakes are higher than ever before because this time Bond will finally face off against the elusive Spectre, the criminal master society that has haunted him for years. This confrontation has been a long time coming and we couldn't have been more hyped as viewers.
Unfortunately, what we end up getting doesn't quite live up to that hype. Following the recent trend of trying to tie multiple separate films together to form a larger cohesive universe, it tries to explain all the previous Craig Bond films as having been leading up to this, but the harsh truth is that there were almost no signs of this in the previous films. Thus this attempt feels forced and tagged on. Granted, it does a good job of explaining how all of it could have been intertwined, and it is definitely made to sound plausible, but it's still not as convincing as it should have been.
Furthermore, the film is a long one. Too long, in fact. There is about half an hour's worth of material that could have been cut very easily, giving us a more streamlined and well-paced film. Now I felt exhausted at the end.
And the third big complaint I have is that Christoph Waltz is underutilized. He has presence, certainly, but he is in very few scenes and the script does him no favours, perhaps expecting him to be even more naturally creepy than he has the ability to be. And don't get me wrong, Waltz can be very creepy, but not to the extent that it doesn't matter at all how you have him act or speak.
But then, the good stuff. And there's a lot of it here. The opening sequence, first of all, is phenomenal. One of the best I've seen in any Bond film. The long, continuous shots, the action, the visuals. Phenomenal. The returning actors are also at the top of their came, with Craig once again giving us a more tainted but still very believable Bond, fitting for this new age of technology, glass and steel. And most of the new actors are also very good. Léa Seydoux is very good as the new Bond Girl Dr. Madeleine Swann. Sure, the age difference between her and Craig is a bit extreme, but aside from that. She's definitely on the more snarkier side, which I like a lot, and has a very sharp, fragile edge to her, which I also like. And then we have Dave Bautista as Mr. Hinx, who just might be my absolute favourite Bond henchman ever. Dude looks amazing, has great physical presence, has style in spades and is genuinely threatening whenever he appears. Plus he doesn't need words to convey his message.
The action scenes are also up to bar, easily so in fact, the music works very well, the film genuinely looks beautiful and has some of the best shots we've seen so far in any Bond film.
All in all Spectre is not as good as Casino Royale or Skyfall. It feels a bit lost when it comes to its story and doesn't quite have that edge those two had. It's still a good addition to the franchise and well worth a watch if you're a fan.