James Bond; The Big Brother Years

Rating: 5/10 (5 November 2015)

Following an unauthorised mission in Mexico City, Bond finds himself grounded by M (Ralph Fiennes) and is informed by M that he is not to leave London. However, a video message that he receives sets Bond on a trail which initially leads him to Rome, but as Bond continues to dig deeper he unearths some home truths about SPECTRE and the man at the head of the organisation.
When watching this film I couldn't help but feel that it seemed important to the writers to try and drag the franchise into the 21st century; the idea of drones, cameras and satellites being used instead of an actual 'secret agent' is interesting at first, but it's not the most exciting or compelling of stories and as a result the film does drag its heels quite a lot. It probably would have been better if more focus had been spent on uncovering the truth behind SPECTRE - the decommissioning of the '00' programme and the Big Brother style stuff probably would have worked better as a sub-plot.
Another mistake that was made here was side-lining Waltz for the majority of the running time. It's a risky strategy, but it can work if the script is tense and suspenseful (it worked in Dr No, but doesn't here). The classic Bond films would show Bond meeting his nemesis at several stages during the film and then having a big showdown at the end (many of the Connery and Moore era Bond films followed this pattern). It's these encounters that create tension and more often than not lead to some wonderful exchange between Bond and his nemesis. I've no doubt in my mind that this would have been better if Waltz was more involved in the film because as mentioned some tense exchanges between Bond and his nemesis may have helped to cover up some of the weaknesses in the material.
Mendes is on hand with directing duties here and delivers pretty much what we expect; explosions, car chases and much more. Being a Bond film some scenes are utterly ridiculous - Bond pushing a Fiat 500 up to 80mph down an alley way and the Fiat 500 being able to stop in the space of about 20 metres from 80 mph. Hmmmm. Really? When was the last time the scriptwriters looked at stopping distances in the Highway code? The car chases are fun so this isn't a big deal, but it certainly had me thinking about it at the time.
It's not all bad though and I must admit that I liked the way that the SPECTRE storyline linked back to previous Bond films. The film has some humour and some funny scenes - although I felt an opportunity for a one-liner went begging after Bond's fight with Hinx. The performances from the cast are fairly good (Daniel Craig now looks comfortable in the role of Bond). Waltz is always good to watch and Ben Whishaw is hilarious again as Q. Fiennes is a great actor and is solid as M, but he lacks a bit of the passion that Dench brought to the role, but he'll have time to cement this role (should the franchise continue and should he wish to reprise the role if it does).
Truth be told Spectre doesn't have the most interesting of scripts and as I've already mentioned side-lining Waltz was a big mistake. It's another one of those films with a lot of build-up but one that doesn't really have the pay-off to justify it. It's an OK film, but not a great one.