Skyfall on steroids

Rating: 8/10 (26 October 2015)

A fun, and very much needed joyride, after the more darker Skyfall'.
SPECTRE - with its $300 million budget - is probably the most entertaining movie I have seen since Nolan's 'The Dark Knight'
Where Skyfall was a revenge-movie with freudian references and plenty of plot holes, SPECTRE, like most Bond-movies, revolves around a current topic. This time it's mass surveillance. Sympathizers of Edward Snowden will probably love this movie for its message.
In an interview with Empire magazine, director Sam Mendes, promised that SPECTRE would be "more panoramic in scope" than Skyfall. And yes, the crowdy Mexico City, the orange lid Rome, the snowy Austrian alps, dusty Morocco: globetrotting Bond is back. And its beautifully shot. It reminded me of the Bond movies helmed by director Lewis Gilbert (You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker) which were also grand-scale escapist fun Bond movies and also featured a huge silent henchman and a larger-than life ubervillain. And it reminded me why I became a fan in the first place.
There's a LOT going on during its 148 minute runtime. It's extremely fast paced, however never too difficult to follow. There are many huge action setpieces that never drags and several nods to earlier Bond movies. The cast does a great job, as expected, too. Didn't like the score from Thomas Newman, though. It doesn't stand out, like it should, and is too generic, much like his score for 'Skyfall'. I hope they bring David Arnold back for Bond 25.
But the action...
SPECTRE is without doubt the best actionmovie of 2015. Where 'Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol' was far better than 'Skyfall' in 2012 as an action movie this time it's vice versa: 'SPECTRE' is vastly superior to 'Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation', mainly due to the amount of setpieces.
Stunt coordinator Gary Powell said about SPECTRE back in July that "if Skyfall was Sam Mendes' way of getting his feet wet into the Bond franchise, then this one is jumping into the deep end." And it shows. Although I had minor issues with some of the plot devices in the 3rd act, SPECTRE is overall however a Bond movie that all die- hard will most likely embrace, unlike the much debated Skyfall, which many fans felt veered too widely from the classic James Bond that they know. But with 'SPECTRE'
...James Bond is finally back.