Saved by its gripping opening sequence and an always involved Daniel Craig, "Spectre" is an old fashion disappointing

Rating: 5/10 (7 November 2015)

If the opening of this movie wasn't as spectacular and fresh as it gets, this movie surely be a 3/10. Because even Daniel Craig is starting to show that boredom that Connery, Moore or even Brosnan at times shown. Althougt that can be perfectly a problem because of the script. The movie breaks the promise that "Skyfall" made us with its fitting send off: a Bond finally back to his roots but looking at the future. This outing repeats the same downbeat style to be melancholic and going back to the ghosts of past instead of being worried to tell a good new story on a new complex or funny level. And the formula it's used again with really worse results.
Everything is predictable and lacking emotional attachment. They focused the movie on Bond (no problem with that) but expand too much his personal story and not at all as intriguingly as "Skyfall" introduced it to us. Christoph Waltz has a great introduction scene as well as Bautista, but after that their roles go downhill to anywhere. Monica Bellucci is like she wasn't never on the movie and Lea Séydoux is good at action but an infuriating nice-girl-in-danger the rest of the time. The revelation about the connection involving Bond and Oberhausser/Blofeld is shockingly bad blood and so trapper, just looking for a bigger surprise, that is even laughable. And the final stretch in London shows how Andrew Scott can act (and die) in an unprofessional fashion and how uninteresting (and long, too long) the ending of this Bond can be. The epilogue with Bond apparently saying goodbye (we don't clearly know if it's forever or just for a while) has nothing to do against the one from "Skyfall" or the good-feel one from "Casino Royale" ("My name is Bond, James Bond").
I think this movie has been a victim of the pressure, of trying to repeat the same formula that worked once and trying to wrap up a lot of loose ends that should have needed a better closure or a clarifying explanation. It's remarkably alarming the way they have run out of ideas and ways to present a real good story, choosing instead a lot of set pieces that aren't special or really exciting at all and connecting them by lines without a proper goal. Even by low expectations is sad to see how a serial story that started on a bang nine years ago and had its largest peak three years ago is apparently ending here on a wasted whimper. If there's another, try to break out an original story. Even if they want to include nods from past or characters from previous movies (I would like to see Blofeld returning but only for a damn good reason) please get worried about cracking a good story first.