Good but still not up to Casino Royale's mark.

Rating: 8/10 (9 January 2016)

First the bad news : Monica Bellucci is seen for less than ten minutes of the runtime. Normally, such foolish under-utilization of Madam Monica is enough by itself to sink a movie, but remember that this is Daniel Craig's vehicle - this Bond has a illustrious history of moving on after being obliged to leave the sort of ladies whose absence is enough to traumatically cripple lesser lovers. Sam Mendes realizes that studio dictates will not permit him to cast a cougar however immortally young the legend of her allure may be.
So Bellucci not just warms up but also heats up in record time to lucky James. Fortified by that night of celestial intimacy, Bond 2015 buckles up to meet the most socially networked of all his nemeses. Rip- roaring escapes later, he brings roofs down by "driving" a plane in Austria, has an incredible train fight with Goliath before a well deserved round of trophy sex, then almost gets a ticket to rebirth inside a 'dessert volcano' , before eventually landing up in London for the finishing rites. So beneath the Sturm und Drang, how does he actually fare?
"Bond" opening sequences are known for their thrilling action choreography but Mendes - determined to jazz up the paradigm - makes SPECTRE's opening salvo , wittingly or otherwise, a technical triumph rather than an action hoot. I refer to a fantastic tracking shot that slowly glides into a Mexican fiesta, wends through its colourful beasts, goes up an elevator, past a seductive senorita's bedroom ,and through a terrace before climaxing explosively. The helicopter fight that then ensues does not measure up. Later, the violence gloriously peaks inside an Orient Express train : James fancies a saucy finish as follow-up to his dinner especially since his woman is is communicating most articulately with her body language, but an orgasm of violence instead ensues before he can get any quality time with her. That fight, with a rampaging suited giant ramming into him, with all its skull-smashing force and sheer animalistic brutality is a masterpiece by itself. Often in other movies, we see either action choreographers being too lazy and timid , or the editors - compelled by ordinary footage or otherwise - using their scissors with hyperkineticism . But in this sequence both these departments perform a spectacular job. I fully feared that Bond, even a rock-solid one like Craig's 007, would get killed by a potentially fatal spine-crack or crash of head.
After Monica Bellucci exits, Lea Seydoux is unable to erect similar hopes. A bigger mistake lies in Chris Woltz's acting. The blame here likely falls on the director rather on Woltz. When the latter sat in a WW2 era French peasant home in a sunny countryside sipping his milk and cheerily chatting for Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards, his Jew-murdering maniac act went on to become a chilling icon of villainy. But in SPECTRE , Woltz is not sufficiently spurred to essay a new breed of worthy mega-evil.
Mendes, to give him credit where it is due, maintains a tight narrative hold, allows the percolation of frequently sparkling dialogue and gets stalwart help from Daniel Craig who is asphalt- tough and likeably bracing as usual (there's also a superbly sharp act by Ralph Fiennes as Bond's supervisor). To franchise lovers who may accuse him of not roping in enough gadgetry, he replies by supplying Bond with two vital toys that save his hide both times - an ultra-modern 007-equipped Aston Martin and an old fashioned watch that does the job just fine.
Writers Logan, Purvis and Wade add Butterworth to lubricate their screenplay this time, and brainstorm well for considerable stretches but again err by not engineering an inspired finale (and Mendes does not pitch in to tighten carelessly constructed sequences such as an escape from the dessert wherein all of Bond's sprayed bullets effortless fell dozens of attackers). Hoyte Van Hoytema's filmic CV features a wide array of visual worlds all of which his lens captures neatly ,and for all the wide-angle assiduous work he does for this film, his colour scheme is a little less alluring than what I like. Long-time Mendes collaborator Thomas Newman loses the plot and frequently makes his musical underlines too bombastic.
So this is eventually a very well constructed action picture but when considering the sky-high demands of the twenty-fourth 007 film, Sam Mendes again does not measure up to Martin Campbell's Casino Royale. But I'm not cribbing about him anymore, I'm just calmly stating facts - he has done what he could have, only next time please give me another helmer for the series.