Spectre

Rating: 7/10 (5 November 2015)

Skyfall became the highest grossing film in the UK, beating the record of Avatar, so there was great anticipation for the next in the film series for the famous spy created by Ian Fleming, from returning Skyfall director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition). The name SPECTRE will be familiar to those who know the books and the film series, it was originally an acronym (Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion), it is now just simply the name of the organisation, but elements seen previously remain. Basically the previous M (Dame Judi Dench, in a short cameo) unofficially ordered James Bond 007 (Daniel Craig) on a mission to Mexico, there he kills two men planning to blow up a stadium, criminal Marco Sciarra (Alessandro Cremona) survives after the building he is in collapses, Bond chases him and they fight in a mid flight and out-of-control helicopter, before throwing Sciarra and the pilot out Bond stole Sciarra's octopus ring. Returning to London, the new M (Ralph Fiennes) takes Bond off field duty indefinitely, M is currently in the midst of a power struggle against the head of the recently merged MI5 and MI6 Joint Intelligence Service, Max Denbigh, codenamed "C" (Sherlock's Andrew Scott), who wants to close down the double-0 section. Bond goes against orders, travelling to Rome to attend the funeral of Sciarra, he visits his widow Lucia (Irreversible's Monica Bellucci), he seduces her and she tells him about a criminal organisation her husband was a part of and where they are meeting that evening. The head of the table (Christoph Waltz) mentions the events in Mexico, also mentioning Bond by name, turning to face him when doing so, Bond escapes and is pursued in car chase, him in his new gadget filled Aston Martin DB10 and organisation assassin Mr. Hinx (Dave Bautista) through Rome. Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) informs him of a lead heard in Mexico and the meeting leads to former Quantum member Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), revealed to be a subsidiary of the organisation, Moneypenny also checks for Bond the name Franz Oberhauser. Bond finds White in the snowy mountains of Austria, he is dying of thallium poisoning, White tells Bond to find his daughter, Madeleine Swann (Blue Is the Warmest Colour's Léa Seydoux) who will take him to L'Americain, which will lead to the organisation, White then commits suicide. Bond finds Swann before she is snatched by Hinx, he chases the kidnappers in a plane and causes the three cars to crash, Bond and Swann escape, Hinx survives the crash. Bond and Swann meet with Q (Ben Whishaw) who reveals Sciarra's ring contains digital files linking to Oberhauser, the leader of the organisation, and previous enemies such as Le Chiffe and Raoul Silva, Swann informs them that the name of the organisation is Spectre, and that L'Americain is a hotel in Morocco. At the hotel the couple stay in the room Swann's father used to stay in every year, Bond discovers a secret room built by White, full of videotapes, charts and photographs, as well as coordinates for where to go next. On the train going to the nearest point they are attacked by Hinx, Bond manages to throw him off the train, at their destination they are picked up and taken to a secluded facility in the desert, where they are met by Oberhauser, who reveals himself as the son of the man who looked after the younger Bond when he was orphaned. While torturing Bond, and a white Persian cat seen roaming about, Oberhauser reveals that C is part of Spectre, he is feeding all intelligence data straight to the organisation, Oberhauser also reveals that he faked his death twenty years ago and goes by a new name, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, but Bond manages to escape, causes an explosion that injures his enemy, and destroys the facility. Back in London, Bond and Swann meet M, Bill Tanner (Rory Kinnear), Q and Moneypenny, they plan to stop C and the launch of Nine Eyes, the intelligence co-operation agreement between nine countries, in fact a takeover by Spectre, Bond gets kidnapped in the process, but Nine Eyes is stopped before launch, and in a struggle with M, C falls to his death. Bond is taken to the former MI6 building, derelict since the attack by Silva, he disables his captors, and meets Blofeld, now with a large scar across his right eye and face, he tells that the building is rigged to explode and he has three minutes to save Swann, hidden in the building. Bond finds her within the time and they escape in a boat onto the Thames, Blofeld gets away in a helicopter, but Bond fires on it and causes it to crash on Westminster Bridge, Bond aims his gun at Blofeld, but decides to let M arrest him, and Bond leaves with Swann in his repaired Aston Martin DB5. Also starring Stephanie Sigman as Estrella and Alessandro Bressanello as Priest. Craig remains cool and determined, Seydoux is a good choice as the Bond girl with guts, Bellucci (the oldest Bond woman) gets only minutes on screen, Waltz relishes smirking as the villain everyone expected to appear (because of the title), and the supporting cast of Fiennes, Scott, Harris and Whishaw are well placed too. I did question the critics giving the film three stars (instead my assumed four) out of five, but perhaps when I properly examine it, it does have small clichés, but no matter, the story flows well and is easy to follow, the locations look great, and the action and chase sequences as always are high- octane and exciting, an entertaining spy adventure. It won the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Original Song for "Writing's on the Wall" by Sam Smith, the first Bond song to reach number one in the UK charts. Very good!