Incoherent That Fails To Excite.

Rating: 6/10 (14 February 2016)

We all love Bond where he does something seemingly impossible to save the world, or even just the girl. Just as he pulls off another impossible stunt, and the Bond fanfare blasts through the air, you're up punching the air as Bond does it like nobody else!
Except with Spectre.
Every time it builds up to what should be a crescendo of excitement, it steps back. Where you should be shouting "YES!", it lets you down and you simply go "ah...".
Craig brought in a harder edged Bond, just perfect for the current times, but with Spectre they seem determined to go back to the Moore comedies. No shame in the Moore years; they were a product of their time. But now, we want Bond to be the cold ruthless killer that he can be, when he has to be. And in keeping with the books, always looking for that girl...
A prime example is the car chase, and how excited you were with anticipation of the unique DB10 and Jaguar cars? It should have been a ground breaking car chase, and they used up enough Aston Martins that there should be no excuses! Yet, they played this as a comedy and tempered the excitement of the chase by having Bond phoning Moneypenny. And, at the same time removed the "would they / wouldn't they" flirtation of Bond and Moneypenny that we've always wondered over. What should have been edge of your seats excitement was flat.
That's Spectre in one word: Flat. Nothing is ever allowed to excite or entertain you the way Bond should. It was as if Sam Mendes had taken his foot off the gas because he already had a superb Bond film in the bag with Skyfall (which had the best villain of any Bond film - effectively Bond vs Bond). That harder edge we have all enjoyed with Craig was replaced by light entertainment.
The criminal mastermind behind Spectre failed to convince you. Nor his henchmen. Or the various pastiches to other Bond films which came across as a random jumble rather than carefully thought out plot devices. I fear I may be overly generous with my rating for Spectre, but I still love Bond films; just not so much this one.
What's best about Spectre? It makes you realise that Quantum of Solace wasn't that bad.