Bond is back doing what he does best ... Winning effortlessly

Rating: 7/10 (23 March 2020)

"Spectre" is a 2015 action thriller directed by Sam Mendes starring Daniel Craig and Christoph Waltz. With this Sunday, the Road To Bond 25 has concluded for now and the latest installment has offered a lot of positive, as well as some negative aspects in an overall promising story. I personally consider the third movie to be best of the new saga, so I knew that it would be hard for the next sequel to become an equally entertaining thriller. While it's not exactly as messy as "QOS", it's not as brilliant as "Skyfall" either, but I expected nothing else, so I still could have some pleasure with it. First of all, it's a pity to see that the writers took back a lot of Bond's personal character development and healed him from a lot of the pain he's been through before in the process. He's again cool as always. But only cool as always. Where's the emotionality? Where's the vulnerability? It appears that he can take everything again without any great effort. It's quite sad to me that he's again given some sort of immortality. Aside from this, the film delivered some decent entertainment. Speaking of the story, the film managed to elaborate a well made continuation of "Skyfall". A secret mission that M has literally given to James from the grave? That's a nice link to the past, to be honest. It allows our favourite daredevil to perform some impressive stunts and disappoint the orders of his current employer. So, he's basically back at doing at what he does best. With a runtime of again two and a half hours, the film has still a lot to offer, even when it takes some time to get to to the best scenes. While following the legacy of his deceased former ally, Bond is once again tangled up in heart racing stunts and hard fights, the helicopter scene in the beginning being the most breathtaking of all of them. I also gotta give David Bautista some credit here, as he really brings the action into every scene with his simple presecne. The fight choreography on the train? Absolutely brutal and well made. What bothers me the most about this film though, is the general premise of it. Even if it more and more digs in the past of its protagonist and unravels secret after secret, it still kind of stays too much on the surface the most time and, most importantly, doesn't really create a threat that Bond has to eliminate. Before, the life of M and the lives of countless undercover agents were on the line. In here, the most work is done by his co-workers who manage to stop the MI6 to be merged with all other secret intelligence agencies. To be honest, he only finds out about the connection by coincidence. I was sure from the beginning that he'd succeed. Even if that's still tolerable and didn't keep me from having decent fun, it's still was a thorn in my side. Also notable is how Lea Seydoux is playing a femme fatale that is actually on a par with 007. Next to this, my feelings about the main villain were absolutely divided. On the one hand, Christoph Waltz played his role wonderfully with such a subtle danger he exudes and definitely made the fan boy in me scream out in excitement as he revealed himself as legendary Bond foe Ernst Blofeld, but on the other hand it bothers me how underused his character was in the story. It's brilliant how it puts together all the pieces of the past films that remained a mystery, such as the whereabouts of Mr. White and the origin of "Quantum", and reveals that everything in the past has happened by the hand of Blofeld's secret organisation "Spectre", but it's so underwhelming to see how the apparently most dangerous man in the world is defeated so easily and how Bond effortlessly puts a stop to his activities. I don't want to say that this mission was impossible, but his potential to be the evil arch nemesis who would most likely manage to defeat James basically crashes with a helicopter and is taken under arrest so easily. You know what I mean? He's brilliantly portrayed, but at the same time criminally underused and no big deal at all. All in all, this Bond film took a few steps back and offers a mediocre story with a few highlights, but also many aspects that I declare as wasted potential. It's still a massive pleasure to experience, as it still uses the basic formula that works out just fine, but it sadly lacks the sentimentality and emotionality that made its predecessor stand out. What I said, just fine, not brilliant. What bothers me the most is how it could have been magnificent, but now is far away from the high quality "Skyfall" has offered. In the end, it neither terrible nor outstanding. Nonetheless, I'm absolutely stoked for the final outing. Can't wait for November.