Unbonded

Rating: 6/10 (20 November 2015)

There was a time when a release of Bond movie was considered an international spectacle and a celebration at the auditoriums and they all lived up to the promise. The world started embracing Bond mainly because of the witty one lines (made famous by Roger Moore and carried forward by Pierce Brosnan), the girls, the gadgets and the fact that Bond lacked emotions when it comes to more humane things. The reboot made James Bond human, which could have worked if only there were better scripts, lot less darker and the choice of Daniel Craig was not really welcomed by the Bond fans.
SPECTRE makes it worse, but surprisingly with a good prologue in line with the tradition of bond films and also some high octane chases, it falls flat the moment it starts taking a course into Bond's past.
James Bond (Daniel Craig) returns from Mexico after blowing up a block during the celebrations of "day of the dead". In Bond's defense, he states that he did it to prevent the blowing up of stadium which could have caused more casualties. But in fact, Bond was following a cryptic message from his former chief M (Judi Dench) to assassinate Marco Sciarra (Alessandro Cremano), who he finds out is a member of a dreaded organization called Spectre and before pushing him off a helicopter, Bond manages to get his ring.
Bond is grounded by the M (Ralph fiennes) who has problems of his own when C (Andrew Scott), a member of the British Government is planning a merger of MI5 and MI6, which would obliterate the 00 division.
Bond manages to elude the MI6 radars with the help of Q (Ben Wishaw) and Moneypenny (Naomi Harris) and makes it to Italy to attend Sciarra's funeral. He saves Lucia Sciarra (Monica Bellucci), his widow from a murder attempt, seduces her and gets information about Spectre's rendezvous.
At Spectre, Bond is outwitted by Oberhauser aka Ernst Stavro Blofield, the leader (Christoph Waltz) who recognizes Bond and Bond manages to escape while eluding a spectre assassin Hinx (Dave Bautista).
With Q's help, Bond discovers that Oberhauser who was presumed dead is now alive (which can be proved) and his search leads to Mr. White (Jesper Christensen)
White is dying of thallium poisoning, but strikes a deal with Bond to bring down spectre if he would protect his daughter Madeline Swan (Lea Seydoux). White kills himself the moment Bond gives his word.
Daniel Craig as Bond is not as witty or agile as either Roger Moore or Pierce Brosnan (which is understood right from Casino Royale), but when we take into account that he is just an actor playing just another role, than his performance is quite extraordinary, emotion-wise, but then Bond is just not another role.
Lea Seydoux is perfect as a bond girl, knows how to handle guns, give a seductive smile, look dangerous and turn romantic at the drop of a hat.
Christoph Waltz as Blofield is cool, but then Donald Pleasance was cooler, but taking the reboot into consideration, it must be said he is one of the cooler actors to play the villain.
Naomi Harris steals the show a money penny both witty and clever, the scene when she has a man over at her place but ignores him to help Bond is one of her best performances in the series.
Monica Belucci is a disappointment.
Hoyte Van Hoytema's cinematography is what bring the movie to life, excellent capture of the locations be it the festivities at Mexico, the high octane chase sequences, it's as though the camera fell in love with the script.
Music by Thomas Newman is good and on par with bond traditions.
It is high time Sam Mendes stopped treating Bond Movies as Oscar Material and start working in the tradition which made the movies closer to the audience in the first place. But yes credit should be given for the handling of the action sequences and trying to get the old bond feel to this one. Hope he manages to get it right the next time around
The welcome thing is the return of the gun barrel sequence.
I would give it on 2.5 on 5 and I would recommend watching it only if you are a James bond fan and do not want to miss any movie in the series no matter how bad it is.