In Spectre Bond

Rating: 6/10 (13 March 2016)

This latest Bond apparently has the longest running time of any other in the franchise, nevertheless I still found its slow-quick-slow combination helped me satisfactorily to the end, where the slow are the exposition and love scenes, while the quick, of course are the set-piece action scenes.
I liked the action scenes, the trademark blockbuster pre-titles sequence this time taking in an exciting in-helicopter fight while I appreciated the nods to later Bond fights in the big train fight between James and his man-mountain adversary, bringing to mind Connery vs Shaw in "From Russia With Love" and Moore vs Kiel aka "Jaws" in "The Spy Who Loved Me" while seeing Bond strapped into a chair expected to die naturally recalls both "Goldfinger" and "Thunderball". Likewise the introduction of a younger Blofeld character as Bond"'s nemesis became obvious the minute I clapped eyes on his pet cat.
So far, so respectful. I still didn't quite savour Bond bedding a woman half his age whose father he's watched commit suicide only days before, the justification claimed as the high they get after jointly killing a man, spurious in itself, although I think it was probably more down to Bond's unignorable lady-killing tradition, dubious as that can seem today.
I didn't miss Judi Dench's "M", preferring Ralph Fiennes in the part, but still can't get my head around the nerd playing "Q". The excellent Andrew Scott is underused in this latest turn against a fictional crime-fighting superman, disguised as a usurping Civil Servant with eyes on "M's" chair, but didn't find Christoph Waltz quite malevolent enough as Blofeld. Craig just does what he usually does, namely mean and moody, but I do wish he'd let more light into his characterisation from time to time.
I think the movie ticked all of the required boxes for a typical Bond film, besides those already mentioned there was naturally, a race-against-the-clock to track down a bomb in the final sequence, but I did feel both slightly manipulated in watching the action unfold and yet a touch disappointed as each sequence, obligatory car chase (I forgot), included, passed me by...
Still it got from start to finish in chunks of typical high-powered action sequences and at least a little welcome window was shed on Bond's childhood and what motivated him to become a killing-machine.
In the meantime, this film still counts as a better-than-average entry in the series