An improvement over Skyfall

Rating: 6/10 (12 November 2015)

In the intro, Bond finds himself in Mexico for something called day of dead celebration which looks like a mix of Mardi Gras, Macy's parade, and Halloween. Bond is going after some guy in a white suit and instead of getting it on with a hottie decides to shoot the guy. He listens in on a conversation this guy has with some others. They talk about an attack on a stadium. When Bond starts shooting he hits a suitcase and it blows up taking half the building down plus some others nearby.
After a decent intro credits scene finally with naked girls again but with some pretty weird and out of place song, Bond gets himself on leave for the scandal he caused in Mexico. The 007 program still finds itself on the verge of suspension as security institutions are shuffled around. Wasn't this the storyline of Skyfall? But now a new mega security organization has been created that aims to spy on everyone.
The reason Bond was in Mexico is because the former M asked him to go after the guy, kill him, and attend his funeral. The funeral is coming up and Bond has to enlist Q and Moneypenny to help out. He was recently injected with "Smart Blood" that will track his whereabouts. At the funeral he meets the lovely widow (Bellucci in a far too short but hot appearance). She tells him of a meeting her husband's organization is about to have to select a successor. Bond attends the meeting where he finds out who the head of this organization is and he also runs into its main henchman (Bautista) with whom he engages the lamest car chase ever filmed.
Next he visits Mr. White (a recurring bad guy I understand) who tells Bond he may get some info from his daughter--a psychologist at some fancy alternative health/kale institute. Soon enough Bautista is back to grab the girl (Seydoux--if they had to pick a girl from Blue is the Warmest Color, they should have gone with Exarchopoulos) but Bond manages to rescue her. She takes him to Morocco where they find the next clue in unmasking this scary Spectre organization and its softspoken leader. There they discover yet another clue and they are off to the desert where Oberhauser awaits them and unfolds his plan. He tortures Bond a bit but but he and the girl manage to escape after blowing the place up. But so does Oberhauser.
Meanwhile M is battling the head of the new security organization that is going online and global any minute as The Nine Eyes, an expanded and nastier version of the current Five Eyes. In the end everyone converges on the same location for the resolution which isn't much of a resolution at all.
Spectre follows somewhat the tone of Skyfall. There's much talk about Bond's past, his suffering, Vesper (why are they still going on about her?), etc. At least Oberhauser's background is far more interesting. Action isn't the highlight of this movie, it goes for a very long time without any. But then Bautista shows up again for a great fight scene with Bond. The excellent intro scene makes you think this is a return to form for Bond movies, but unfortunately, that's not the case. And it won't be if they keep hiring this Mendes person to direct--as if Skyfall wasn't bad enough. But these days they'll hire anyone to direct, the more incompetent the better apparently. Waltz's performance/character is too understated and underwhelming. While the movie takes itself too seriously, Waltz seems to be playing it for laughs at times, very strange.
What I did like is that Spectre is finally a lot more political. There are some criticism of the global security police state, of antidemocratic ideals. It's seems that at last, filmmakers are coming out of their self-induced stupor of playing cheerleaders for the establishment. I'm not sure where Bond movies are headed from now on. It's seems they have painted themselves into a corner. With Oberhauser they have the villain of villains, with Spectre an omnipresent omnimalevolent organization. Then what? Hopefully they'll get the Nolans to write and direct. They may be able to rescue Bond films.