REVIEW: SPECTRE (12A)

It's been nearly 10 years that we have seen Mr Daniel Craig slip into the white tuxedo of cool and brining back the next iteration of Bond to a contemporary audience. In Casino Royale nearly 10 years ago in 2006, Daniel Craig was rough, gritty and a man's man. The women loved him for his ... well probably for the blue Speedo's which he managed to rock very well apparently. Seriously though, in a world getting sick of the camp and the pie in the sky gadgets, it brought James Bond to the modern times. Die Another Day was so out there it practically signalled the end of Bond altogether and the ageing Pierce Brosnan (who had held the franchise quite well up unitl then) was becoming a parody of himself.

Craig, in my eyes at the time, wasn't a suitable James Bond. However, after seeing his performance in Casino Royale my mind was changed. I ate my hat, swallowed my words, what ever you want to say. This version of James Bond was realistic, gritty, painful and witty and had the charisma of his previous incarnations but has a silent deadliness in his dealings with others. When, at the beginning of Casino Royale, he is asked about his first kill his quarry responds with, "the second one is much..." and off goes the gun and Bond replies coolly, "yes, considerably."

...that was one of my favourite lines of the first movie, and he does have some cool retorts, especially in the torture scene of Casino Royale. Quantum of Solace followed which took place straight after this movie and felt like the extended, straight to DVD sequel movie that was more of an extension to Casino Royale rather than a movie itself. Still it wasn't bad, but it didn't drop much hope for the one after that. But things did change.

Skyfall pretty much decimated the box office and, to me, it only felt like five minutes ago that that movie was at the cinema and Adele's track, Skyfall, was doing the rounds and doing it's own record breaking as it was. Skyfall was a conscious move by the makers to bring Bond back to what we know and there were a lot of changes made to set up Spectre, Daniel Craig's fourth outing as our favourite spy.

Spectre then, is probably the Bond movie that is starting to get back to the Bond that our parents grew up with. Still maintaining the Bond we know from the Craig era and using ideas from the others, this is both a moving forward movie with the story but also an homage to the old ones. Some parts are blatant visual cues or references to the old movies, and some reference the more recent ones.

Spectre feels like it is a movie that has a story to tell and is on for quite a long run time, so you have to strap in for the ride. The action is judiciously spaced with character and plot developments and sometimes the talking and walking is on for a bit too long before anything exciting happens. For those who have seen all the other Craig era movies, then there is plenty to get your teeth into as it answers some questions, raises some others and has some nice references so you feel you are moving along with the character as they develop (i.e. there's a rather fetching porcelain bulldog on Bond's table near the beginning of the movie).

Director Sam Mendes and, of course, Daniel Craig return for the next instalment of the James Bond franchise. Most of the characters return from the previous movie - Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) from Skyfall comes into his own in this one, which is good because he came across as a bit of nasty piece of work in Skyfall. That role now is filled by 'C' or Max Denbigh who is wanting to disband the 00 initiative and have something more modern and new in it's place (involving drones and computer surveillance). I can't help but feel he would love to hang out with Silva from Skyfall with all of his computers. But 'C' is the least of our worries as Bond discovers the mysterious organisation SPECTRE led by the mysterious Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz) who has been "the architect" of Bond's misery since Casino Royale. Or, at least, so he says.

Backing up Bond once again is new pals Moneypenny and Q (Naomie Harris and Ben Whishaw respectively). I had my concerns about them changing Moneypenny too - but Naomie Harris does such a fantastic job that I was glad to hear that the makers of Bond want to keep the aforementioned characters (and their actors) for a few movies more.

Spectre starts at the Day of the Dead festival as Bond is following a lead to try and uncover the truth about recent events (i.e. what happened in Skyfall). As MI6 is undergoing changes in the office, Bond is told that, after causing some chaos, he is destined for some time off. As he leaves the office he enlists the help on Moneypenny and Q to continue his off-the-record investigation of this mysterious syndicate. Along the way he meets some rather attractive ladies in the form of Monica Bellucci and Lea Seydoux who provide the exotic Bond girl love interest. Bellucci claims the record of oldest Bond girl (though she isn't in it very long) and Seydoux's Madeleine Swann, though sexy, gives Bond a run for his money every now and then.

Heavy on exposition, story and character development, Spectre takes Bond into its next chapter. There is a lot going on here and it's great. The action sequences come when they are ready and when they do they are worth waiting for. There's some surprises, nods to the other movies and feels like a follow on though this could stand in it's own right. This is a great movie and is up there with the best, but in my opinion its not quite as good as Skyfall or Casino Royale.   

SPECTRE is out now at all good cinemas.

POPSCORE: 8.5/10

What am I talking about? SPECTRE, the latest James Bond movie

Where can I find out more? http://www.007.com
If you liked this try: The James Bond movies Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace - basically the Daniel Craig era Bond, any of the Bourne series, Taken, Mission: Impossible series of movies 

Anything else?

The theme tune for this one is called The Writing's On The Wall and is performed by current pop star Sam Smith.  

SPECTRE is an acronym standing for Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. It is a fictional global terrorist organisation featured in the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming and prominent in the 1960s James Bond films.