Spectre (12A)

Bond is Back, even though it seems only a few weeks ago since his last outing, in the brilliant ‘Skyfall’.  However that was three years ago, and the story of Bond follows on from the death of the most popular of the M figures (Judi Dench). 
In 'Spectre', Bond discovers M has one last message for him from beyond the dead.
The message leads to Daniel Craig on his fourth outing as James Bond.  The licensed to kill spy heads from Mexico City to the middle of Europe to meet a beautiful widow, Lucia, played by the oldest Bond girl ever – 51 years old, Monica Belucci.  Lucia is connected to a crime conglomerate, which after their love tryst, Bond attempts to infiltrate, which leads him to an even deadlier group called Spectre.  At the pulse of Spectre, is a force which begins a personal battle for Bond.  The head of Spectre is played by character actor, Christoph Waltz.
What appears to be a subplot of this Bond 24 story, is Irish actor, Andrew Scott playing Max, the head of a new security group, which is aiming to bring down MI6 and its spy programme.  Along the way Max comes head to head with the new M, played by Ralph Fiennes.  So therefore we get two Bond villains in this feature film. 
Bond forms an alliance with Madeline Swann, (played by Lea Seydoux) the daughter of a legendary assassin, to help bring down Spectre and its enemies.
Since Daniel Craig took over the Bond lead in the 2006 movie, ‘Casino Royale’, it has been a back to basics, rebooting journey for the character.  Here we have another part of his backstory, which uses elements of the many other Bond features since the 1960s. 
‘Spectre’ is an unsatisfying movie, which at 148 minutes is way too long.  The main storyline falls flat, and comes across almost as a clone of a lot of the earlier feature films.  Daniel Craig did his best with the script, but he seems tired, and rumours abound that he is not interested in playing the role again.  Lea Seydoux and Andrew Scott also do their acting best with the script, as does Christopher Waltz, but it’s hard to have any enthusiasm for the storyline.  It’s surprising that Ralph Fiennes found himself in this franchise, and pardon the pun, he seems out of character.

David Flynn