'Spectre' A Review

Spectre is the 24th installment of the James Bond franchise, the fourth with Daniel Craig as 007. Bond is, once again, going rouge with the imminent take over of MI6 by MI5. With a final mission from M(Judi Dench) to disobey M(Ralph Fiennes) and hunt down an international shadowy criminal organization that is seeking to make a global governmental digital alliance which it can exploit. Sound complicated? It is!

Craig's Bond is exhausted and uninspired. The two romantic trysts of Bond actually seem like sexual assault which makes his supposed "journey" to hopeful monogamist bewildering and offensive. At one point there is a close up of Craig's hand clasping the hand of 30-year-old co-star Léa Seydoux in which his numerous liver spots are visible highlighting their considerable age difference and how inappropriate and unbelievable the situation is. Craig was never the suave or funny Bond, he was the physical Bond, action focused. Which, again, makes this installment mystifying given he is roundly beaten in almost every encounter.

The plot is a recycled and re-purposed version of previous Bond movies, it is tired, tired, tired and totally incongruous with the previous Craig installments. Some of the ensemble put in decent performances but with a feeble script and a lead so checked-out he is almost non-existent there is not much that can be done.

Uninspired, lifeless, and dangerously out of touch.

Don't See It.