Spectre (2015), PG-13, ★★★

Daniel Craig as James Bond again.

Skyfall left such a great impact after the movie was over as the whole film was slick, hair-raising, tense and psychologically complex as Raoul Silva played brilliantly by Javier Bardem tries to push both M's and James Bond's buttons. It was an epic Bond movie for the ages. Spectre leaves off where the previous movie ended in which the MI6 building is still left isolated and M (sorry, spoilers) is now a new M. In comparison with two of the Daniel Craig movies, it is a disappointing outing, however, as a movie in the franchise, it is a passable action-adventure with a sort-of sloppy organization of its villains and a subplot that is a bit uninteresting. However, it is still a recommendation because of the action sequences and a still credible role by Daniel Craig.

On a mission in Mexico, James Bond (Daniel Craig) is ordered unofficially from the last M (Dame Judi Dench) to kill two men who are about to blow up a stadium in the middle of a Day of the Dead parade. However, the building explodes and collapses. Bond chases Marco Sciarra and fights him in a struggle in a helicopter and steals his octopus ring after throwing him and the pilot out. After the mission and the opening credits (which are ok with the Sam Smith song) are over, Bond is indefinitely suspended from field duty by the current M (Ralph Fiennes), who is in the midst of a power struggle with C (Andrew Scott), trying to merge MI5 and MI6.

Bond disobey's M's order to track down what is going on regarding the ring and travels down to Marco's funeral, where he meets his widow, Lucia (Monica Bellucci). She tells Bond about an organization that he was a part of. Bond enters the meeting, where he sees the head of the organization in the shadows named Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz). Franz discovers Bond and he escapes being pursued by a massive and scary henchman named Mr. Hinx (Dave Bautista) through Rome.

After the chase, he goes on to see Mr. White - who is dying and is a former member of Quantum and informs him to find his daughter, Dr. Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux) who will take him to L'Americain, which will lead him to the organization. When traveling to a snowy mountain, he meets Swann and after another chase sequence, he learns of the secret organization called S.P.E.C.T.R.E., an anti-terrorist organization which now knows about everything regarding Bond's past and his past missions.

Bond fighting Dave Bautista? Good luck. 

As a Bond fan, I was excited about this film based on the content and mystery surrounding Spectre. However, it left me in the cold because there was too much stuff intertwining with the plot and subplots and more tidbits from other movies that seemed to be a bit more irrelevant than thought about. We learn that Oberhausen has a growing grudge with Bond that we might not know about and I wanted to learn more about him because Waltz is underused in this movie. It seems that when a great actor is cast, we are excited he will play a villain. But, it's like a bad guy coming in the mid-way portion of the movie for 5 minutes and saying to him, "Hey, I am the one causing the pain." and leaves.

Daniel Craig, at times, seems a bit tired and not too charismatic as to what is going on and what the story involves him in for. However, even tough his puns are a bit dry this time, he's no less intriguing and effective as proven in some of the great action sequences. Lea Seydoux is fine but their chemistry does not develop quite as much as I thought but it tried to go into that romantic depth and dimension. Even though Bellucci has a small role, she and Craig has a very good steamy romantic scene. Dave Bautista is menacing a wordless henchman and Christoph Waltz is again underused in a great role. They should've expanded him a bit more. Ben Whishaw and Naomie Harris reprise their roles as Q and Moneypenny respectively and they're quite good again.

So, yeah, the weaknesses are in how they develop the characters and how they are used in the plot because the pacing is, at times, languid and a bit uneven. It is about 15 minutes too long. However, the main storyline is quite well-done and the action sequences and stunt work provide a realistic shift as to how Bond movies should be made. Director Sam Mendes does not have another great action movie this time, but, even though this movie has more action than Skyfall, it is nevertheless flawed entertainment. I would've said to the writers throw more of the C scenes and put in more of the Waltz scenes, then you would have a balanced film. Still, I recommend the movie, because Craig still gives justice to the James Bond character and still uses him for a purpose to drive its main story and action sequences along.

***