Film review: Spectre – thrilling action and forgettable women in Bond 24
007 returns to do battle with an old enemy, with the usual high-octane action scenes
Even by James Bond standards, expectations are sky-high for Spectre, the 24th entry in the series. Put this down to the record-smashing US$1 billion success of 2012’s Sam Mendes-directed Skyfall, which provided just the right amount of modernity and nostalgia. With Mendes back, and Daniel Craig returning for a fourth outing as Ian Fleming’s suave spy, Spectre aims for a continuation of this – almost, but not quite, succeeding.
With a vast budget, Mendes certainly has the toys to play with. The opening sequence, recreating the Day of the Dead festival in Mexico City as 007 grapples with a target in a helicopter, is worth the ticket price alone. And that’s before a sexy car chase through Rome, a snow-bound sojourn in the Austrian Alps and a thrilling fight on a train in Morocco, as Bond crunches fists with Dave Bautista’s near-wordless henchman, Mr. Hinx.
There are passing nods to earlier films – though none more so than the return of the titular terror organisation that plagued Bond in the Sean Connery era. With SPECTRE led by Christoph Waltz’s Franz Oberhauser, this eerily-voiced villain has a particular axe to grind with Bond, and – as the brilliantly-designed opening credits hint – there are links back to already-vanquished villains from the Craig era.