The name is Bond, James Bond

Being an avid James Bond fan that I am, I watched his latest flick “Spectre” on the second day of release as I couldn’t get tickets on the first day. Daniel Craig’s last was supposed to be the best of the 007 series. But Sam Mendes got over-enthusiastic and put too many cooks to do the job, as well all are aware of the popular saying on how “Too many cooks spoil the broth”, so is this case. The movie is going overboard in every scene, there are three scriptwriters who dragged the movie on for 2 hours and 30 minutes, tried to tie too many loose threads, made the villain unconvincing by tying him to a bond past and there was almost zero emotional attachment to the movie unlike the legendary Casino Royale.

The story had a great opening, shot in the Mexico’s death day parade with a bunch of great action scenes involving rooftops, a hotel and a swirling helicopters. Typical bond affair. But the story starts to drop after the beginning, soon the side plots become too complex and uninteresting to pay attention to. The main story follows the Bond formula to the point. Bedding gorgeous beauties, unlimited action, a villain of the past, Aston Martin, other heavy duty cars and our old 007, who is talked of being scrapped in this movie plot with a global surveillance scheme.

Daniel is absolutely fitting in his Bond attire but the lack of depth in the script makes the movie very much like a very good Bollywood masala movie with mindless entertainment. Overall I won’t say that my money was wasted (ahem! I am looking at you ‘Prem Ratan Dhan Payo’) but the movie lacked the depth and the emotional suspense of Casino Royale or Skyfall. I can give this third or fourth rank in my personal 007 list, just because it is Craig’s last and because it follows the typical bond formula.
Watch it, grip your seatbelts but don’t expect that it will leave you excited for months like Skyfall did.

Cast:
Daniel Craig as James Bond, agent 007.
Christoph Waltz as Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
Léa Seydoux as Dr. Madeleine Swann.
Ben Whishaw as Q.
Naomie Harris as Eve Moneypenny.
Dave Bautista as Mr. Hinx.
Andrew Scott as C.
Monica Bellucci as the widow of an assassin killed by Bond.
Ralph Fiennes as M.
Rory Kinnear as the MI6 Chief of Staff.
Jesper Christensen as Mr. White.
Alessandro Cremona as Marco Sciarra.
Judi Dench as Mallory’s predecessor as M.

Director:
Sam Mendes

Screenplay:
John Logan
Neal Purvis
Robert Wade
Jez Butterworth