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Keeping the British end up

Following the critical acclaim and unprecedented success of Skyfall, perhaps the most discussed aspect of Sam Mendes’ second outing as a Bond director has been whether this film will match up to its 2012 predecessor. Fortunately, whilst it might not, Spectre stands well enough on its own as a Bond film that the audience begins not to be concerned about that but rather just enjoys it as a solid franchise entry in its own right. The dedicated fans of the series have long been divided between the preference towards the old-fashioned suave gadget-orientated films, and the new, grittier, more grounded and flawed Bond that has characterised the franchise since Daniel Craig first took the role in 2006. Spectre delivers the perfect mix of the old and the new to please both types of fans.

The new M (Ralph Fiennes) suspends Bond from his duty following an unauthorised mission in Mexico, complete with a high-octane helicopter fight sequence. But with secret help from Q (Ben Whishaw) and Miss Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) he disobeys M and travels to Rome and later Austria to investigate, where he discovers the organisation Spectre and this film’s Bond girl, Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux).

The returning characters from Skyfall make a solid supporting cast, with Ralph Fiennes suitably filling Judi Dench’s shoes, and a memorably strong performance from Naomie Harris, who unshackles the desk-bound character incarnation seen in older Bond films and is happier to get her hands dirty. Seydoux’s Bond girl similarly makes a pleasant change from the damsel in distress, especially with her close connection to the Spectre organisation, and her ballsy and likeable character is a strong match for Craig – their chemistry is one of the film’s notable strengths.

Spectre’s villains are perhaps among its weaker elements, not because they pose little threat, but because they are underused. Wrestler-turned-actor Dave Bautista, as the henchman Mr Hinx, allows for some of the film’s more memorable fight sequences, yet overall he succumbs to the template of a generic henchman and leaves fans yearning for something akin to his more satisfying outing in last summer’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Perhaps most hotly anticipated about Spectre is the return of legendary Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, in the form of double Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz. Unfortunately, however, Waltz is given a paltry share of screen time, and his characterisation is disappointingly bland for a supposed criminal mastermind.

The action sequences in this film make it a blast to watch, not least because of their tributes to familiar scenes from classic Bond films, such as the brutal fights aboard train journeys and speedboating down the Thames. Spectre can in many ways be seen as a celebration of the Bond franchise, both old and new, with the reintroduction of the Spectre organisation allowing for a neat unification of the plots of the preceding Daniel Craig films (with the notable exception of Quantum of Solace, which the filmmakers, like the audience, would rather pretend never happened), and whatever opinion you hold about Sam Smith’s ‘Writing’s on the Wall’, the opening title sequence is as visually spectacular as ever.

While not without its faults and possibly marginally inferior to the last film, Spectre is an indisputably enjoyable film for fans of the Bond series, particularly the classic ones, or the action genre in general. Its lengthy runtime is hardly felt owing to its strong performances and unforgettably entertaining action sequences, and it succeeds as a hugely satisfying tribute to the iconic 007 franchise.

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