Went to see this yesterday with the family at the Leeds/Bradford Odeon.
IMDB says: A cryptic message from Bond's past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organization. While M battles political forces to keep the secret service alive, Bond peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the terrible truth behind SPECTRE.
In this Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition) directed and John Logan (Gladiator, Skyfall) and Neal Purvis (Skyfall, Casino Royale) (also credited Robert Wade: Skyfall, Casino Royale, Jez Butterworth: Edge of Tomorrow, Black Mass and Ian Fleming: Casino Royale, Goldeneye) written film, Daniel Craig (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Golden Compass) reprises his role as the famous 007 aka James Bond.
Following and incident in Mexico, Bond is asked to stand down by M (Ralph Fiennes: Harry Potter series, Schindler's List) as he is under review by new chief C (Andrew Scott: Sherlock, Pride) and injected with a tracker in his blood by Q (Ben Whishaw: Cloud Atlas, Layer Cake) to keep an eye on him. This, of course, does not stop him and he enlists the help of both Q and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End). Investigating the mysterious workings of the sinister organisation, he goes to the funeral of Marco Sciara, the man he killed during the Day of the Dead celebrations, and tries to find answers via his widow Lucia (Monica Bellucci: The Matrix, Irreversible).
Slipping into a secret SPECTRE meeting, he meets Mr Hinx (Dave Bautista: Guardian's of the Galaxy, WWE Smackdown!) and realises the man he thought dead, Blofeld aka Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz: Django Unchained, Inglorious Basterds), is very much alive at the head of SPECTRE.
To track down a Mr White (Jesper Christensen: The Interpreter, Melancholia) a man he heard mentioned at the meeting, he visits an ex-SPECTRE employee who agrees to give him information in return for protecting his daughter, Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux: The Grand Budapest Hotel, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol).
Sadly, the plot is not very good on this one, so the product placement and incredulity of things that happen (e.g. the helicopter and train sequences) seem more obvious and although it is good that they tied things up from previous Bond films starring Craig, this for me was ultimately disappointing.
Trivia: Non- Ian Fleming written James Bond novels which feature the SPECTRE organization include "For Special Services" (1982), "Role of Honour" (1984) and "Nobody Lives For Ever" (1986) all three written by the late John Gardner who passed away in 2007 having also written the source novels for the films The Liquidator (1965) and The Stone Killer (1973). In "For Special Services" (1982) the major villain is Nena Bismaquer, who turns out to be Nena Blofeld, the daughter of Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Gary Oldman was considered for the part of Franz Oberhauser and since this film has not used an original title there are still only four unused original titles remaining: "The Property of a Lady", "The Hildebrand Rarity", "Risico" and "007 in New York" (aka "Agent 007 in New York").
Not the best Bond ever, but better than the hideous theme tune by Sam Smith. 7/10
#SPECTRE #Spectre007 #DanielCraig #ChristophWaltz #NaomieHarris #RalphFiennes #AndrewScott
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