Cast: Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Lea Seydoux, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, Dave Bautista, Monica Bellucci, Ralph Fiennes and Jesper Christensen

Director: Sam Mendes

Rating: **1/2

So finally wait gets over as our very own "Bond, James Bond" is here again with the much awaited cine spectacle of the year i.e. Spectre.

Just like any other Bond cine flick "Spectre" too starts off on an inspiring and intriguing note with a visually exciting oeuvre.

Plot of Spectre takes off from Mexico City with two plots running in parallel, where one showcases `The Day of The Dead` carnival in the forefront the other one showcases Agent Bond (Daniel Craig) trailing some criminals in a continuous tracking shot. He shoots them, blows up the building they are holed up in and escapes the crumbling structure only to land up fighting the criminal inside the helicopter over the town square. This entire opening sequence is extremely thrilling and electrifying, but after that one gaze grabbing depiction nothing manages to match the level.

What follows next is Bond's quest for the nexus which is responsible for the deaths of his dear ones. With story rolling ahead Bond lands in the arena of nefarious terrorist organization, 'Spectre' and its dreaded leader Franz Oberhauser, who has his own personal agenda for causing Bond misery.

Unlike many Bond movies narration of `Spectre`, for a relatively longer period, cruises in "Bond is on vacation" mode with tons of globetrotting between set pieces from Mexico to London to Rome to Austria to Tangier in Morocco. And that too in the absence of any quality entertainment. So what follows next to know you have to have rendezvous with `Spectre`


As ever, Daniel Craig, in his fourth James Bond avatar has again looked suave. But unfortunately, this time his quip-heavy, flippant killing machine and woman charmer reputation seems to be an obtruded one. And this fact gets depicted time and again in those awkward and redundant love scenes and prolonged action sequences.

Lea Seydoux (Madeleine Swan) as Bond's love interest, is not up to the `Bond standards` and looks pale in comparison to all the divas whom Bond have dated in the past. In fact even the kind of half cooked chemistry which Bond and his lady love shares neither looks interesting, nor creates any craving among the viewers.

Besides, Christoph Waltz as the antagonist of "Spectre" lacks the persona of a menacing baddie which we are used to of watching in any Bond cine spectacle.

Though Spectre's director Sam Mendes maintains a heavy, gritty, operatic aesthetic, but in spite of that a tonal mismatch among the various perspectives of the movie makes this Bond cine saga look like one of the dullest, least captivating and most perfunctory action saga of the year.


In fact it won't be wrong to say that Spectre is more of like a romantic thriller than an espionage cine cantata, where a bloated plot keeps on flowing at a meandering pace, without leaving any space for logical validity. And what acts like an extra burden on an already sinking ship is the concepts like surveillance abuse, which are not only poorly expressed, but also look totally abstract or rather fictional.

Although Sam Mendes has tried to well utilize the professional adeptness of his cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema by deploying a mild amount of cinematographic variation, but even this skill set fails in bringing Spectre up to the level of previous editions of Bond sagas.

On the whole, "Spectre" may appear like a dazzling film, but in reality it lacks the luster and adrenaline rush which a typical 007 film carries or should carry in it.