Spectre.

Daniel Craig, as I suspected he would be, is the best of all the six actors who have portrayed Ian Fleming’s Secret Service Agent with the licenced to kill code number - James Bond 007. Agreeing to take up the role in 2005 his first outing as Bond was in Casino Royale (2006), which was the beginning of a reboot of the Bond franchise. This was followed two years later with Quantum of Solace (2008) and then what was to my mind the best of the Bond films to date, Skyfall (2012) bringing in Sam Mendes to direct proved to be an ingenious move, as it became the highest grossing film in the complete series. Keeping Mendes on as director for Craig’s fourth outing as the MI6 agent was certainly the right decision. 

Some nice product placement....

As fans are aware the previous M (Judy Dench) died at the end of Skyfall and we met the new M in the form of Ralph Fiennes. Also returning are Naomie Harris as Eve Moneypenny and Ben Whishaw as the technical wizard Q whose relationship with Bond is just one of the films many highlight’s.  The movie starts with what has got to be one of the best pre credit sequences of any of the bond films. We are in Mexico City and The Day of the Dead carnival is taking place, 1000’s of people are on the streets dressed as various characters associated with the yearly event. Bond, dressed in a skeleton suit, is off to a hotel room with a beautiful woman but before she can hang up her frock he is out and across the rooftops attempting to assassinate Marco Sciarra, suspected of being involved in a terrorist bomb plot. What follows is as an exciting action sequence ending with a fight in a moving helicopter over the heads of the vast crowd. This sets the tone for the remainder of the movie.

.... a  beautiful woman who can use a weapon....

The film cleverly harks back to previous Bond movies and as well as explaining the origins of international criminal syndicate and terrorist organisation Spectre (Special Executive for Counter Intelligence, terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) and its evil mastermind Ernst Stavro Blofeld, there’s reference to Bonds only real love Vesper Lynd, an appearance of Mr White (Jesper Christenson) but this time we also get to meet his daughter Doctor Madeleine Swann played by the French actress Lea Seydoux. Also involved in the mayhem are Andrew Scott as C, Christoph Waltz as Franz Oberhauser and not forgetting Monica Bellucci as the widow of Marco Sciarra.      

 

....and not forgetting a villain.... 

Lets hope that Spectre (2015) is not Mr Craig’s last outing as Bond and that perhaps the Craig/Mendes partnership can be persuaded to give it another go. As with the best of the Bond movies this latest outing does not take itself to seriously and the only real demand it makes of its audience is to sit back and enjoy, and enjoyable it certainly is.   

....all goes to make a great Bond film.