Spectre

So the Winter blockbuster season is upon us and with Mockingjay and Star Wars to look forward to the first to line up is Spectre, rumoured to be Daniel Craig's last outing as James Bond.

We weren't fans of Skyfall at all (great first half completely ruined by a baffling and nonsensical second act) and this follows directly on from that film, with Bond going rogue after a shadowy organisation linking all the villains from the Craig series of films.

This, of course, is Spectre and heading it up (quite obvious spoiler alert) is Christoph Waltz's Ernst Stavro Blofeld. This tries to return to classic Bond; we have the infamous white cat, Blofeld's grey jacket, a mute super-strong henchman (played by Dave Bautista), a fight on a train and the DB5. It's satisfying for fans; Ralph Fiennes' M gets some action, Q and Moneypenny have parts to play and Lea Seydoux's Bond girl has more of a story arc than most but the film fills a little flimsy and half-cocked, a little too simplistic and old fashioned which is criminal following on from Casino Royale. The plot line is dumbed down and the ending even more so. The twists are very evident right from the word go and the Bond girls are placid to such an extent that the film feels stuck in the 60's.

The action scenes aren't even very dramatic; it feels slightly like a test screening, like the editor is yet to come in and ramp up the tension and the music.

Daniel Craig, for our money, is the best Bond since Connery (if not better) and does his best but the material lets him down here. It's Bond, of course it's worth a watch, and there are some classy scenes (the Mexico City opening sequences with Bond in a skull mask is great) and the introduction of Spectre makes sense in relation to the previous films, but there's some magic missing here.

Rumours abounded before production that Christopher Nolan was to take the helm and the franchise needs a new Director like that and perhaps a new leading man as well to bring Bond into the 21st century and shake up, rather than stir, the outdated formula.

Films like Kingsman have made Bond look archaic. Time to start afresh, with things as they are the franchise has come full circle to the extent that Dr. No almost directly follows on from this one. This is a perfect opportunity to reinvent the wheel.

Regards Spectre it's Bond and it's enjoyable as all Bonds are. It's missing that indefinable something though for us.

3 stars ***