Spectre

Viewers might recall the last (and arguably best) James Bond film Skyfall all but finished the reboot of the series that began in Casino Royale. All the new incarnations of famous characters were established, and everything was in place to return to the regular Bond formula. But Spectre rejects that route, and tries to add even more on to the continuing mythology built over Daniel Craig's first three movies. Frankly, it falls flat on its face.

That is surprising, even if much of the movie is not. Until now, the Craig era has been so good, among the best runs in the franchise’s history. And Spectre starts off so well with the best opening sequence of the Craig films: a slow-building journey through the streets of Mexico City during Day of the Dead, which explodes into a foot chase and fistfight on board a wildly flying helicopter. It’s got the beautiful local imagery and outright crazy stunts that’d be ridiculed in any other series, but are par for the course for Bond. It seems to bode well, and the famous gun barrel sequence back at the beginning where it used to be suggests we’re back to basics.

If the movie that came after were as good, this sequence might have gone on to become one of the most iconic moments in the 50-plus years of Bond on film.

We find out soon after that this was an off-the-books mission, ordered by Judi Dench’s departed M, to track down the evil organization that MI6 has been battling the last three movies. This puts Bond in the doghouse with the new M (Ralph Fiennes), who’s feeling the heat from a younger tech-savvy intelligence official (Andrew Scott) seeking to shut down the 00 agents in favor of digital espionage. Despite his reprimand and little support from his employer, Bond makes his way through Europe and the deserts of Africa to stay on the trail of the shadowy cabal of evildoers.

Even though nothing ever tops the opening action, everything still looks promising for about the first half. Further action scenes—a car chase through Rome, a chase through the mountains involving a low-flying plane, and a train car fight clearly referencing From Russia with Love—aren’t standouts within the series, but they aren’t bad, either. Even more intriguing are the slower, talky expository scenes in between, seemingly building toward something big and exciting. It even makes Léa Seydoux more directly involved in the plotline, instead of just a randomly inserted beautiful female companion along for the ride. Unfortunately, the entire time the picture’s writing checks it doesn’t cash come climax time.

It’s a little hard to explain how it all goes wrong without spoiling anything. Then again, the main spoiler is easily the worst-kept secret about the film (it was even confirmed through last year’s Sony hack). Even if one hasn’t followed any of the leaks or speculation, the title is a dead giveaway.

I’ll just say that in Christoph Waltz’s antagonist, the movie attempts to reinvent one more figure from the series’ classical era, but the results are totally underwhelming. Instead of an interesting new take on the character, it’s just patronizing and self-referential lip service. He's also given a familial connection to Bond that’s so random, and so quickly glossed over, that one wonders why the screenwriters put it in. But the fact is, were he a villain by any other name, Waltz still wouldn’t be a good one. Yes, the man who won an Oscar as one of the great motion picture villains of the 21^st century is, shockingly, no good here. In the scant scenes he’s even in, he exudes none of the charm or charisma for which he’s so deservedly acclaimed. He’s as sterile and un-colorful as his lair, which looks less like the base of a major terrorist organization than the most boring luxury resort, ever.

Aside from that non-event, the major twist in the main plot (which offers paltry commentary on mass surveillance) can be seen coming a mile away. Given, story ambiguity has never been a huge priority for the series, but a lack thereof hurts more in Spectre than previous entries because it so clearly aspired for it, among other big things it failed to deliver. If it just stuck to the regular Bond formula, the film would have been an average but watchable mid-level affair (and if it weren’t so long, it still might have been as is). Aiming higher can yield great results if you’re successful, but it also makes the misses more disappointing.