‘Spectre’ is Bond by numbers

WHEN a film franchise is 23 installations in, the storyline’s bound to get a little nostalgic, loose ends probably need some tying and the central character may very well look utterly bored out of his skull.

Enter ‘Spectre’ (2015). Eon Productions 24th film in the franchise and the latest foray into the world of James Bond, M and Q working to thwart a parade of international villains as agents of Ian Fleming’s fictional British Secret Service.

Starring Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Lea Seydoux, Dave Bautista and Naomie Harris, ‘Spectre’ takes the Bond franchise for a stroll down memory lane in a film that sees the central character chasing ghosts, barely blinking in anti-climactic reveals while rotely kicking ass on planes, trains and in automobiles.

Though the film’s spectacular opening sequence features one long unbroken sequence through a Dia des Muertos parade before a rooftop sniper scene and chase through costumed ghosts and ghouls, the film soon devolves into the tried and tested dissolution of the 00 programme in favour of technology schtick while 007 goes rogue in Rome, Austria and Morocco.

As for the requisite Bond girl? An unconvincing antidote to the doomed Vesper Lynd. The love of Bond’s life alluded to in a tape left in a secret room in a scene that attempts to tie all the Daniel Craig films together. In fact, that’s ‘Spectre’ in a nutshell.

A by numbers attempt at continuity peppered with nostalgia that tries to link villains like Le Chiffre and Raoul Silva to an umbrella organisation chaired by an uber villain named Franz Oberhauser played tepidly by Waltz.

A passable Bond film in its traditions of gadgets, girls, cars, exotic locations and narrow escapes, ‘Spectre’, as the name suggests, is a ghost of far better films featuring a seemingly bored and retiring Bond chasing the same.