Spectre

seen 12 December 2015

The 25th James Bond movie (the second directed by Sam Mendes) is - a James Bond movie. At one level, hardly anything more needs to be said. Daniel Craig, in his fourth appearance, is a good 007, dry, and neither shaken nor stirred. His adventure sits somewhat uneasily between an impulse towards topicality - the pros and cons of increasing video surveillance - an impulse towards psychological underpinning - the long-term effects of a difficult childhood for both hero and villain - and an impulse towards manic action - absurdly implausible derring-do in cars, trains, helicopters and buildings under threat. The women are expendable (Monica Bellucci and an unbilled companion in the opening sequence) though, as usual, the last (Léa Seydoux) is not expended.

Diversions from the original formula include more action for M and Q (Ralph Fiennes and Ben Whishaw respectively) and a slightly (only slightly) less thankless cameo for Moneypenny (Naomi Harris). Meanwhile there are two villains - the bureaucrat C (Andrew Scott) and the sadistic Blofeld (Christoph Waltz). While C can be predictably odious by spouting technobabble enthusiasm for increased surveillance, Blofeld is creepy in the Spectre meeting, but he is rather deflated by the attempt to root his malevolence in childhood jealousy.

However, realism is beside the point, and I must confess myself somewhat amazed at comments in 'The Guardian' blog claiming that character development is important in these films. Some level of internal coherence is advisable to prevent the whole enterprise from being ludicrous, and the film manages this (at times by the skin of its teeth). One should not really question why there is no traffic in Rome, or why there are no passengers on the train, and apparently no staff in the train's kitchen - or even how the dining car carriage seems to be so wide or its walls so flimsy.

One might question, however, whether these fantasies indicate a sense of self parody, or merely the cavalier carelessness of a franchise that has gone on for too long.