So, the latest James Bond is all supercars and gushy feelings. References to Daniel Craig’s last three films as the suave MI6 agent abound, and there’s a new-but-old villain played by the ever-chilling Christoph Waltz.
This go-around, it’s all about bringing Craig’s story arc full circle.
In Spectre, Bond is on a mission to uncover the secret crime syndicate that has killed his lovers and terrorized the world at large for the last three movies. The film opens to find our hero in Mexico City during the Día de los Muertos festivities. Bond assassinates one of the group’s key men and obtains a mysterious ring from him in so doing. But he causes an international incident in the process and is grounded back in London by his higher-up, M, played by Ralph Fiennes.
Does that stop Bond running off to finish the job set before him – that is, uncovering the mystery of the ring? Lucky for us, no. The movie’s locales stretch from Austria to Morocco as 007 pieces together clues leading to yet another person from his life before British intelligence.
You must be wondering: “If I don’t know a Vesper Lynd from a Skyfall, is there a Trump’s chance in office of my enjoying this installment to the same degree as that fan who rips through Ian Fleming’s famous spy novels like the Harry Potters?”
Happy to report: Yes, there is.
My partner and I caught a recent midnight showing. She has only seen Craig’s third Bond Skyfall, and thought it over-complicated. But with film No. four, director Sam Mendez has successfully created an accessible but elegant spy action thriller that leaves in enough allusions for the die-hards.
For example, we finally get to see Spectre – the international crime syndicate from the books – fully actualized and headed up with terrifying composure by Christoph Waltz, whom Quentin Tarantino oft-commissions for his flicks.
Now, I’m told critics are up in arms about Spectre being too formulaic. But all the commonplace features are listed right there in the PG-13 rating: Intense sequences of Daniel Craig brooding. Violence. Some disturbing images. Sensuality. Swearing. An Aston Martin or two. Ralph Fiennes gets a nose, the likes of which we haven’t seen since The English Patient.

I, for one, like that equation.
If you want painfully sequential espionage flicks, go watch the Mission: Impossible series. See Tom Cruise break into the impenetrable place to retrieve the irretrievable thing. Meh. There’s Cruise on a motorcycle. Next.
What kept me happily off-balance in Spectre was how traditionally the plot played out. Thanks go to the character played by Léa Seydoux, an actress you’ll remember from that off-kilter The Grand Budapest Hotel. Or the enchanting coming-out and coming-of-age film about two French lesbians, Blue Is the Warmest Color. Or even Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol – which we won’t hold against her.
Seydoux is Madeleine Swann, not only a high-brow counselor with a secret but also the woman for whom Bond finds himself gun over wingtip.
In the midst of the sleuthing, this love story gives Spectre its punch-in-the-gut ending. And paired with more glimpses at 007’s past, Craig’s fourth (and reportedly final) go at Bond is well worth the ticket.
Watch the trailer for Spectre below.


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Jonathan Bach is the Editor-in-Chief of Ethos Magazine.