Spectre

Ironically, it's true that in this year of Bond films, the main Bond film doesn't finish in first or second place, but it defends its third place decently. The perhaps unnecessary hype surrounding Spectre is swirling. I honestly enjoyed it twice as much as Skyfall. Maybe Spectre doesn't have an elaborate enough script with intelligent dialogue like Skyfall, but at least it's not needlessly overwrought and confusing, the action sequences, perhaps for the first time in a Bond film, are clear and spectacular (during the whole opening scene in Mexico, the insane helicopter scene and one of the best fights in Hollywood, where Dave Bautista and Daniel Craig demolished almost half the train, I wasn't holding my breath and had a compulsive need to scream f*ck across the cinema). Apart from that there is a flashy, albeit cautious, but still brisk car chase through beautiful Rome, a plane chase in the Alps, a couple of short liquidations and the finale. So I can't say that there was little action, if there wasn't action, and when there wasn’t action Bond made his first ever wisecrack (and an excellent one!) or we were entertained by the smiling Christoph Waltz, who, although could have given a more expressive performance, I still give him a lot of credit as an actor. A plus for the once again excellent soundtrack by X Factor winner Sam Smith, who is indeed far from Adele. The final impression is positive and I would happily watch Spectre again. 80% (07/11/2015)

An essential Bond film. I could have plenty of reservations about it (everything people hate is objectively true), but here, reason loses out on points because when all the important proprieties slowly begin to emerge from the shadows in that rambling style, and you enthusiastically tick them off, it carves itself out in the end into a full-blown epilogue of one acting decade that has reached a complexity beyond most other things. (15/11/2015)

The most recent Craig film thus far is a very enjoyable part of the Bond franchise. A great opening reminds one of Live and Let Die, the first girl is the pleasant Monica Bellucci, the second - her complete contrast - Léa Seydoux (the fashionable Frenchwoman we primarily know for her blue hair), but the time period mainly favors Christoph Waltz's styling. Spectre flows nicely, developing the story already begun in Casino Royale, and I'm simply glad that James Bond will return. (22/08/2016)

An orgasmic opening and pleasantly lavish set designs, supported by bold footage, which did not bother me – on the contrary, it gave the film a large-scale, sweeping reach (Hoytema and Mendes turned out to be a good team). I was pleased with the connection with Craig’s other Bond films, action scenes and little things like the brutal surprise on the train and waiting at a desert station (a reference to Hitchcock’s North by Northwest). Thanks to these things, I forgive the film even the use of a likeable comedian in the role of a wannabe alpha villain (WTF?!), the climax lazily borrowed from The Dark Knight (as if there wasn’t enough inspiration from Nolan), and Bond’s fling with a wrinkled MILF (while he left the only really beautiful woman of the movie in the opening, lying fully dressed on the bed). (03/12/2015)

Skyfall was already a precise reflection of our times and an homage to the current intelligent high-budget blockbuster. It didn't have the pull, emotion and inner strength of Casino Royale or Quantum of Solace, but it's clear why; there was something going on there. But the Vesper references are very much evident in this fourth mashing of the plot, which was fully capitalized on in Daniel Craig's very first Bond, and it became a complex and full-bodied film that took the story of Agent 007 a level further in the film industry. It became a mass appeal, not a fan thing, thanks to its means of expression. Logically, there are not many ways they can go without taking it in a completely different direction, which Spectre fails to do, and it even wasn't intended to, unfortunately. Fans will try to "find it there" for the entire 150 minutes, but they won't. The few iconic scenes that warm the heart or dazzle with their sophistication are just carbon copies of previous episodes (most of the train scenes, the base in the desert). It's clear that filming the same thing twice in a row the result will not be the same. After a second viewing, the rating has to go up. Essential and visually incredibly lavish and sophisticated filmmaking. Emotionally, it's not the ride that Casino Royale was, and Léa Seydoux is no Eva Green, but Spectre assaults the other senses and does so excellently as well. (08/11/2015)