Film Review: "Spectre" (2015).

"Welcome, James. It's been a long time... You've come across me so many times, yet you never saw me. What took you so long?" 007 finally comes face-to-face with his greatest threat yet in Spectre. This twenty-fourth James Bond film directed by Sam Mendes, as his second James Bond film following Skyfall (2012); written by John Logan, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Jez Butterworth and produced by Eon Productions. A cryptic message from Bond's past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organization. While M battles political forces to keep the secret service alive, Bond peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the terrible truth behind SPECTRE.

SPECTRE: Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. The ownership of this organisation and its characters had been at the centre of long-standing litigation starting in 1961 between Ian Fleming and Kevin McClory over the film rights to the novel Thunderball. The dispute began after Fleming incorporated elements of an undeveloped film script written by McClory and screenwriter Jack Whittingham into Thunderball, which McClory contested in court, claiming ownership over elements of the novel. In 1963 Fleming settled out of court with McClory, in an agreement which awarded McClory the film rights. This enabled him to become a producer for the 1965 film Thunderball—with Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman as executive producers—and the non-Eon film Never Say Never Again, an updated remake of Thunderball, in 1983. In November 2013 MGM and the McClory estate formally settled the issue with Danjaq, LLC—sister company of Eon Productions—with MGM acquiring the full copyright film rights to the concept of Spectre and all of the characters associated with it. With the acquisition of the film rights and the organisation's re-introduction to the series' continuity, the SPECTRE acronym was discarded and the organisation reimagined as "Spectre"

The movie features Daniel Craig in his fourth performance as James Bond; Christoph Waltz, Léa Seydoux, Dave Bautista, and Monica Bellucci. Several recurring James Bond characters, including M, Q, Moneypenny, Tanner and Mr. White return, played by Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Rory Kinnear and Jesper Christensen. The cast gave spectacular performances. Craig gave another amazing run as 007 and gave a satisfying and emotional conclusion to his version of Bond. If he is to gain reprise the role, then good luck for the next one. As he is contractually obligated to do one last movie. If not, he will be surely missed and he made a great Bond. Waltz gave a chilling performance as Bond's nemesis Oberhauser. Finally Seydoux gave a strong performance as Dr. Madeleine Swann.

Spectre is an ambitious, thoughtful, and potent action film that concludes the Daniel Craig Bond era in spectacular fashion. It can be enjoyed even though it might not live up to the powerful delivery of Skyfall to some people. If it didn't take a hundred and forty-eight minutes to end the story of this particular Bond then it could have been the best movie of the year. However, as it is, it's just one of the best Bond film in its cinematic history.

Simon says Spectre receives:

Also, see my review for Skyfall.