While tracking down a mysterious man to fulfill a posthumous message from M, James Bond gets in trouble from his superiors after wreaking havoc in Mexico. Relieved of his functions when a fusion with MI-5 threatens the future of MI-6, Bond continues his mission anyway, which leads him to the criminal organization SPECTRE. With the help of Madeleine Swann, the daughter of a former enemy who has important information, he meets the enigmatic Franz Oberhauser and discovers that the man played a fundamental role in his past…

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Hiring the esteemed Sam Mendes as director shows that the producers are hoping to rekindle the flame lit by the excellent Skyfall, one of the best in the franchise and the first to take in over a billion dollars at the box office. With the plot tied to the end of Skyfall, on paper the prospects look good. In reality though, the is not enough energy or sense of dramaturgy, the script isn’t solid enough, and there is a decided lack of suspense – in between a hair-raising chase through the streets of Rome and a great fight in a Moroccan train – to cover all 2:30 of the movie. The same goes for the actors: where Léa Seydoux is interesting as the younger Bond girl, Monica Bellucci is completely wasted and Christoph Waltz borders on parody. By reintroducing the legendary bad guys of yore and referencing a few of the older movies, Spectre reminds the audience that it is one part of a huge franchise. This is its strength, but its also its main weakness.