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Standing as the twenty-fourth film in the James Bond franchise and marking the fourth – and possibly last? – outing for Daniel Craig as the elusive and the indestructible 007, Spectre largely follows on from the line that has taken the traditional vintage-suave foundation of the character, to a modern action badass, so to speak.

Action-packed, exciting though perhaps a little wobbly in terms of story, not everything gels for Spectre, but there’s still plenty of action and charming wit to satisfy fans.

After causing an international incident in Mexico City, our hero finds himself grounded from any further operations by his boss, Gareth Mallory, aka ‘M’ (Fiennes). As it happens, things aren’t rainbows and unicorns at the MI6, especially with the arrival of M’s new superior, Max Denbigh, aka ‘C’ (Scott), who is preparing to launch a new global surveillance system which will ultimately see the end of the double-O program.

With no interest in sticking around, Bond’s got other things on his plate; the leftovers of a previous mission finds him in hot pursuit of ‘Spectre’; an organisation headed by Franz Oberhauser (Waltz) – a man with a special interest in Bond

Helmed by returning Oscar-winning director, Sam Mendes, Spectre wastes no time before diving into the action, opening up with an intriguingly chaotic foot-chase through the streets of Mexico City during the country’s annual celebration of the dead. It’s a solid beginning and watching Bond battling for control of a spiralling helicopter is just as thrilling and as ridiculous as it sounds. Mendes manages to keep up the momentum with plenty more equally thrilling chase sequences and hand-to-hand combat scenes from thereon out and, refreshingly, the humour is amped-p in this edition of Bond, proving to be a welcoming change from the grittiness of its predecessors.

Visually, Spectre is gorgeous to look at – the wardrobe department did a standout job – though the attempt to tie together all of the previous story threads since Casino Royale, proves to be a little unnecessary and entirely ineffective. As far as the performances go, the entire cast is relatively reliable, however, the role of the villain – this time resting in the hands of the masterful Christoph Waltz – seems to be underwritten, while Craig – looking stone-faced and fit – manages to do his cool-and-smug bit pretty well, while also finding the time to share a  few tender moments of romance with Bond’s romantic interest played by the talented Lea Seydoux.      

Boasting an intriguing blend of old-school Bond with the modern-day elements that have kept the character fresh, some have argued that Spectre is the ugly sister of Skyfall. Perhaps. But that’s all a matter of perspective.