"It was me, James. The author of all your pain," gloats Christoph Waltz's Oberhauser (yes, Oberhauser) to Bond. He's a bigger villain than Silva, head of a whole terrorist organisation and not just rows of computers, and poses a much more potent, almost ethereal threat. Well, at least on paper. In the film though, Franz isn't really presented or treated all that differently to his predecessor, which makes for a foe that, while entertaining, doesn't quite live up to his potential. Exactly beacuse Waltz is intended to have an expanded role when compared to Javier Bardem (two actors who, incidentally, both won Oscars for playing villains), getting a similar presentation means Oberhauser ultimately feels underwritten. That element is somewhat combated by a pretty great, menacing performance (although Waltz's turn does hint that he's at risk of falling into type) which ensures he can have a strong impact in certain moments - the Rome meeting of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. top brass shows real restraint and takes place in hushed whispers and shadowy stares - if never as much as Silva. It's a case of "good, but could have been so much more" (pretty much like the film). The whole repetition issue that plagues the film also pops up here - once again an animal metaphor is used to relate the baddie to Bond, a pair who have an odd past connection, and he has a scheme that is really far too complex to be logically planned.
