What made Skyfall so good was that it was a Bond film with subtext. Rather than just feeding Cold War paranoia or offering simple escapism, it took an introspective look at James Bond the man, dissecting what the character really meant and assessing his place (and that of the old world of spies he represented) in the real world. It was something that had been flirted with at various points in the franchise's past, but had never been explored to its full potential. Spectre, on the other hand, tries to... do pretty much exactly the same thing. Oh. Once again MI6 is under threat from the new age and once again Bond must face his own demons and once again a Bond girl spends a fair bit of time questioning her new paramour's place in society. There's some subtleties in the differences and how the conclusion is reached, but for all intents and purposes this is a sequel that is happy just repeating what the original did. It's not just that we've been here before though - the Bond formula makes that all but a necessity. No, the problem is that all this dissecting isn't really that well executed. This is like a standard Bond movie with introspection sprinkled on top, a vague attempt to take a deeper look at 007 without wanting to fully commit to it. We never go as deep as Skyfall and the few unique concepts thrown up are either weak or left rather unexplored. Maybe Daniel Craig's arc is just done - he was the new guy in Casino Royale and by Skyfall was the old guard - and there's nowhere else to progress. Fair enough, but if that's the case don't just start repeating yourself - find a new angle or fully embrace the old style. What we get with Spectre is really just a epilogue to Skyfall; enjoyable enough, but a bit needless. Spectre is in UK cinemas from 26th October and US cinemas from 6th November.
