Following Skyfall was never going to be easy. Craig's Bond has always been a more introspective and personal beast, and Skyfall represented the apex of that thematic arc. Bond buried the only paternal figure he had left, defeated Silva (his dark shadow) amidst the graves of his parents and saw the traumas from his past go up in flames. He was "ready to go to work" and the reboot of Bond satisfactorily felt like it had all been leading to that single cathartic point. Except no, posits Spectre, directed once again by Sam Mendes, actually everything's been leading to this point. Honest. Pinky square. Despite having reached emotional conclusions to most of the franchise reboot's running themes in the last film, Spectre positions itself as 'the important one', the culmination of Craig's Bond. Nope, not buying it. The film never truly feels as climactic as it's constantly telling us it is, which consequently leaves a hollow void at the centre of the film and all that encircles it are a handful of well-shot but bloodless action scenes, a wishy-washy plot, a forced romance and a by-and-large inconsequential villain. This is all incredibly negative thus far, and it should be pointed out that Spectre isn't a terrible film, not by any means. It's exciting in places, funny in others and looks gorgeous throughout. It's just another mid-level, Tomorrow Never Dies-quality James Bond film, which does itself zero favours by desperately trying to be the be-all and end-all of Bond. Fine ambition, but sloppy execution. But let's cover the good stuff first: