A cryptic message from Bond’s past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organization. While M battles political forces to keep the secret service alive, Bond peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the terrible truth behind SPECTRE.
If one of the most successful and long-running franchises in movie history wants to keep pumping, it's once again time to change the formula.
– Peter Rainer,
Christian Science Monitor,
6 Nov 2015
fresh:
There are signs of Bond bloat within many of the action sequences - it must be hard to trim such extravagant footage - but they are at least partly overcome by an increase in levity.
– Matthew Lickona,
San Diego Reader,
6 Nov 2015
fresh:
Dazzles early and fizzles late...Bond is not Batman; he does not need an origin story.
– Christopher Orr,
The Atlantic,
7 Nov 2015
fresh:
I regard it as a ravishing exercise in near-despair, with Bond beset by the suspicion that, were he to desist, both his character and his cause would be unmasked as a void. Killing is his living, and his proof of life.
– Anthony Lane,
New Yorker,
9 Nov 2015
rotten:
Spectre is sloppier than other recent Bonds, but it also feels like it's exhausted the idea that fueled the franchise's relaunch -- darker and more realistic can only last so long when it's paired with a rotating cast of Bond girls and supervillains.