Had it not been for the fact that I had been watching the majority of the entries in the James Bond franchise up to this point, I probably would have reacted differently to Spectre (2015).  I say this because I saw it in the theater and I recall not being impressed.  I kept waiting for the moment to come when I would roll my eyes and say to myself, there is the film I remember.  While there were a few scenes that gave me Roger Moore flashbacks, as a whole I feel I misremembered the final product.  This is because of all the silliness there is in these movies.  When compared to what came before, this is a veritable masterpiece.  As often happens, I am sure the truth lies somewhere between the Academy and the Razzies.  I am just happy to be done with everyone’s favorite military intelligence, section six (MI6) operative.

It is El Día de los Muertos in Mexico City, and everyone looks like a Spectre . . . if the ghosts you are used to appear in skeletal form.  The spy derivation of this word, James Bond (Daniel Craig), is navigating the crowd on the way to a hotel room with a beautiful woman on his arm.  Before it can get to what you usually expect James to do in such situations, he changes into his familiar suit and tie and heads outside.  He is on yet another assassination mission, but since these are never straightforward, it devolves into buildings exploding, a chase through the packed revelers, and finally killing his target, Marco Sciarra (Alessandro Cremona), an Italian agent of the eponymous organization.  By the way, since they do not take the time to tell you what that acronym stands for, neither will I.  You can see my reviews of the first few Bond movies to get that bit of information.  Anyway, when James returns to London, his MI6 boss, Garreth “M” Mallory (Ralph Fiennes), is not happy.  His branch of British intelligence is already under pressure from MI5, led by Max Denbigh (Andrew Scott), who James refers to as “C” for some reason.  Max’s aim is to subsume MI6 into MI5, and do away with the “00” program, meaning James would be out of the job.  That is fine for James because M has decided to suspend the agent.  This gives James the opportunity to continue investigating a lead given him by the previous M (Judi Dench) before she died in the last movie.  Marco had been the target, but she had also told him to be present at Marco’s funeral to discover who is behind the recently deceased.  Thus, with some help from Eve Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) in the information department, and gear provided by Q (Ben Whishaw), it is off to Rome.  At the aforementioned service, James encounters the deceased’s wife, Lucia Sciarra (Monica Bellucci).  Because of the passing of her husband, Spectre is sending people to murder her.  She is saved by James’ intervention, in exchange for some womanly attention and the location of Spectre’s next meeting.  At said rendezvous, James overhears plans to assassinate “the Pale King.”  This turns out to be the mysterious Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), an international criminal James has been pursuing for some time.  Before he can find out anything else, the person clearly in charge of this gathering, Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz), identifies James in the crowd.  James is pursued out of the building by Spectre henchman, Mr. Hinx (Dave Bautista), but is able to get away cleanly.  Further analysis leads James to Mr. White’s hideout in the Austrian Alps.  The old enemies sit down across from each other, Mr. White revealing that he is dying of thallium poisoning.  James wants to know how to find Franz.  Mr. White is afraid of Franz, not for himself, but for what might happen to his daughter, Dr. Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux).  She works at a clinic at the top of a mountain nearby (this is a reference to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) for some reason), making it James’ next destination.  When he shows up, she wants nothing to do with him.  However, he goes after her when Mr. Hinx arrives to take her hostage, doing so because he had sworn to protect her.  James manages to get her away, and she gives the next step in the hunt: a hotel in Tangiers, Tunisia, called L’Américain.  Once there, James finds a secret room used by Mr. White to track Franz.  They are led to the middle of the North African Saharan Desert where Franz has a base of operations inside a crater.  James and Dr. Swann make it there after taking a train and getting off in a desolated spot.  In typical Bond movie fashion, Franz reveals all his plans while trying to torture James.  The big revelation is that they are adoptive brothers of sorts, Franz’s father having taken in a young James after the boy’s parents died.  Because of Franz’s jealousy, he murdered his father and started going by the name Ernst Stavro Blofeld.  The pontificating, of course, gives James enough time to slip his bonds (no pun intended) and escape with Dr. Swann, but not before blowing up Franz’s compound.  James and Dr. Swann then go back to London. However, as they had been galivanting around the world, Max has been consolidating his power, forcing M to work in secret to undermine Max’s pet surveillance project.  It also helps that James has learned that Max is working for Spectre.  With James back in the fold, M makes his move, but the very much alive Franz captures James and Dr. Swann.  While James must deal with a new trap, M corners Max and puts an end to the MI5 chief’s plot.  Meanwhile, after rescuing Dr. Swann, James manages to shoot down Franz’s helicopter and the villain is taken into custody.  The final shot is of James in his classic Aston Martin driving away with Dr. Swann.

Another reason why I found myself more pleased than I anticipated with Spectre is because there are some solidly Catholic ideas to discuss.  For one thing, I believe this film demonstrates the most restraint James shows towards members of the opposite sex.  The Church teaches that premarital sex is sinful, and, to be sure, there is plenty of this occurring on screen.  However, it is not on full display, which is something.  Another Brit, Henry Cavill, recently came out as being against sex scenes, and this film demonstrates how this can be suggested without the need of being shown.  I was also pleased to see a Catholic funeral being given for Marco.  These two points are easy enough to recognize.  On a deeper level, there are words scrawled across the screen as we get to the first scene.  They read, “The dead are alive.”  This is meant to symbolize El Día de los Muertos, which is translated to the Day of the Dead.  What the overwhelming majority of people do not recognize, especially outside of Mexico, but also seemingly in the country in which this particular holiday originates, is its Catholic roots.  Put simply, there would be no celebration without Catholicism.  There will be those of you who will point out that much of what we know about the day comes from indigenous practices.  There is certainly truth to this statement.  At the same time, you have to consider the date on which it is celebrated, November 2^nd.  In some places, it can begin on November 1^st, or even Halloween.  No matter the starting point, they were chosen because the Church has long honored all those who have passed away on these days.  By doing so, you thus fulfill the phrase at the start of the movie.  It is complete, though, when you have the knowledge that they (hopefully) have eternal life with Jesus.  So, yes, the dead are alive.

With my march through the Bond franchise, you are only getting Spectre with them because I had previously reviewed Craig’s other times portraying the character.  I do not know what the future holds for the British spy, but there will likely be more movies that bear his name.  It will not be him, though, which is a shame.  I think he is the best Bond, and films like this one demonstrate why this is the case.