Spectre is a throwback to the Bond of old

Leave it to James Bond to shrug off a trend he helped start.

Like other 21st-century spy series, the Daniel Craig-era Bond reboot began with a broodier, more emotionally tormented 007. It also, as anyone who saw the testicle-smashing scene in Casino Royale will recall, featured sweatier, more stripped-down action scenes.

But as each of Craig’s films progressed, they have, frame by frame, abandoned the character Judy Dench’s M called a “blunt instrument” for the suave, self-assured secret agent of bygone days. Spectre, which hits theaters today, dispenses with all the trendy grit and inner turmoil entirely, giving us a Bond that Sean Connery would raise his martini glass to. Whether you view this development as classic or corny likely will depend on how big a fan you are of the entire Bond canon to begin with.

What diehard fans will enjoy most is how fully Spectre embraces and enhances the character’s lore. This is Bond as Batman, full of mythic backstory and carefully placed Easter eggs recalling past adventures. But at times the plot seems to be struggling too hard to hit all its historical marks. Whereas director Sam Mendes reintroduced Q and Moneypenny seamlessly into Skyfall, Spectre’s throwback villain, played by a maniacal Cristoph Waltz, comes dangerously close to parody.

Why send bad guys to kill your nemesis if you’re really hoping he’ll show up at your lair so you can strap him to a torture machine? Why initiate a countdown clock that gives him multiple chances to escape? Why not (as a character in Austin Powers so famously quipped), just shoot him? At times, Spectre becomes so comically convoluted, you half expect sharks with lasers on their heads to come swimming out of the underground river.

For those who won’t savor every last callback to Ian Fleming’s original, there’s still fun to be had. From a breathtaking opening sequence in Mexico City to a frozen outpost in Norway, this is a visually dazzling film. And while this is classic Bond, meaning you can expect several PG-13 seductions, if you skip the strangely graphic opening credits, there’s nothing particularly eye-popping for Her Majesty’s most promiscuous civil servant.

In fact, likely the only reason this outing feels like a bit of a letdown is how it compares with the franchise’s brilliant previous entry, Skyfall.

Like Skyfall, Spectre appeals to the cultural and political concerns preoccupying the public mind today, but the themes seem less resonant. You can’t miss the movie’s argument that an overly global approach to domestic security sacrifices national autonomy, not to mention democracy, as leaders from other countries wield power over a people who didn’t elect them. NSA spying also looms large over the action as a new Whitehall bureaucrat believes he can replace Bond’s Italian loafers-on-the-ground with drones and a high-tech surveillance network.

But as with much of the rest of the story, it feels more like a matter of form than of heart.

Listen to Megan Basham discuss Spectre on The World and Everything in It.