You know, the conventional wisdom is that the Craig Bond movies have been in a tick-tock nature: Casino Royale is glorious, but Quantum is bad; Skyfall is glorious, and then Spectre suffers.

And this is true to an extent. Watching this for the first time, after having watched Casino Royale the night prior, highlighted its flaws in sharp relief. The cast is universally less interesting (with the exception of Fields, who I thought played her role superbly); the script is more muddled; the set pieces comically unrealistic.

But it also compared favorably in a few respects! The pacing of the film is, on the whole, better (it helps that it's forty minutes leaner!); the climactic showdown in the erstwhile hotel, while grandoise in true Bond fashion, was dramatic in a way that I don't think Casino Royale ever hit. And the general theme of the movie — Bond as an out-of-control widower — works having freshly seen the denoument of the previous film.

It's not, like, a good film. But it is unfairly maligned, and fine by popcorn standards.

★★★